Documentary Theatre in Britain and Ireland, 2000-2010: and overview

McCormick, Sheila

Abstract

Theatre often takes an oppositional stance when there is a need to confront directly the political circumstances occurring at the time of production. Facts and information are at a premium at times of upheaval and, as a result, documentary forms tend to flourish. Because of the potential for documentary theatre to be oppositional, the state may attempt to assimilate it, however, before that assimilation occurs, political, social, and cultural upheavals provide excellent conditions for its production and reception.
There is a specific kind of creative energy needed for documentary theatre, one that is often political and resists the status quo. However, as Paget notes, “When the crises pass, it is all too easy for the need for confrontational address to recede and for documentary theatre to be regarded as a crude form” (2009, 225). Despite its call for energy and motivation and its discontinuity, each period of proliferation, each moment of political upheaval and subsequent growth in documentary theatre, creates something new within the genre, whether that be a new form or a new political motivation.
Historically, 21st century exhibits oppositional tendencies utilising montage, direct address, and a sense of immediacy to respond to a crisis or social upheaval, stimulate debate and potentially agitate against or oppose the dominant powers. In this paper, through an analyse of the work of a number of twentieth century theatre practitioners (Meyerhold, Piscator, Flanagan, Littlewood) I outline a brief history of the form, its radical tendency, and the elements within the genre that encourage this tendency. It does so to frame contemporary twenty first documentary theatre within a canon of work rich in political complexities.

Reference
Paget, D. (2009). The ‘Broken Tradition’ of Documentary Theatre and Its Continued Powers of Endurance. In: Forsyth, A., Megson, C. (eds) Get Real. Performance Interventions. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230236943_16

Citation

McCormick, S. (2023, June). Documentary Theatre in Britain and Ireland, 2000-2010: and overview

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Start Date: Jun 23, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 27, 2023