ABSTRACT

Reactionary retrenchment in UK society, including the resurgence of national chauvinism and anti-immigration sentiment, has recently stimulated explorations of right-wing politics in theatre. This article offers a reading of three recent productions that illuminate the way that reactionary politics is currently framed, explored and interrogated in UK theatre: What Shadows (2016) by Chris Hannan, Chris Bush’s The Assassination of Katie Hopkins (2018), and Rob Drummond’s The Majority (2017). The article argues that these pieces’ approach towards right-wing politics emerges from anxiety over ideological polarisation and a perceived breakdown in communication in political discourse. It suggests that this attempt to generate nuance, neutrality and complexity while dispensing criticism equally across both poles of left and right on the political spectrum implicitly works to authorise a ‘moderate’ centrist position. While the thesis of each play functions to validate a centrist position that is presumed to be automatically reasonable, the article considers the potential liabilities inherent in such dramaturgical framing in broaching topics relating to the far right and reactionary right.

摘要

英国社会的反动紧缩，包括民族沙文主义和反移民情绪的死灰复燃，最近刺激了戏剧界对右翼政治的探索。本文提供了三部近期作品的解读，这些作品阐明了英国剧院目前对反动政治的构架、探索和审讯方式：克里斯·汉南的《影子》（2016 年）、克里斯·布什的暗杀凯蒂·霍普金斯（2018 年）和罗伯·德拉蒙德的大多数(2017)。文章认为，这些作品对右翼政治的态度源于对意识形态两极分化的焦虑和政治话语中的沟通障碍。它表明，这种试图产生细微差别、中立性和复杂性，同时在政治光谱的左右两极之间平等分配批评，暗含着授权“温和”中间派立场的作用。虽然每部剧的论点都是为了验证一个被假定为自动合理的中间立场，但本文在涉及极右翼和反动右翼的话题时考虑了这种戏剧性框架中固有的潜在责任。