Scenes from the Revolution Making Political Theatre 1968-2019 [Hardcover]

Political theater thrives on turbulence. Transmuting Brexit, Trump, and impending ecological disaster into a potent, dramatic art form, its practitioners hold a mirror up to our society, wielding the power to entertain, shock, and discomfit.
           Scenes from the Revolutionis a celebration of fifty years of radical theater in Britain. Beginning with a short history of pre-1968 political theater—covering Brecht, Joan Littlewood, and Ewan McColl—the editors move on to explore agit-prop, working-class, youth, community, POC, women’s, and LGBTQ theater. Comprehensive in scope, and featuring many of the leading voices in the field today, as well as “lost” scripts from the radical theater companies of the past,Scenes from the Revolutionis a must-read for anyone interested in politics in the arts.
 

Kim Wiltshireis program leader for creative writing at Edge Hill University and a writer of both plays and fiction.Billy Cowanis senior lecturer for creative writing at Edge Hill University, as well as a playwright and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Writing Out award for Best New Gay play and the Warehouse Theatre’s International Playwriting Award.
 

“Though the book focuses on British political theater, the contributors’ frequent connections to global events and examinations of the overarching relevancy and possibilities of political theater make the book useful for contemporary theater makers, artists, and activists worldwide. Those interested in underground theater will particularly appreciate the excerpts of unpublished and out-of-print plays. . . . Recommended.”

"This is an indispensable archive of resistant performance practice, combining memoir, dramatic and critical writing. Wiltshire, Cowan, and their collaborators confront Project Austerity’sl#"