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Political Theatre: The 1980s

Module description

This module explores the relationship between politics and performance in the 1980s. It will help you critically examine what we mean by political theatre in general, and specifically investigate British theatre created at a time when Thatcher was Prime Minister. As your analysis deepens, you will explore how political theatre of the 1980s both shaped, and was shaped by, the social, economic and political forces at work during the time of its creation and first performance. You will also use theory and historical contextualisation to critique later reworkings of political theatre. While our focus is on playwriting, this module will also help you strengthen your core skills of critical thinking, textual interpretation, audience reception and how to consider the dialogue between aesthetics, history and economics.

If you are interested in learning about modern theatre history, in reading and analysing plays, exploring how global social and political forces shape local theatre, then this module will have much to offer you.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims:

• to introduce you to political theatre in general, and British theatre of the 1980s, in particular, using key plays and playwrights
• to help you situate key plays and playwrights in their historical contexts
• to help you critique key plays and playwrights by exploring present-day social and global concerns
• to examine the work of four playwrights and ask how the work of these writers might be ‘political’ in the twenty-first century
• to enable you to use scholarly writing to interpret dramatic text and theatrical performances

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Develop a keen understanding of political theatre practice and be able to place this within wider historical and theoretical contexts
• 2. Have a secure grasp of a range of playwrights' key works and be able to successfully articulate how these practitioners engage with notions of the political
• 3. Evidence an acute understanding of how the dynamic relationship between page and stage shifts over time and with context.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate the ability to apply a wide range of library and IT skills in detailed independent research.
• 5. Contribute research to small groups in effective presentations, to evaluate evidence and analyse, critique and manipulate complex material

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Develop personal research skills using personal initiative; to set personal objectives and to identify and evaluate personal learning strategies
• 7. Develop group cooperation skills, including the ability to give and receive constructive critical feedback and to improve communication skills and analytic abilities in discussions

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• political theatre and what ‘the political’ means today.
• an overview of the 1980s, a decade when political and economic forces were changing society dramatically.
• an assessment of the theatre and principle playwrights and plays from that decade
• a broad survey of the context and of the playwrights and companies, such as Complicité and DV8, that rose to prominence at this time.
• a detailed examination of significant playwrights of the era and the influence they had on later work
• ideas of realism, form, dramaturgy, aesthetics, and affect if, how, and why theatre matters.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Aston, Elaine, Feminist Views on the English Stage: Women Playwrights, 1990-2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2003)
• Auslander, Philip, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture (London: Routledge, 2008)
• Barker, Howard, Arguments for a Theatre, 3rd edn (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997)
• Boon, Richard, and Plastow, Jane, eds, Theatre Matters: Performance and Culture on the World Stage (Cambridge: Cambridge
• University Press, 1998)
• Bull, John, Stage Right: Crisis and Recovery in British Contemporary Mainstream Theatre (London: St Martin's Press, 1994)
• Diamond, Elin, Performance and Cultural Politics (London: Routledge, 1996)
• D’Monte, Rebecca, and Saunders, Graham, eds, Cool Britannia? British Political Drama in the 1990s (London: Palgrave, 2008)
• Eyre, Richard, and Wright, Nicholas, Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century (London:
• Bloomsbury, 2000)
• Goodman, Lizbeth, and De Gay, Jane, eds, The Routledge Reader in Politics and Performance (London: Routledge, 2000)
• Howe Kritzer, Amelia, Political Theatre in Post-Thatcher Britain: New Writing 1995-2005 (London: Palgrave, 2008)
• Kelleher, Joe, Theatre & Politics (London: Macmillan, 2009)
• Kershaw, Baz, The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention (London: Routledge, 1992)
• Luckhurst, Mary, A Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama 1880-2005 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006)
• Megson, Chris, Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present (London: Palgrave, 2010)
• Milling, J, ed, Modern British Playwriting: the 1980s – voices, documents, new interpretations (London: Bloomsbury, 2012)
• Phelan, Peggy, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London: Routledge, 1993)
• Read, Alan, Theatre, Intimacy, and Engagement: The Last Human Venue (London: Palgrave, 2008)
• Sierz, Aleks, In-Yer Face Theatre: British Theatre Today (London: Faber and Faber, 2001)

Key words search

Playwriting, politics, British theatre