Staging Systemic Violence
British Theatre 2010-2019
Published on 19. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-350-38728-7 (ISBN)
Description
This study offers a historicization of the 2010s in British theatre with a focus on the representation of systemic violence, exploring productions that engage with concerns of protest, climate crisis, neoliberalism, racism and gender-based violence.
It offers a range of case studies from established and emergent playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Martin McDonagh, Anders Lustgarten, Lucy Kirkwood, Ella Hickson, Jasmine Lee-Jones, debbie tucker green, Zinnie Harris, and Travis Alabanza. Productions of their work in the 2010s are analysed through a framework of cultural theory, philosophy, and theatre and performance studies that offer insightful conceptions of violence and performativity.
Central to this book is the belief that theatre has the ability to depict issues of systemic violence in thoughtful and valuable ways, drawing on the medium's specific relations between creatives, texts, spectatorship and audiences to mindfully engage participants in the most pressing societal and cultural concerns of their time.
It offers a range of case studies from established and emergent playwrights such as Caryl Churchill, Martin McDonagh, Anders Lustgarten, Lucy Kirkwood, Ella Hickson, Jasmine Lee-Jones, debbie tucker green, Zinnie Harris, and Travis Alabanza. Productions of their work in the 2010s are analysed through a framework of cultural theory, philosophy, and theatre and performance studies that offer insightful conceptions of violence and performativity.
Central to this book is the belief that theatre has the ability to depict issues of systemic violence in thoughtful and valuable ways, drawing on the medium's specific relations between creatives, texts, spectatorship and audiences to mindfully engage participants in the most pressing societal and cultural concerns of their time.
Reviews / Votes
This book offers a rich and transformative account of how violence in all its forms intersects with race and gender, politics and protest, and threads itself through most of the key British plays and performances of the last decade. Watson has written a remarkable book that helps us see our recent theatre in blazingly new light. * Dan Rebellato, Professor of Contemporary Theatre, Royal Holloway University of London, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
288 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-38728-7 (9781350387287)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2024
1st Edition
Methuen Drama
€31.99
Available for download
E-Book
07/2024
1st Edition
Methuen Drama
€31.99
Available for download
Person
Alex Watson is a principal lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Theatre, Brighton, BIMM University, UK. His publications include articles for Theatre Notebook (2022) and Contemporary Theatre Review (2022), as well as chapters for Methuen Engage (2022), Contemporary Drama in English (2023), and The Routledge Companion to 20th-Century Theatre (forthcoming).
Content
Introduction (Camilla Whitehill's Mr Incredible)
'Staging the Systemic': Context and Methodology
Unspectacular: The Representation of Violence in 2010s British Theatre and Mr Incredible
Overview
Chapter One: Violence (Caryl Churchill's Escaped Alone)
Tea and Catastrophe: Churchill in the 2010s
The Necessary Difficulty of Defining Violence: Arendt, Sontag, and Escaped Alone
Making Invisible Violence Visible: Evans, Giroux, Zizek, and Escaped Alone
Violence and 'Truth': Butler, Nancy, and Escaped Alone
Conclusion
Chapter Two: Performativity (Lulu Raczka and Barrel Organ's Some People Talk About Violence and Martin McDonagh's A Very Very Very Dark Matter)
Theatrical Strategies and Reality-Making: Perspectives on Performativity and Theatre
Injurious Speech: The Violence of Performativity and Some People Talk About Violence
Oppressive Recitation: The Performativity of Violence and A Very Very Very Dark Matter
Conclusion
Chapter Three: Protest (Chris Thorpe's There Has Possibly Been An Incident and debbie tucker green's ear for eye)
(Ir)relevancy and (Il)legitimacy in the Public Sphere: Protest, Theatre, and (Non)Violence
Nonviolent Progress/Revolutionary Change: Witnessing Black Witnessing in ear for eye
