Of precariousness : vulnerabilities, responsibilities, communities in 21st-century British drama and theatre

Drawing primarily on Judith Butler’s, Jacques Derrida’s, Emmanuel Levinas’s and Jean-Luc Nancy’s reflections on precariousness/precarity, the Self and the Other, ethical responsibility/obligation, forgiveness, hos(ti)pitality and community, the essays in this volume examine the various ways in which contemporary British drama and theatre engage with ‘the precarious’. Crucially, what emerges from the discussion of a wide range of plays – including Jez Butterworth’s __Jerusalem__, Caryl Churchill’s __Here We Go__, Martin Crimp’s __Fewer Emergencies__ and __In the Republic of Happiness__, Tim Crouch’s __The Author__, Forced Entertainment’s __Tomorrow’s Parties__, David Greig’s __The American Pilot__ and __The Events__, Dennis Kelly’s __Love and Money__, Mark Ravenhill’s __Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat__, Philip Ridley’s __Mercury Fur__, Robin Soans’s __Talking to Terrorists__, Simon Stephens’s __Pornography__, theTheatre Uncut project, debbie tucker green’s __dirty butterfly__ and Laura Wade’s __Posh__ – is the observation that contemporary (British) drama and theatre often realises its thematic and formal/structural potential to the full precisely by reflecting upon the category and the episteme of precariousness, and deliberately turning audience members into active participants in the process of negotiating ethical agency. * Probes the engagements of contemporary British drama and theatre with ‘the precarious’ * provides a wide range of theoretical and philosophical contextualization * a major contribution to the aesthetics of contemporary drama and theatre studies Acknowledgements Table of Contents Precariousness in Drama and Theatre: An Introduction On the Threshold: Precarious Hospitalities as Utopian Imaginings in Pornography, Fewer Emergencies and The American Pilot Staging Terror and Precariousness in Simon Stephens’s Pornography and Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat Staging Hobbes, or: Theseus Goes to the Theatre. Precariousness, Cultural Memory and Dystopia in Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem and Postmodern Precariousness Precarious Virtuality in Participatory Theatre: Tim Crouch’s The Author “We’re All in This Together”: Reality, Vulnerability and Democratic Representation in Tim Crouch’s The Author Promises of the Real? The Precariousness of Verbatim Theatre and Robin Soans’s Talking to Terrorists Spaces for the Construction of Community: The Theatre Uncut Phenomenon Living in Liquid Times: Precariousness and Plasticity in Forced Entertainment’s Tomorrow’s Parties Bridging Precariousness and Precarity: Ecstasy and Bleeding Across in the Work of David Greig and Suspect Culture Precariousness of Love and Shattered Subjects in Dennis Kelly’s Love and Money Ethics, Precariousness and the ‘Inclination’ towards the Other in debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly, Laura Wade’s Posh and Martin Crimp’s In the Republic of Happiness Vulnerability and the Community of the Precarious in David Greig’s The Events The Inoperative Community and Death: Ontological Aspects of the Precarious in David Greig’s The Events and Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go Notes on Contributors Index

Drawing primarily on Judith Butler’s, Jacques Derrida’s, Emmanuel Levinas’s and Jean-Luc Nancy’s reflections on precariousness/precarity, the Self and the Other, ethical responsibility/obligation, forgiveness, hos(ti)pitality and community, the essays in this volume examine the various ways in which contemporary British drama and theatre engage with ‘the precarious’. Crucially, what emerges from the discussion of a wide range of plays – including Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go, Martin Crimp’s Fewer Emergencies and In the Republic of Happiness, Tim Crouch’s The Author, Forced Entertainment’s Tomorrow’s Parties, David Greig’s The American Pilot and The Events, Dennis Kelly’s Love and Money, Mark Ravenhill’s Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat, Philip Ridley’s Mercury Fur, Robin Soans’s Talking to Terrorists, Simon Stephens’s Pornography, theTheatre Uncut project, debbie tucker green’s dirty butterfly and Laura Wade’s Posh – is the observation that contemporary (British) drama and theatre often realises its thematic and formal/structural potential to the full precisely by reflecting upon the category and the episteme of precariousness, and deliberately turning audience members into active participants in the process of negotiating ethical agency.

Drawing on the philosophies of Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Nancy, this volume examines the ways in which contemporary British drama and theatre engage with 'the precarious'. The analysis of a wide range of plays shows that contemporary (British) drama and theatre often realise their thematic and formal/structural potential to the full by reflecting upon the category and the episteme of precariousness