Disability theatre and modern drama : recasting modernism / Kirsty Johnston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnston, Kirsty, author.

Series:

Critical companions (Methuen Drama)

Critical Companions Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

People with disabilities in literature.

Modernism (Literature).

Drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Drama.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (241 p.)

Place of Publication:

London, England : Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2016.

Summary:

Bertolt Brecht's silent Kattrin in Mother Courage , or the disability performance lessons of his Peachum in The Threepenny Opera ; Tennessee Williams' limping Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and hard-of-hearing Bodey in A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur ; Samuel Beckett's blind Hamm and his physically disabled parents Nagg and Nell in Endgame - these and many further examples attest to disability's critical place in modern drama. This Companion explores how disability performance studies and theatre practice provoke new debate about the place of disability in these works. The book traces the local and international processes and tensions at play in disability theatre, and offers a critical investigation of the challenges its aesthetics pose to mainstream and traditional practice. The book's first part surveys disability theatre's primary principles, critical terms, internal debates and key challenges to theatre practice. Examining specific disability theatre productions of modern drama, it also suggests how disability has been re-envisaged and embodied on stage. In the book's second part, leading disability studies scholars and disability theatre practitioners analyse and creatively re-imagine modern drama, demonstrating how disability aesthetics press practitioners and scholars to rethink these works in generative, valuable and timely ways.

Contents:

Cover page ; Halftitle page ; Series page ; Title page ; Copyright page ; CONTENTS; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS; INTRODUCTION; Organization of the Work; PART I CRITICAL SURVEY OF DISABILITY THEATRE AESTHETICS, POLITICS, AND PRACTICES; CHAPTER 1 WHAT IS DISABILITY THEATRE?; Disability arts and culture; Disability theatre; Keywords; CHAPTER 2 CRITICAL EMBODIMENT AND CASTING; Embodying realism; CHAPTER 3 STAGING INCLUSION; CHAPTER 4 INHERITED PLAYS AND NEW APPROACHES; Graeae Theatre Company: Origins; Graeae's Blood Wedding; Graeae's The Threepenny Opera; Theatre Workshop Scotland and Beckett's Endgame

ConclusionPART II CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES; CHAPTER 5 "EVERY MAN HIS SPECIALTY": BECKETT, DISABILITY, AND DEPENDENCE; I "To decompose is to live, too"; II "What a curse, mobility!"; III "No more nature"; IV Dependent rational animals; CHAPTER 6 RECLAIMING THE ORDINARY EXTRAORDINARY BODY: OR, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GLASS MENAGERIE FOR LITERARY DISABILITY STUDIES; CHAPTER 7 ACCESS AESTHETICS AND MODERN DRAMA: AN INTERVIEW WITH JENNY SEALEY ON GRAEAE THEATRE COMPANY'S THE THREEPENNY OPERA AND BLOOD WEDDING; CHAPTER 8 SHATTERING THE GLASS MENAGERIE; NOTES; BIBLIOGRAPHY; NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS; INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed February 18, 2016).

ISBN:

1-4725-0638-3