In-yer-face: drama of confrontation |
TAKING ITS KEY phrase from Aleks Sierz’s book In-yer -Face Theatre : British Drama in the 1990s ; this two-day international conference, held in September at the University of the West of England in Bristol, discussed the impact of a group of young British dramatists who emerged in the mid-1990s. Sierz argued that writers such as Jez Butterworth, David Eldridge, Sarah Kane, Martin McDonagh, Mark Ravenhill and Judy Upton collectively rejuvenated theatre in much the same way as John Osborne and the ‘angry young men’ of the mid 1950’s.
Despite its title, the conference also became a forum in which the current state of new writing in British theatre was discussed. David Eldridge, in the opening address, saw many of the plays from the period as a direct response from ‘Thatcher’s Children’- the generation who had grown up in a period in which the British Left seemed fractured and directionless, the Cold War escalated and free market economics brutally re-shaped our society and culture. Eldridge warned of the mythologies and self- aggrandising agendas that can grow up when writers are placed in ‘movements’, and what he called the current trend of ‘Donmarization’ in British theatre, whereby major Hollywood stars have been recruited in order to make a new play more palatable to audiences.
The ‘state of play(s )’ also dominated Aleks Sierz’s closing address to the conference: he concluded that the moment for ‘in-yer- face’ theatre had now passed. Dramatists such as Mark Ravenhill, Joe Penhall and Martin McDonagh now had their plays staged at the National Theatre and the West End, while the work of Sarah Kane was now required reading on almost every post-war British drama course taught in universities throughout Europe – essentially, any subversive or avant garde stance these writers showed in their earlier work had been quickly claimed by mainstream culture.
However, in what was generally agreed to be the highlight of the two days, the playwright David Greig made what amounted to a manifesto for what he called Rough Theatre. This would take many of the elements of in-yer-face theatre: its provocation, its spontaneity and its sense of danger, to form a new kind of theatre. Drawing from the experiences of a recent visit to Palestine, and his observations of events surrounding September 11, Greig made a call for a theatre which could ‘imagine the unimaginable.’
A wide range of papers were presented that reflected current concerns and debates within this area of contemporary theatre. A significant number of papers highlighted the surprising degree of intertextuality that operated within the work of dramatists who were initially thought to articulate little more than 1990s urban ennui. Papers explored the connections between A Streetcar Named Desire and Phyllis Nagy’s Weldon Rising, or The Importance of Being Earnest and Mark Ravenhill’s Handbag, others looked at the diverse influences of Artaud, Howard Barker, Greek tragedy and Renaissance drama in the work of Sarah Kane.
A smaller range of papers also looked at the plays in relation to current issues in contemporary critical and performance theory, often relating these through the nihilism that seems to operate in much of the drama. Often this nihilism was actually played out on the site of the body in the form of mutilation, and the role of the audience was also discussed in their response to a form of drama that was often experiential in its approach.
The plays in performance were a prominent theme of many papers. These ranged from Philip Robert’s current work on Max Stafford Clarke’s diaries, focusing on the production of the 1996 production of Shopping and F***ing; to specific directorial problems in staging Jez Butterworth’s Mojo and Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis. Another keynote speaker was the actress Kate Ashfield, who was interviewed and answered questions on her work in key plays from the period such as Blasted, Shopping and F***ing and Closer.
The reception of the plays abroad was also the subject of one panel, where speakers from Germany, Denmark and Poland all spoke about the differing reception of Sarah Kane’s work in their respective countries. Closer to home, another panel looked at the work of the new Scottish writing which emerged at the same time as their London counterparts. Papers were also given on the work of Irish writers Martin McDonagh and Gary Mitchell.
This work on Scottish and Irish dramatists also served as a timely reminder that theatre movements are often fickle, and can risk highlighting some writers at the expense of others. The rapid canonisation of Sarah Kane’s work has been a case in point, and the conference ended with a call for the academic community to remember its responsibility in shaping and disseminating given versions of recent theatre history.
Graham Saunders and Rebecca D’Monte, School of English, UWE
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