A Politic Theatre: The Drama of David Hare

A Politic Theatre: The Drama of David Hare PDF Author: Scott Fraser
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004484973
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This analysis of twenty published texts by David Hare employs definitions from contemporary semiotic literary theory as a means of describing typologies of political drama. By tracing the incorporation of stylistic devices from agitational propaganda (caricature, self-referentiality, the frisson between oral and visual signification) throughout the typologies, the study illustrates how each text subverts audience expectation based on established dramatic genres. The collection of texts is seen as inherently self-referential and politically subversive. At the centre of each typology is a protagonist who functions as a martyr to or parodic emblem of contemporary society. Consistently, the hermeticism of public institutions which represent the political status quo makes them immune from any form of individual protest from the Left or Right. In the satirical anatomy, the emblem of political dissent is coopted by involvement within the institution, or the stage is dominated by a conservative who controls the action. In the demythology, private individuals are seen as incapable of altering the public frame of history; but here private suffering subverts the collective mythology of the historical construct. In the martyrology, the emblem of dissent is associated with a moral virtue which is inimical to contemporary society, the audience's expectation of the triumph of the individual being subverted when he/she is expelled from the onstage world on the grounds of political ideology. It is only in the final typology, the conversion, that a conservative emblem is seen as directly influenced by such martyrdom, and the audience is provided with an actual example of political change. Thus, the study describes how each typology builds on the construction of the previous, and all generate from agitational propaganda.

A Politic Theatre: The Drama of David Hare

A Politic Theatre: The Drama of David Hare PDF Author: Scott Fraser
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004484973
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
This analysis of twenty published texts by David Hare employs definitions from contemporary semiotic literary theory as a means of describing typologies of political drama. By tracing the incorporation of stylistic devices from agitational propaganda (caricature, self-referentiality, the frisson between oral and visual signification) throughout the typologies, the study illustrates how each text subverts audience expectation based on established dramatic genres. The collection of texts is seen as inherently self-referential and politically subversive. At the centre of each typology is a protagonist who functions as a martyr to or parodic emblem of contemporary society. Consistently, the hermeticism of public institutions which represent the political status quo makes them immune from any form of individual protest from the Left or Right. In the satirical anatomy, the emblem of political dissent is coopted by involvement within the institution, or the stage is dominated by a conservative who controls the action. In the demythology, private individuals are seen as incapable of altering the public frame of history; but here private suffering subverts the collective mythology of the historical construct. In the martyrology, the emblem of dissent is associated with a moral virtue which is inimical to contemporary society, the audience's expectation of the triumph of the individual being subverted when he/she is expelled from the onstage world on the grounds of political ideology. It is only in the final typology, the conversion, that a conservative emblem is seen as directly influenced by such martyrdom, and the audience is provided with an actual example of political change. Thus, the study describes how each typology builds on the construction of the previous, and all generate from agitational propaganda.

The Absence of War

The Absence of War PDF Author: David Hare
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571301428
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 139

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Book Description
The Absence of War offers a meditation on the classic problems of leadership, and is the third part of a critically acclaimed trilogy of plays ( Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges) about British institutions. Its unsparing portrait of a Labour Party torn between past principles and future prosperity, and of a deeply sympathetic leader doomed to failure, made the play hugely controversial and prophetic when it was first presented at the National Theatre, London, in 1993.

Performance and Politics in Popular Drama

Performance and Politics in Popular Drama PDF Author: David Bradby
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521285247
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Since the beginning of the nineteenth-century, many forms of theatre have been called 'popular', but in the twentieth-century the term 'popular drama' has taken on definite political overtones, often indicating a repudiation of 'commercial theatre'. Does this mean that political theatre is or tries to be more attractive to more people than commercial theatre? Does it conversely mean that commercial theatre has no political effects? The articles in this book were submitted as papers for a conference on the theme of 'popular' theatre, film and television. Contributions came from people with very different types of experience: from an ex-animal trainer to a lecturer in film studies; from playwrights, directors and actors to professional critics and academics. Each author focused on a particular problem of defining drama in performance, drawing together the conditions of performance, the types of audience and the political effects of the plays or films in question. The result was a series of fruitful connections and juxtapositions that shows the remarkable continuity of the problems raised in attempts to create a popular political drama.

