Anti-War Theatre After Brecht

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 1-8

3. Performing the ‘War on Terror’

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 9-17

4. From Epic to Dialectical Theatre

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 19-50

5. Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul and Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall be Unhappy

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 51-89

6. The Théâtre du Soleil’s Le Dernier Caravansérail

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 91-124

7. Caryl Churchill’s Iraq.doc and Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 125-167

8. Elfriede Jelinek’s Bambiland

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 169-199

9. Conclusion

   • Lara Stevens

   Pages 201-207

10. Back Matter

    Pages 209-224

    PDF

Examining the ways in which contemporary Western theatre protests against the ‘War on Terror’, this book analyses six twenty-first century plays that respond to the post-9/11 military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. The plays are written by some of the most significant writers of this century and the last including Elfriede Jelinek, Caryl Churchill, Hélène Cixous and Tony Kushner.

Anti-war Theatre After Brecht grapples with the problem of how to make theatre that protests the policies of democratically elected Western governments in a post-Marxist era. It shows how the Internet has become a key tool for disseminating anti-war play texts and how online social media forums are changing traditional dramatic aesthetics and broadening opportunities for spectator access, engagement and interaction with a work and the political alternatives it puts forward. 

• Bertolt Brecht
• contemporary performance
• dialectical theatre
• political theatre
• dialectics
• Post-Brechtian
• Post-Marxist
• Karl Marx
• 9/11
• negative dialectics
• New media
• terrorism
• Elfriede Jelinek
• Caryl Churchill
• Tony Kushner
• Hélène Cixous
• Ariane Mnouchkine
• Theodor W. Adorno
• Christoph Schlingensief

“Stevens’s Anti-War Theatre after Brecht is an insightful study which investigates anti-war theatre from a new angle through its Brechtian framework. Especially for those interested in Brechtian aesthetics, contemporary political theatre and its attempts at offering counter-discourses and imagining alternative spaces, it represents a valuable contribution to these ongoing debates.” (Anja Hartl, Journal of Contemporary Drama in English, Vol. 6 (04), November, 2018) “Anti-War Theatre After Brecht provides a lucid, highly persuasive argument for the relevance of Brecht’s dialectical thinking about theatre to our post-9/11 moment. Placing Brecht’s theories in dialogue with an illuminating international constellation of anti-war plays, Stevens brings Brecht into the twenty-first century, with dazzling results.  I look forward to sharing this book with my students.” (Sean Carney, Associate Professor of Drama and Theatre, McGill University, Canada

• University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

  Lara Stevens

Dr Lara Stevens was the 2014 Hugh Williamson Postdoctoral Fellow in the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the editor and translator of a collection of essays on performance by feminist philosopher and playwright Hélène Cixous, Politics, Ethics and Performance: Hélène Cixous and the Théâtre du Soleil.

Policies and ethics