BA Drama

The course provides an opportunity to critically examine one of the most historically significant manifestations of theatre as an art form – its role inside social and political movements. The history of activism has repeatedly evidenced the fecund territory that exists at the intersection of theatre, protest and performance, with powerful and provocative protest performances appearing across democratic, postcolonial, identity and ecological campaigns throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries. These disparate movements have generated diverse repertoires of protest configured by imaginative combinations of bodies and texts inserted into public space. The aim of the course is to develop students’ understanding of theatre and performance as a political phenomenon, as well as their appreciation of how the political domain is produced by performative and mediatised environments that sculpt subjectivities, identities and possibilities for social and political action. During the course, students will consider questions such as – how has theatre and performance played a critical and creative role in protest? How might theatre and performance be employed as part of reactionary as well as progressive protest? How might the ‘transformational’ potential of theatre and performance be articulated and understood?

The course begins with two introductory sessions examining theatre as an activist aesthetic and selected framings of the ‘political’ through the 20^th and 21^st century. Following this, the course is split into a historical and contemporary section, predominantly focusing on protest performance on either side of the Atlantic – the US and Europe. The historical section consists of four sessions exploring important historical precedents, relating to examples of theatre activism taking place as part of the civil rights movement in the US, the 1968 Paris uprisings, the alternative theatre movement in Britain during a time of economic crisis, and the global justice movement. The second section of the course includes four sessions that focus on examples in the living memory of students taking the course, extending from anti-war on terror activism to ecological protest performance.

Any L1 Drama Study or Practical core option

Any L2 Drama Study core option - Theatres of Modernity; Screen, Culture and Society 

• To develop students’ understanding of the relationships between performance, politics and theatre
• To stimulate students’ curiosity about and awareness of the ways artist activists have addressed contexts of inequality, social suffering and political oppression historically
• To challenge students to make independent, informed and ethical judgements about complex political issues
• To challenge students to take responsibility for the values, norms, assumptions and beliefs that guide their own choices and actions as citizens

• Demonstrate a good understanding of the relationships between the political domain and performance as well as historical awareness of the significance of theatre and performance in social and political movements
• Effectively and persuasively employ critical terms from political and performance theory to analyse historically significant examples of protest performance, demonstrating a comprehensive grasp of those terms
• Demonstrate, through written and verbal discourse, a good understanding of the significance of performative and mediatised environments for the production of political subjectivity and agency
• Contextualise examples of theatre activism with reference to selected political concepts (democracy, the biopolitical, citizenship, identity, neoliberalism, for example)

• Critically analyse and interrogate claims made for the value and impact of theatre and performance in bringing about socio-political change
• Critically evaluate a series of examples of theatrical activism of importance to 20^th and 21^st century history, evidencing in-depth analysis of at least three examples
• Synthesise theoretical terms and concepts and apply these to analysis and argument
• Effectively use primary and secondary sources, including in contexts where data is incomplete and where careful interpretive work is required

• Research academic and non-academic materials/contexts, and evaluate sources
• Plan, undertake and evaluate independent critical work
• Engage in discussion of complex and controversial subjects
• Present in front of a group

• Evidence their use of a range of research skills – analysis, presentation, written and verbal communication, constructing effective and persuasive argument, evaluation of sources
• Plan, undertake, manage and evaluate critical projects
• Communicate effectively, including when discussing complex and controversial subject matter
• Demonstrate curiosity about global issues
• Articulate an awareness of the norms, values, assumptions and beliefs that guide their own political behaviour and actions

Essay     60%

Creative Intervention   40%

A proposal for an activist performance intervention recreating the theatrical tactics of a historical example and applying these to a protest relating to a political/social concern (local or global) that has arisen during the module.

Mid and end of course evaluation

Dedicated office hours

One to one support for planning essays and proposals

Post assessment feedback as required by students

• L. M. Bogad, Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements (New York: Routledge, 2005)
• Andrew Boyd, Beautiful trouble: a toolbox for the revolution (New York and London: O/R Books, 2012)
• Jan Cohen-Cruz (ed), Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology (London & New York: Routledge, 1998)
• Susan Foster, ‘Choreographies of Protest’ Theatre Journal, 55:3, pp. 395-412
• Jenny Edkins and Adrian Kerr (eds.), International Politics and Performance: Critical aesthetics and creative practice (Oxford: Routledge, 2013)
• Stuart Hall "Reconstruction Work: Images of Postwar Black Settlement", in James Procter (ed.), Writing Black Britain, 1948–98: An Interdisciplinary Anthology, Manchester University Press, 2006
• Jenny Hughes and Simon Parry, 2015 (eds) Special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review (25,3). Theatre, performance and activism: gestures toward an equitable world.
• Baz Kershaw, The Radical in Performance (Oxford: Routledge, 1999)
• Ken Knabb (edited and translated by, revised and expanded edition), Situationist International Anthology (Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006 [1981])
• The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
• Notes from Nowhere, We are everywhere: The irresistible rise of global anti-capitalism (Verso, 2003)
• Ben Shepard, Play, creativity and social movements (London and New York: Routledge, 2011)
• Jenny Spencer, Political and Protest Theatre after 9/11: Patriotic Dissent (Oxford: Routledge, 2012)
• Cami Rowe, The Politics of Protest and US Foreign Policy Performative Construction of the War on Terror (London and New York: Routledge, 2013)