Peopling the theatre in a time of crisis

Bartley, S. (2022) Peopling the theatre in a time of crisis. In: Wallace, C., Escoda, C., Monforte, E. and Ramón Prado-Pérez, J. (eds.) Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre. Methuen Drama Engage. Bloomsbury, London, 256. ISBN 9781350180857

Abstract/Summary

Representation becomes imperative in times of crisis; concurrently, such periods can be marked by a threat to the functions of democratic, cultural, and political representation. In this chapter, I explore the distinctive practices of Camden People’s Theatre (established 1994) and Brighton People’s Theatre (founded in 2015) to reflect on the utility of people’s theatres in discrete moments of social, political and artistic crisis in the UK. The economic crises of 1990 and 2008 have shaped life in the UK over the past 30 years and it is these two moments of acute crisis act as buoys marking the terrain of my analysis. Through an examination of the creative practices of these two companies and the contexts in which they emerged, I establish the distinctive practices of people’s theatres as a mode of making that responds to conditions of crisis

Item Type	Book or Report Section
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/100889
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Arts and Communication Design > Film, Theatre & Television
Publisher	Bloomsbury
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item