The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention / Edition 1

by Baz Kershaw

Overview

The Politics of Performance addresses fundamental questions about the social and political purposes of performance through an investigation into post-war alternative and community theatre. It proposes a theory of performace as ideological transaction, cultural intervention and community action, which is used to illuminate the potential social and political effects of radical performance practice. It raises issues about the nature of alternative theatre as a movement and the aesthetics of its styles of production, especially in relation to progressive counter-cultural formations. It analyses in detail the work of key practitioners in socially engaged theatre during four decades, setting each in the context of social, political and cultural history and focusing particularly on how they used that context to enhance the potential efficacy of their productions. The book is thus a detailed analysis of oppositional theatre as radical cultural practice in its various efforts to subvert the status quo. Its purpose is to raise the profile of these approaches to performance by proposing, and demonstrating how they may have had a significant impact on social and political history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415057639
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/02/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Baz Kershaw

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements, Introduction: In quest of performance efficacy, Part I Theory and issues: alternative and community theatre as radical cultural intervention, Part II A history of alternative and community theatre, Glossary, Bibliography, Index