Abstract
This article maps out David Greig’s engagement with the figure of Bertolt Brecht, both the ‘theorist’ and the ‘playwright.’ It addresses this engagement in terms not just of influence but also of creative dialogue and enduring inspiration. The first part of this article looks at Brecht and Greig’s similarities and Greig’s Brechtian influence generally, which are explored, for instance, through Brechtian concepts such as “breaking the rules,” “critical stance” and “entertainment.” The second part focuses on the idea of “making political theatre politically” (Thamer and Turnheim 90; emphasis original) and argues that the most relevant Brechtian aspect in Greig’s work is the way it envisions and politicizes the relationship between the play and the audience via the use of some strategies that draw on epic theatre, which, in Greig’s work, operate under “post-Brechtian dialectics” (Barnett, “Performing”). The third part of the article illustrates the Brechtian import of Greig’s work by exploring two case studies, The American Pilot (2005) and The Events (2013). In analyzing these two paradigmatically Brechtian plays, this article illustrates how understanding Brecht’s influence on Greig’s work is essential in order to understand the politics of Greig’s theatre. More widely, this article contributes towards understanding Brecht’s legacy with regard to political British theatre in the age of globalization.
Works Cited
Barnett, David. Brecht in Practice: Theatre, Theory and Performance. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Barnett, David. “Performing Dialectics in an Age of Uncertainty, or: Why Post-Brechtian is Different from the Postdramatic.” Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. Ed. Karen Jürs-Munby, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. 47–66. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Benjamin, Walter. One Way Street and Other Writings. Trans. Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter. London: NLB, 1979. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Billingham, Peter. At the Sharp End: Uncovering the Work of Five Leading Dramatists. London: Methuen, 2007. Print.10.5040/9781408167762Search in Google Scholar
Billingham, Peter. “‘The Bombing Continues. The Gunfire Continues. The End.’ Themes of American Military-Cultural Globalization in The American Pilot.” Cosmotopia: Transnational Identities in David Greig’s Theatre. Ed. Anja Müller and Clare Wallace. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2011. 166–179. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Bowie-Sell, Daisy. “David Greig: I Want the Lyceum to be a Democratic, Public Space.” Whatsonstage. WhatsOnStage.com, 16 Aug. 2016. Web. 3 July 2017. <https://www.whatsonstage.com/edinburgh-theatre/news/david-greig-lyceum-edinburgh-festival_41548.html>.Search in Google Scholar
Boyle, Michael Shane. “Brecht’s Gale.” Performance Research 21.3 (2016): 16–26. Print. 10.1080/13528165.2016.1176733Search in Google Scholar
Brecht, Bertolt. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. Ed. and Trans. John Willet. London: Eyre Methuen, 1964. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Cavendish, Dominic. “Edinburgh Reports: Wacky Fantasy Flight Runs Worryingly Short of Fuel.” The Telegraph 18 Aug. 2003. Web. 16 Apr. 2016. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3600817/Edinburgh-reports-wacky-fantasy-flight-runs-worryingly-short-of-fuel.html>.Search in Google Scholar
Eatough, Graham. “An Interview with Graham Eatough.” The Suspect Culture Book. Ed. Graham Eatough and Dan Rebellato. London: Oberon, 2013. 9–35. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Fisher, Mark. “Suspect Cultures and Home Truths.” Cosmotopia. Ed. Anja Müller and Clare Wallace. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, 2011. 14–31. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “Butterfly Mind: An Adventure in Contemporary Shamanic Soul Retrieval...” Contemporary Theatre Review: Interventions 26.1 (2016): n. pag. Feb. 2016. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. <http://www.contemporarytheatrereview.org/2016/david-greig-butterfly-mind/>. Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “Hunting Kudu in Streatham.” Ed. Allan Gillis. Edinburgh Review: Haggis Hunting: Fifty Years of New Playwriting in Scotland 137 (2013): 7–17. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. One Way Street. Scotland Plays. Ed. Philip Howard. London: Nick Hern Books, 1998. 227–259. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. Personal E-mail Communication. 25 Apr. to 30 June 2017. E-mail.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “Rough Theatre.” Cool Britannia? British Political Drama in the 1990s. Ed. Rebecca D’Monté and Graham Saunders. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 208–221. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. Selected Plays 1999–2009: San Diego, Outlying Islands, Pyrenees, The American Pilot, Being Norwegian, Kyoto, Brewers Fayre. London: Faber, 2010. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “The Constructed Space – David Greig.” Herma Tuunter, LinkedIn. 9 Mar. 2017. Web. 29 Mar. 2018. <https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/constructed-space-david-greig-herma-tuunter>.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “The Decline of the English Sex Scandal.” Lovesongs to the Auld Enemy: Essays on England by Scottish Writers. Ed. David Greig. Edinburgh: Capercaillie, 2007. 45–60. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. The Events. London: Faber, 2013. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “Q & A.” Interview by Dan Rebellato and Vicky Featherstone. Launch of the Centre of Contemporary British Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, 27 Nov. 2017.Search in Google Scholar