Stuff Happens

Stuff Happens PDF Author: Jack Tep
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1796086932
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
This book is about coincidents that have happened in my life that affected the American public, from cities being changed forever once we left to important buildings being raised. These are just a few incidents that can be remembered. Sayings such as “rip off” or “under the bus” are identified and repeated often publicly. Somehow, songs of the fifties could be traced to my experiences.

Gethsemane

Gethsemane PDF Author: David Hare
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571301371
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Nothing is more important to a modern political party than fund-raising. But the values of the donors can't always coincide with the professed beliefs of the party. And family scandal within the cabinet has the potential to throw both the money-raisers and the money-spenders into chaos. This richly imagined ensemble play about British public life looks at the way business, media and politics are now intertwined to nobody's advantage, as, in an unforgiving world, one character after another passes through Gethsemane. Gethsemane, David Hare's fourteenth original play for the National Theatre, London, premiered in November 2008.

Plenty

Plenty PDF Author: David Hare
Publisher: Samuel French, Inc.
ISBN: 9780573619182
Category : Conformity
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Susan Traherne returns to her home in post-war Britain haunted by her experiences as a resistance fighter in occupied France.

I'm Not Running

I'm Not Running PDF Author: David Hare
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 0571345816
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
Should I run? This is the question Pauline Gibson is asking herself. She has spent her adult life as a doctor, the inspiring leader of a campaign for local health provision. When she crosses paths with her old boyfriend, Jack Gould, who has made his way in Labour party politics, she's faced with an agonising decision.What's involved in sacrificing your private life and your peace of mind for something more than a single issue? Does she dare?David Hare was recently described by the Washington Post as 'the premiere political dramatist writing in English.' His explosive new play portrays the history of a twenty year intimate friendship and its public repercussions.David Hare's new play I'm not Running, premieres at the National Theatre, London, in October 2018.

Strategies of Political Theatre

Strategies of Political Theatre PDF Author: Michael Patterson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139434993
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This volume provides a theoretical framework for some of the most important play-writing in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Examining representative plays by Arnold Wesker, John Arden, Trevor Griffith, Howard Barker, Howard Brenton, Edward Bond, David Hare, John McGrath and Caryl Churchill, the author analyses their respective strategies for persuading audiences of the need for a radical restructuring of society. The book begins with a discussion of the way that theatre has been used to convey a political message. Each chapter is then devoted to an exploration of the engagement of individual playwrights with left-wing political theatre, including a detailed analysis of one of their major plays. Despite political change since the 1980s, political play-writing continues to be a significant element in contemporary play-writing, but in a very changed form.

Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century

Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century PDF Author: Christopher Innes
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521016759
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 604

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Book Description
Publisher Description

The Political Theatre of David Edgar

The Political Theatre of David Edgar PDF Author: Janelle Reinelt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139498290
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
David Edgar's writings address the most basic questions of how humans organize and govern themselves in modern societies. This study brings together the disciplines of political philosophy and theatre studies to approach the leading British playwright as a political writer and a public social critic. Edgar uses theatre as a powerful tool of public discourse, an aesthetic modality for engaging with and thinking/feeling through the most pressing social issues of the day. In this he is a supreme rationalist: he deploys character, plot and language to explore ideas, to make certain kinds of discursive cases and model hypothetical alternatives. Reinelt and Hewitt analyze twelve of Edgar's most important plays, including Maydays and Pentecost, and also provide detailed discussions of key performances and critical reception to illustrate the playwright's artistic achievement in relation to his contributions as a public figure in British cultural life.