A Companion to British-Jewish Theatre Since the 1950s

Description

The first of its kind, this companion to British-Jewish theatre brings a neglected dimension in the work of many prominent British theatre-makers to the fore. Its structure reflects the historical development of British-Jewish theatre from the 1950s onwards, beginning with an analysis of the first generation of writers that now forms the core of post-war British drama (including Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and Arnold Wesker) and moving on to significant thematic force-fields and faultlines such as the Holocaust, antisemitism and Israel/Palestine. The book also covers the new generation of British-Jewish playwrights, with a special emphasis on the contribution of women writers and the role of particular theatres in the development of British-Jewish theatre, as well as TV drama. Included in the book are fascinating interviews with a set of significant theatre practitioners working today, including Ryan Craig, Patrick Marber, John Nathan, Julia Pascal and Nicholas Hytner. The companion addresses, not only aesthetic and ideological concerns, but also recent transformations with regard to institutional contexts and frameworks of cultural policies.

Dr. Jeanette Malkin holds the chair of the Theatre Studies Department at the Hebrew University Jerusalem. She co-edited the book Jews and the Making of Modern German Theatre (2010) and is the author of Memory-Theatre and Postmodern Drama (1999) and Verbal Violence in Contemporary Drama: From Handke to Shepard (1992). She has received two major grants for her research from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) for her project "Triangulation: Jewish Cultural Markings in German and American Theatre" (2005-2009); the second from the German Lower Saxony-Israel Joint Research Project funds (Niedersachsisches Vorab) of the Volkswagen Stiftung for the project "Hyphenated Cultures: Contemporary British Jewish Theatre" (2016-2019) in collaboration with Prof. Eckart Voigts (TU Braunschweig). Dr. Eckart Voigts is Professor of English Literature at TU Braunschweig, Germany. He has written, edited and co-edited numerous books and articles, such as Introduction to Media Studies (Klett 2004), Janespotting and Beyond: British Heritage Retrovisions since the Mid-1990s (Narr 2005), Adaptations - Performing Across Media and Genres (2009), Reflecting on Darwin (2014) and Dystopia, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalypse (2015), Companion to Adaptation Studies (co-edited with Dennis Cutchins and Katja Krebs). He is on the Board of the journals Adaptation, Adaptation in Film and Performance, Anglistik and JESELL as well as the book series Transmedia (coedited by Matt Hills and Dan Hassler-Forest). Sarah J. Ablett has studied English literature, philosophy, and creative writing at the Universities of Hamburg, Manchester, Heidelberg, and Hildesheim, and completed her doctorate at TU Braunschweig. She has taught literary and cultural studies and was part of the research project "Hyphenated Cultures: Contemporary British-Jewish Theatre" funded by the VolkswagenStiftung. Her latest publication is a book on Dramatic Disgust. Aesthetic Theory and Practice from Sophocles to Sarah Kane (transcript, 2020).

Organized in five parts, the chapters are concise and snappy, providing stimulus for further thought. The collection faces the troubling issue of antisemitism in British society throughout and successfully achieves its stated aim to address 'the neglected dimension of Jewishness' in theatre while avoiding 'simplistic essentialism' ... [It] provides a wealth of material for further consideration and research and makes the reader want to read all of the plays, see the television programmes and learn more about the writers. * Performing Ethos * A unique collection. The first volume to look systematically and in depth at contemporary British-Jewish theatre. * Professor Bryan Cheyette, University of Reading, UK *