Theatre and Anxiety from Society to the Stage

Book excerpt: This thesis focuses on the staging of anxiety in modern American theatre. Specifically, I explore theatrical representations of anxiety around three events that shifted people's perception: 9/11, the recession of 2008, and the 2016 presidential election. I am interested in how playwrights explore recent surges of anxiety in society and why. The plays I engage with focus on individuals whose voices are lost in public discourse as the economic gap between classes grows. By looking at the plays through the affect theory of Sara Ahmed and the lectures on anxiety by Jacques Lacan, I explore how these plays offer audiences ways to understand and communicate the complex layers of anxiety. The introduction examines how anxiety moved from its status as a medical diagnosis to becoming a part of current culture. The second chapter is focused on The Humans by Stephen Karam, a play that deals with the layering of multiple anxieties, including post-traumatic stress disorder due to the events of September 11, 2001. The third chapter's focus is Sweat by Lynne Nottage, which explores how economic anxiety of the people left behind in a city that loses its industry can lead to 'othering' of individuals and how the status of 'other' circulates through society. The fourth chapter deals with Richard Nelson's play, Women of a Certain Age, which takes place on the evening of the 2016 presidential election. I examine how a family can find comfort together when they are suspended between realities of the past and future by being together in the present. Like the canary in the coalmine, playwrights have been staging plays that deal with the anxiety of people who feel lost because their country has changed due to moments of social upheaval. By listening to how playwrights communicate anxiety to audiences, it is possible the work they are doing lends itself to the larger conversation that is growing around anxiety today.