Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre

Book excerpt: "Presenting a critical investigation of the reinvigoration of the political in contemporary British theatre, Marissia Fragkou's study provides a fresh understanding of how theatre has engaged with issues of human vulnerability and responsibility in the last two decades. By focusing on the spiralling of uncertainty in the new millennium, the study makes a case for reading precarity as a political theatrical trope which carries the potential to re-animate our understanding of the 'human' and communal responsibility for the lives of others. The book features case studies from theatre work staged in Britain since the 1990s which are critically situated within their material contexts. Drawing on examples from both subsidized mainstream and fringe theatres, and work that can be loosely classified as new writing, verbatim, and devised theatre, the array of contemporary practitioners examined includes Debbie Tucker Green, Simon Stephens, Stan's Cafe, Mike Bartlett, Gillian Slovo, Caryl Churchill, The Paper Birds, and Belarus Free Theatre. In focusing on areas such as children and youth at risk, social justice, environmental ethics, the implications of the war on terror and politics of austerity, the study makes a vital contribution to the burgeoning field of politics and theatre in the 21st century"--