Theatre and War

Theatre and war have long been bedfellows. This brief study looks beyond theatre that is about war, and instead focuses on the relationship between theatre and war: how they feed into and inform one another, from rehearsal to post-production analysis. The study builds on the premise that theatre and war share a deep kinship that finds its consummate expression in the very phrase ’theatre of war.’

This critical look at the entangled history of theatre and war asks pressing questions that remain pertinent to our current moment: how have the tools of theatre been used in the waging of war? How have the tools of waging war been used in the making of performance? What are the ’shared interests’ of theatre and war? And how has performance become a militarized paradigm?

Natalie Alvarez is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies and Associate Dean of Scholarly, Research, and Creative Activities in The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of four award-winning books including Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times: Performance Actions in the Americas (2019) and Immersions in Cultural Difference: Tourism, War, Performance (2018).
Natalie Alvarez is Associate Professor of Theatre Praxis at Brock University, Canada. She is an adjunct faculty member of the Graduate Program in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University, UK. She serves on the editorial boards of Theatre Survey and Canadian Theatre Review. She is the editor of Latina/o Canadian Theatre and Performance (2013) and Fronteras Vivientes/Living Borders: An Anthology of Latin-Canadian Plays (2013) and author of the forthcoming monograph Stages of Difference: Immersive Simulations and the Politics of Knowing.