Abstract
In a post-Brexit (and perhaps even post-truth) context, the entire nation is going through an intense period of self-scrutiny, attempting to find a way forward for British culture despite a growing climate of divisive and destructive trends. As ever, verbatim theatre, spearheaded by Rufus Norris’ National Theatre, has sought to provide some answers in its relentless examination of the state of Britain. However, since the renaissance of verbatim theatre in the mid-1990s, the political situation has worsened considerably and it may appear that the typical strategies of verbatim theatre have lost their efficacy, struggling to provide a much-needed alternative. In this article, I will assess some of verbatim theatre’s latest developments in the 21st century through three main case studies, which are DV8’s To Be Straight with You (2007), Catherine Grosvenor’s Cherry Blossom (2008) and Alecky Blythe’s Little Revolution (2014). My main argument is that, notwithstanding the claims to the contrary, verbatim theatre is far from being in decline and it has continued to fluctuate, transform and exceed its familiar parameters, urging us to rethink its general aesthetic coordinates beyond the project of documentary realism and that of a national ‘shadow archive.’ More specifically and drawing from a variety of recent examples including the aforementioned case studies, I will argue that verbatim theatre in this period has a post-postmodern proclivity to make new connections across the fragments and re-construct the social.
About the author
Cyrielle Garson is a temporary lecturer in English and a member of the team ‘Cultural Identity, Texts and Theatricality’ at the University of Avignon in France, where she conducts research in contemporary British theatre, specialising in documentary, experimental and political practices. Besides a 2013 article published in JCDE, her latest publications include a chapter on documentary plays in Aesthetics and Ideology in Contemporary Literature and Drama (Cambridge Scholars, 2015) as well as three related journal articles in Coup de Théâtre (2015) and Études Britanniques Contemporaines. She is currently preparing a monograph charting the aesthetic development of contemporary verbatim theatre in Britain.
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