ABSTRACT The context for Alexander Zeldin’s 2016 play Love is the UK government’s recent austerity measures designed to manage the post-financial crisis. Thus, cuts to public services, the welfare budget and the introduction of the welfare reform, ‘Universal Credit’ (UC), the largest welfare reform since the post-war period, resulted in a ‘shift [of] the burden of the financial crisis away from the shoulders of those responsible and on to those least responsible’ (Pettifor 2018). One particular aspect of the reforms – homelessness – is at the centre of Alexander Zeldin’s play. Although there is no mentioning of UC, Love succeeds in referring the audience back to the ‘bigger picture’ of austerity and the welfare reform. Its strength lies in illustrating how the functioning of UC deprives people of agency, which is in stark contrast to the government’s claim that UC is intended as an incentive to get into work. In this article, I will analyse what strategies are used to achieve this and how the loss of agency in Love deconstructs the narrative underpinning the welfare reform.

中文翻译：

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我们正在努力保持积极的态度：亚历山大·泽尔丁 (Alexander Zeldin) 的戏剧《爱》中的紧缩和代理

摘要 亚历山大·泽尔丁 (Alexander Zeldin) 2016 年的戏剧《爱情》(Love) 的背景是英国政府最近旨在管理后金融危机的紧缩措施。因此，削减公共服务、福利预算和引入福利改革，即战后以来最大的福利改革“全民信贷”（UC），导致财政负担“转移”。危机从负责任的人肩上转移到最不负责任的人身上”（Pettifor 2018）。改革的一个特殊方面——无家可归——是亚历山大·泽尔丁戏剧的核心。尽管没有提到 UC，Love 成功地将观众带回了紧缩和福利改革的“大局”。它的优势在于说明 UC 的运作如何剥夺人们的代理权，这与政府声称 UC 旨在激励工作的说法形成鲜明对比。在本文中，我将分析使用哪些策略来实现这一目标，以及爱中代理的丧失如何解构支持福利改革的叙事。