A Companion to British-Jewish Theatre Since the 1950s

by Jeanette R. Malkin (Editor), Eckart Voigts (Editor), Sarah Jane Ablett (Editor)

Overview

The first of its kind, this companion to British-Jewish theatre brings a neglected dimension in the work of many prominent British theatre-makers to the fore.

Its structure reflects the historical development of British-Jewish theatre from the 1950s onwards, beginning with an analysis of the first generation of writers that now forms the core of post-war British drama (including Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and Arnold Wesker) and moving on to significant thematic force-fields and faultlines such as the Holocaust, antisemitism and Israel/Palestine. The book also covers the new generation of British-Jewish playwrights, with a special emphasis on the contribution of women writers and the role of particular theatres in the development of British-Jewish theatre, as well as TV drama.

Included in the book are fascinating interviews with a set of significant theatre practitioners working today, including Ryan Craig, Patrick Marber, John Nathan, Julia Pascal and Nicholas Hytner. The companion addresses, not only aesthetic and ideological concerns, but also recent transformations with regard to institutional contexts and frameworks of cultural policies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350135987
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	03/25/2021
Series:	Methuen Drama Engage
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	570 KB

About the Author

Dr. Jeanette Malkin holds the chair of the Theatre Studies Department at the Hebrew University Jerusalem. She co-edited the book Jews and the Making of Modern German Theatre (2010) and is the author of Memory-Theatre and Postmodern Drama (1999) and Verbal Violence in Contemporary Drama: From Handke to Shepard (1992). She has received two major grants for her research from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) for her project “Triangulation: Jewish Cultural Markings in German and American Theatre” (2005-2009); the second from the German Lower Saxony-Israel Joint Research Project funds (Niedersächsisches Vorab) of the Volkswagen Stiftung for the project “Hyphenated Cultures: Contemporary British Jewish Theatre” (2016-2019) in collaboration with Prof. Eckart Voigts (TU Braunschweig).

Dr. Eckart Voigts is Professor of English Literature at TU Braunschweig, Germany. He has written, edited and co-edited numerous books and articles, such as Introduction to Media Studies (Klett 2004), Janespotting and Beyond: British Heritage Retrovisions since the Mid-1990s (Narr 2005), Adaptations – Performing Across Media and Genres (2009), Reflecting on Darwin (2014) and Dystopia, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalypse (2015), Companion to Adaptation Studies (co-edited with Dennis Cutchins and Katja Krebs). He is on the Board of the journals Adaptation, Adaptation in
Film and Performance, Anglistik and JESELL as well as the book series Transmedia (coedited by Matt Hills and Dan Hassler-Forest).

Sarah J. Ablett has studied English literature, philosophy, and creative writing at the Universities of Hamburg, Manchester, Heidelberg, and Hildesheim, and completed her doctorate at TU Braunschweig. She has taught literary and cultural studies and was part of the research project »Hyphenated Cultures: Contemporary British-Jewish Theatre« funded by the VolkswagenStiftung. Her latest publication is a book on Dramatic Disgust. Aesthetic Theory and Practice from Sophocles to Sarah Kane (transcript, 2020).

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Invisible Otherness: British-Jewish Theatre since the 1950s
Eckart Voigts, TU Braunschweig, Germany and Jeanette R. Malkin, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Part One
The Post-War East-End Scene: Pinter, Wesker, Berkoff, Kops
2 The Theatre of Arnold Wesker: Didactic, Utopian, Biblical
Peter Lawson, Open University, London, UK
3 Re-staging the Jewish East End: Steven Berkoff and Bernard Kops
Jeremy Solomons, University of Reading, UK
4 The Theatre of Harold Pinter: Staging Indefinable and Divided 'Jewishness'
Peter Lawson
5 'A Jew who Writes': The Shadow of the Holocaust in Harold Pinter's Work
Mark Taylor-Batty, University of Leeds, UK

Part Two
Force Fields and Faultlines: The Holocaust, Antisemitism, and the Israel-Palestine Conflict
6 Holocaust Commemoration in Contemporary British Theatre: Eva Hoffman's Play, The Ceremony
Phyllis Lassner, Northwestern University, Chicago. USA
7 Dramatic Responses to the Resurgence of Antisemitism: on Trial – the Blood Libel. Arnold Wesker and Steven Berkoff
Axel Stähler, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
8 Representing the Israel/Palestine Conflict in Contemporary British-Jewish Theatre
Mike Witcombe,University of Bath, UK

Part Three
Contemporary British-Jewish Playwrights and Theatres in Britain: Continuities and Departures
9 'Affiliation and Belonging': Contemporary British-Jewish Women Playwrights
Eckart Voigts and Sarah Jane Ablett, TU Braunschweig, Germany
10 Three Ways of Being a Contemporary British-Jewish Playwright: Tom Stoppard, Patrick Marber, Ryan Craig
Jeanette R. Malkin
11 Staging Jewishness in the 21st Century: The Key Venues
Cyrielle Garson, Avignon Université, France

Part Four Television Drama
12 British-Jewish Television Drama: Jack Rosenthal to the Present
Sue Vice, University of Sheffield, UK
13 'It was f***ing biblical, mate': The Maturity of British Television Drama
Nathan Abrams, University of Bangor, UK

Part Five Interviews with Contemporary British Theatre Artists (from 2017/2018)
14 Nicholas Hytner
15 Julia Pascal
16 Patrick Marber
17 Ryan Craig
18 John Nathan

Editorial Reviews

A unique collection. The first volume to look systematically and in depth at contemporary British-Jewish theatre.
Professor Bryan Cheyette, University of Reading, UK

Organized in five parts, the chapters are concise and snappy, providing stimulus for further thought. The collection faces the troubling issue of antisemitism in British society throughout and successfully achieves its stated aim to address 'the neglected dimension of Jewishness' in theatre while avoiding 'simplistic essentialism' ... [It] provides a wealth of material for further consideration and research and makes the reader want to read all of the plays, see the television programmes and learn more about the writers.
Performing Ethos

From the Publisher