Conclusion
Chapter Four: Climate Crisis (Ella Hickson's Oil, Duncan Macmillan's Lungs, and Lucy Kirkwood's The Children)
The Violent Performativity of Resource Exploitation: Magic Realism and Perspective in Oil
Dramaturgies of 2010s British CCT: Domesticity, Cli-Fi, Posthumanism, and Materiality
Performative Taxonomical Violence: The Slow Theatre of The Children
Conclusion
Chapter Five: Brexit and Neoliberalism (Rose Lewenstein's Cougar, Alistair McDowall's Pomona and Simon Stephens's Three Kingdoms)
Apocalypse and Dystopia: Theatrical Visions of 2010s British Neoliberalism
Empty Europe: Cross-Cultural British-European Theatre and Dramaturgies of Violence
Conclusion
Chapter Six: Brexit and Racism (Anders Lustgarten's Lampedusa, Zinnie Harris's How to Hold Your Breath, and Somalia Nonye Seaton's Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier)
Europeanness and the Other: Lampedusa and How to Hold Your Breath
Racism and British Identity: Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier
Conclusion
Chapter Seven: Gender-Based Violence (Katherine Chandler's Bird and Jasmine Lee-Jones's seven methods of killing kylie jenner)
The Performative 'Reality' of Gender-Based Violence: Fluid Realism and Bird
Breaking (Violent) Forms: Realism-without-truth and seven methods of killing kylie jenner
Conclusion
Conclusion (Travis Alabanza's Burgerz)
Violence and Performativity in 2010s British Theatre: Three Contentions
The Power of Performativity: Showing Structural Violence and Burgerz
Concluding Remarks
Works Cited
Appendix: List of Performances
Bibliography
Index
'Staging the Systemic': Context and Methodology
Unspectacular: The Representation of Violence in 2010s British Theatre and Mr Incredible
Overview
Chapter One: Violence (Caryl Churchill's Escaped Alone)
Tea and Catastrophe: Churchill in the 2010s
The Necessary Difficulty of Defining Violence: Arendt, Sontag, and Escaped Alone
Making Invisible Violence Visible: Evans, Giroux, Zizek, and Escaped Alone
Violence and 'Truth': Butler, Nancy, and Escaped Alone
Conclusion
Chapter Two: Performativity (Lulu Raczka and Barrel Organ's Some People Talk About Violence and Martin McDonagh's A Very Very Very Dark Matter)
Theatrical Strategies and Reality-Making: Perspectives on Performativity and Theatre
Injurious Speech: The Violence of Performativity and Some People Talk About Violence
Oppressive Recitation: The Performativity of Violence and A Very Very Very Dark Matter
Conclusion
Chapter Three: Protest (Chris Thorpe's There Has Possibly Been An Incident and debbie tucker green's ear for eye)
(Ir)relevancy and (Il)legitimacy in the Public Sphere: Protest, Theatre, and (Non)Violence
Nonviolent Progress/Revolutionary Change: Witnessing Black Witnessing in ear for eye
Conclusion
Chapter Four: Climate Crisis (Ella Hickson's Oil, Duncan Macmillan's Lungs, and Lucy Kirkwood's The Children)
The Violent Performativity of Resource Exploitation: Magic Realism and Perspective in Oil
Dramaturgies of 2010s British CCT: Domesticity, Cli-Fi, Posthumanism, and Materiality
Performative Taxonomical Violence: The Slow Theatre of The Children
Conclusion
Chapter Five: Brexit and Neoliberalism (Rose Lewenstein's Cougar, Alistair McDowall's Pomona and Simon Stephens's Three Kingdoms)
Apocalypse and Dystopia: Theatrical Visions of 2010s British Neoliberalism
Empty Europe: Cross-Cultural British-European Theatre and Dramaturgies of Violence
Conclusion
Chapter Six: Brexit and Racism (Anders Lustgarten's Lampedusa, Zinnie Harris's How to Hold Your Breath, and Somalia Nonye Seaton's Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier)
Europeanness and the Other: Lampedusa and How to Hold Your Breath
Racism and British Identity: Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier
Conclusion
Chapter Seven: Gender-Based Violence (Katherine Chandler's Bird and Jasmine Lee-Jones's seven methods of killing kylie jenner)
The Performative 'Reality' of Gender-Based Violence: Fluid Realism and Bird
Breaking (Violent) Forms: Realism-without-truth and seven methods of killing kylie jenner
Conclusion
Conclusion (Travis Alabanza's Burgerz)
Violence and Performativity in 2010s British Theatre: Three Contentions
The Power of Performativity: Showing Structural Violence and Burgerz
Concluding Remarks
Works Cited
Appendix: List of Performances
Bibliography
Index