Staging Systemic Violence: British Theatre 2010-2019

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.

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).