Greig, David. “Zāhir and Bātin: An Interview with David Greig.” Interview by Verónica Rodríguez. Contemporary Theatre Review 26.1 (2016): 88–96. Print. 10.1080/10486801.2015.1123699Search in Google Scholar
Gruber, William E. “‘Non-Aristotelian Theatre’: Brecht’s and Plato’s Theories of Artistic Imitation.” Contemporary Drama 21.3 (1987): 199–213. Print.10.1353/cdr.1987.0007Search in Google Scholar
Hartl, Anja. “Recycling Brecht in Britain: David Greig’s The Events as Post-Brechtian Lehrstück.” The Brecht Yearbook / Das Brecht-Jahrbuch 42. Rochester: Camden House, 2018. 153–169. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Holdsworth, Nadine. “David Greig.” Modern British Playwriting: 2000–2009. Ed. Dan Rebellato. London: Methuen, 2013. 169–189. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Holdsworth, Nadine. “Documents.” Modern British Playwriting: 2000–2009. Ed. Dan Rebellato. London: Methuen, 2013. 260–284. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Holdsworth, Nadine. “The Landscapes of Contemporary Scottish Dramas: Place, Politics and Identity.” A Concise Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Drama. Ed. Nadine Holdsworth and Mary Luckhurst. Oxford: Blackwell, 2007. 125–145. Print. 10.1002/9780470690987Search in Google Scholar
Johns, Ian. Rev. of Europe, by David Greig. The Times 22 Mar 2007. Theatre Record 27.6: 324. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Kuhn, Tom. “Brecht – Tom Kuhn: Interview with Tom Kuhn.” Essential Drama. 30 Aug. 2016. Web. 28 Jan. 2018. <http://essentialdrama.com/practitioners/Brecht/>.Search in Google Scholar
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. “A Future for Tragedy? Remarks on the Political and the Postdramatic.” Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. Ed. Karen Jürs-Munby, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. 89–109. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Middeke, Martin, Peter Paul Schnierer, and Aleks Sierz. “Introduction.” The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights. Ed. Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer, and Aleks Sierz. London: Methuen Drama, 2011. vii-xiv. Print. 10.5040/9781408183045.0003Search in Google Scholar
Morgan, Margot. Politics and Theatre in Twentieth-Century Europe: Imagination and Resistance. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013. Print.10.1057/9781137370389Search in Google Scholar
Mumford, Meg. Bertolt Brecht. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.10.4324/9780203000991Search in Google Scholar
Rebellato, Dan. Introduction. Plays: 1. David Greig. London: Methuen, 2002. ix-xxiii. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Reinelt, Janelle. “David Greig.” The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights. Ed. Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer, and Aleks Sierz. London: Methuen Drama, 2011. 203–222. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Rogers, Nels Jeff. “Fifty Years Postmortem: The Untimeliness of Brecht Today.” Communications from the International Brecht Society 35 (2006): 102–111. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Rodosthenous, George. “‘I Let the Language Lead the Dance’: Politics, Musicality, and Voyeurism. David Greig in Conversation with George Rodosthenous.” New Theatre Quarterly 27 (2011): 3–13. Print.10.1017/S0266464X11000017Search in Google Scholar
Rodríguez, Verónica. David Greig’s Holed Theatre: Globalization, Ethics and the Spectator. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. Print.10.1007/978-3-030-06182-1Search in Google Scholar
Sierz, Aleks. “Dark Times: British Theatre after Brexit.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 39.1 (2017): 3–11. Print. 10.1162/PAJJ_a_00346Search in Google Scholar
Sierz, Aleks. Personal E-mail Communication. 20 to 25 May 2016. E-mail.Search in Google Scholar
Squiers, Anthony. “Philosophizing Brecht: An Introduction for Dark Times.” Philosophizing Brecht: Critical Readings of Art, Consciousness, Social Theory and Performance. Ed. Norman Roessler and Anthony Squiers. Leiden: Brill Rodopi, 2019. 2–6. Print.10.1163/9789004404502Search in Google Scholar
Stevens, Lara. Anti-War Theatre After Brecht: Dialectical Aesthetics in the Twenty-First Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Taylor, Paul. Rev. of The American Pilot, by David Greig. Independent 11 May 2005. Theatre Record 25.9: 588. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Thamer, Florian, and Tina Turnheim. “Performing Politics of Care: Theatrical Practices of Radical Learning as a Weapon Against the Spectre of Fatalism.” Performances of Capitalism, Crises and Resistance. Ed. Marilena Zaroulia and Philip Hagger. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 77–93. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Wallace, Clare. The Theatre of David Greig. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print. 10.5040/9781408166451Search in Google Scholar
Wekwerth, Manfred. Daring to Play: A Brecht Companion. Ed. Anthony Hozier. Trans. Rebecca Braun. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. Search in Google Scholar
Whitebrook, Peter. Rev. of Europe, by David Greig. Scotsman 25 Oct. 1994. Theatre Record 14.21: 1302. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Zaroulia, Marilena. “‘I Am a Blankness Out of Which Emerges Only Darkness’: Impressions and Aporias of Multiculturalism in The Events.” Contemporary Theatre Review 26.1 (2016): 71–81. Print.10.1080/10486801.2015.1121143Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston