This collection of essays examines the contribution of British plays to key social, political, and intellectual debates since 2000. It explores some of the most pressing concerns that have dominated the public discourse in Britain in the last decade, focusing on their representation in dramatic texts. Each essay provides an in-depth analysis of one play, assessing its particular contribution to the debate in question. The book aims to show how contemporary drama has developed unique ways to present the complexities and ambiguities of certain issues with aesthetic as well as emotional appeal.
Table of Content
Kerstin Frank and Caroline Lusin
Introduction: Current Debates and British Drama since 2000
I. Politics
Merle Tönnies
Still / Again ‘Political’? New Approaches to Questioning Power
in Mike Bartlett’s 13 (2011)
Peter Paul Schnierer
Immigration as Farce: Richard Bean’s
England People Very Nice (2009)
Ariane de Waal
Expel, Exploit, Exfoliate: Taking on Terror in
Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot / Get Treasure / Repeat (2007)
II. Finance and Austerity
Caroline Lusin
Surviving Boom and Bust: Finance, Responsibility,
and the State of the World in Nicholas Pierpan’s
You Can Still Make a Killing (2012)
Annika Gonnermann
Homo Homini Rhino Est: April De Angelis’ Wild East (2005)
and the Deconstruction of Responsibility in Corporate Culture
Dorothee Birke
The ‘Underclass’ Talks Back: Poverty and Homelessness in
Nadia Fall’s Home (2013)
III. Science and Technology
Christine Schwanecke
Data Streams, Post-Human Lives, and (Virtual) Realities:
Jules Horne’s Gorgeous Avatar (2006)
Maurus Roller
A Critical Review of Science: Caryl Churchill’s A Number (2002),
Individual Identity, and Human Cloning
Stefan Glomb
‘No View from Nowhere’: Science, Freedom,
and Determinism in Nick Payne’s Incognito (2014)
IV. Cultural Identity
Lisa Schwander
Re-Visiting the British Empire: Neo-Victorian Perspectives on
Multicultural Britain in Tanika Gupta’s The Empress (2013)
Kerstin Frank
Defusing Stereotypes with Comedy: Conflicting Afro-Caribbean
British Identities and Urban Street Culture in Bola Agbaje’s
Gone Too Far! (2007)
Abir Al-Laham
Apple Stores and Jihadi Brides: Hassan Abdulrazzak’s
Love, Bombs and Apples (2016) and the Role of Religion in
Contemporary British Society
About the author
Dr. Kerstin Frank habilitiert in englischer Literaturwissenschaft an der Universität Heidelberg.
Prof. Dr. Caroline Lusin ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls Anglistik II (Anglistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft) an der Universität Mannheim.
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