Abstract
This article explores the relationship between form, content, and politics. It challenges some significant positions by no lesser figures than Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Müller on the need for radical forms to function as a prerequisite for imagining alternatives to the prevailing sociopolitical order. The main focus for analysis is Alistair McDowall’s Pomona (2014), a much-produced and much-lauded play that certainly has an experimental dramaturgy, but one which serves more conservative political ends. The article goes on, however, to identify an instance of “the weird” in the play and argues that an element of content rather than an experimental form can call the world of the play into question.
About the author
is Professor of Theatre at the University of York. He is the author of Heiner Müller’s The Hamletmachine (2016), A History of the Berliner Ensemble (2015), Brecht in Practice: Theatre, Theory and Performance (2014), Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the German Theatre (2005), and a monograph on Heiner Müller (1998). He has written several articles and essays on German-, English-language, political, and postdramatic theatre.
Works Cited
Baker, Annie. The Antipodes. London: Nick Hern Books, 2019. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Brecht, Bertolt. “Notes on The Threepenny Opera.” Brecht on Theatre. Ed. Marc Silberman, Steve Giles, and Tom Kuhn. London: Bloomsbury, 2015. 71–80. Print.10.5040/9781472558640Search in Google Scholar
Christophers, Brett. Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? London: Verso, 2020. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Collini, Stefan. “Defending Cultural Criticism.” New Left Review 18 (2002). Web. 1 July 2021. <https://newleftreview.org/issues/II18/articles/stefan-collini-defending-cultural-criticism>.Search in Google Scholar
Fisher, Mark. The Weird and the Eerie. London: Repeater, 2016. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Gooby, Peter Taylor, and Benjamin Leruth. “Individualism and Neo-Liberalism.” Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare: Social Policy Directions in Uncertain Times. Ed. Peter Taylor Gooby and Benjamin Leruth. London: Palgrave, 2018. 29–61. Print.10.1007/978-3-319-75783-4Search in Google Scholar
Harvey, David. The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles. London: Pluto, 2020. Print.10.2307/j.ctv17ppcd0Search in Google Scholar
Haydon, Andrew. “Alistair McDowall: ‘I Spend a Lot of Time on the Internet.’” Exeunt Magazine, 26 Oct. 2015. Web. 26 May 2021. <http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/alistair-mcdowall-i-spend-a-lot-of-time-on-the-internet>.Search in Google Scholar
Knight, Kelvin. Aristotelian Philosophy: Ethics and Politics from Aristotle to MacIntyre. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. Trans. Karen Jürs-Munby. London: Routledge, 2006. Print.10.4324/9780203088104Search in Google Scholar
Lovecraft, H.P. “The Call of Cthulhu.” The Complete Tales of H. P. Lovecraft. New York: Rock Point, 2019. 381–407. Print.Search in Google Scholar
McDowall, Alistair. Pomona. Plays One. London: Bloomsbury, 2016. 299–416. Print.Search in Google Scholar
—. Pomona: Student Edition. Ed. Dan Rebellato. London: Bloomsbury, 2020. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Moore, DC. Common. London: Methuen, 2017. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Müller, Heiner. “Am Anfang war . . . Ein Gespräch unter der Sprache.” Schriften (Vol. 8 of Werke). Ed. Frank Hörnigk. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2005. 296–306. Print.Search in Google Scholar
—. The Hamletmachine. Theatremachine. Trans. and ed. Marc von Henning. London: Faber and Faber, 1995. 85–94. Print.Search in Google Scholar
—. “Literatur muß dem Theater Widerstand leisten.” Gespräche I (Vol. 10 of Werke). Ed. Frank Hörnigk. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2008. 52–73. Print.Search in Google Scholar
—. “Der Weltuntergang ist zu einem modischen Problem geworden.” Gespräche I (Vol. 10 of Werke). Ed. Frank Hörnigk. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2008. 364–374. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Rabey, David Ian. Alistair McDowall’s Pomona. London: Routledge, 2018. Print.10.4324/9781315304953Search in Google Scholar
Rebellato, Dan. “Ned Bennett and Alistair McDowall on Pomona.” Mixcloud, 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 26 May 2021. <https://www.mixcloud.com/NTTalks/ned-bennett-and-alistair-mcdowall-on-pomona>.Search in Google Scholar
—. “Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Theatre: British Drama, Violence and Writing.” Sillages critiques No 22 (2017). Web. 25 May 2021. <https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4798?lang=en>.Search in Google Scholar
—. “Pomona.” Spilled Ink, 22 Nov. 2014. Web. 26 May 2021. <http://www.danrebellato.co.uk/spilledink/2014/11/22/pomona>.Search in Google Scholar
—. Introduction. Pomona: Student Edition. By Alistair McDowall. Ed. Dan Rebellato. London: Bloomsbury, 2020. vi–xxiii. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Reid, Trish. “The Dystopian Near-Future in Contemporary British Drama.” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English 7.1 (2019): 72–88. Print.10.1515/jcde-2019-0006Search in Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang. How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System. London: Verso, 2017. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Trueman, Matt. “Alistair McDowall: ‘There Are No Rules in Theatre. You Can Do Anything.’” The Guardian, 26 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 May 2021. <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/apr/26/alistair-mcdowall-rules-theatre-anything>.Search in Google Scholar
“Versuche, so optimistisch wie möglich zu sein.” Die Rheinpfalz, 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 25 May 2021. <https://www.rheinpfalz.de/lokal/ludwigshafen_artikel,-versuche-so-optimistisch-wie-m%C3%B6glich-zu-sein-_arid,738746.html>.Search in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
