The Radical in Performance

The Radical in Performance interrogates the crisis in contemporary theatre, and celebrates the subversive in performance. It is the first full-length study to explore the link between a western theatre culture which, says Kershaw, is largely 'past its sell-by-date' and the blossoming of postmodern performance, much of which has a genuinely radical edge. In staying determinedly poised between Brecht and Baudrillard, modernity and postmodernism, Baz Kershaw identifies crucial resources for the revitalisation of the radical across a wide spectrum of cultural practices. He asks, what next, once political theatre is all but dead, smothered by the promiscuity of the political in postmodern culture? This is a timely, necessary and rigorous book. It will be a compelling read for anyone searching for a critical catalyst for new ways of viewing and doing cultural politics.

ISBN 0415186684   DEWEY edition DC21 ISBN13 9780415186681 (What's this?)   Pages 272 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Volumes 1 Imprint Routledge   Weight (grammes) 408 Format Paperback   Published in London Publication date 24 Jun 1999   Height (mm) 216 Non-book description xiv, 252 p. :   Width (mm) 138 Library of Congress 98055479   Spine width (mm) 16 DEWEY 792.0904   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate

		List of illustrations
		Acknowledgements
		Prologue: radicalising performance		1
		Introduction: pathologies of hope		5
Pt. I		Theatre and performance: on the cusp of a paradigm shift		27
1		The limits of theatre		29
2		The excesses of performance		57
Pt. II		Performance, participation, power		87
3		Fighting in the streets: performance, protest and politics		89
4		The shadow of oppression: performance, the panopticon and ethics		126
5		The death of nostalgia: performance, memory and genetics		157
6		The sight of the blind: performance, community and ecology		187
		Epilogue: the radical in performance		217
		Bibliography		221
		Name index		236
		Subject index		245

"Kershaw's project is complex and broad-ranging.."-"Research in Drama Education, 2001 ..."this serves as a useful synthesis of contemporary cultural theory and its modernist, and post-structuralist, antecedents.."-"Research in Drama Education, 2001 "This is a charged, interesting book. It is radical in its scope, ambition and coverage. Ultimately, it confirms the dilemma faced by so many drama teachers-------how to develop work with students that is resistant and transformational and yet contained within the oppresive disciplines and ideologies of institutionalised schooling. "Research in Drama Education."2001 "This book's historical purview (1960s-'90s) and earnest radical perspective match those in Kershaw's The Politics of Performance (CH, Jan'93). He is still fighting the good fight of his postwar British generation. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."-"Choice, Apr 2000

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