Theatres of Contagion: Transmitting Early Modern to Contemporary Performance

Description

To what extent is theatre a contagious practice, capable of undoing and enlivening people and cultures? Theatres of Contagion responds to some of the anxieties of our current political and cultural climate by exploring theatre's status as a contagious cultural force, questioning its role in the spread or control of medical, psychological and emotional conditions and phenomena. Observing a diverse range of practices from the early modern to contemporary period, the volume considers how this contagion is understood to happen and operate, its real and imagined effects, and how these have been a source of pleasure and fear for theatre makers, audiences and authorities. Drawing on perspectives from medicine, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, law and affect theory, essays investigate some of the ways in which theatre can be viewed as a powerful agent of containment and transmission. Among the works analysed include a musical adaptation and an intercultural variation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet; a contemporary queer take on Hamlet; Grand Guignol and theatres of horror; the writings and influence of Artaud; immersive theatre and the work of Punchdrunk, and computer gaming and smartphone apps

Fintan Walsh is Reader in Theatre and Performance in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, UK, and Co-Director of Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre. His books include Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland: Dissent and Disorientation (2016), Theatre & Therapy (2013), and Male Trouble: Masculinity and the Performance of Crisis (2010). He is Senior Editor of Theatre Research International.

Theatres of Contagion is a rich and wide-ranging collection of essays that offers new and engaging perspectives on theatre's multiple relationships with contagion. The volume traverses historical periods from the early modern to the contemporary, a diverse range of genres and practices, on and off-stage, and draws on an array of disciplines. This expansive design, in tandem with individual authors' detailed analyses of specific practices and histories, results in a collection that nuances understandings of how theatre has conceived contagion's operation, its effects and affects, and vital entanglements in culture and socio-political structures. -- Catherine Silverstone, Queen Mary University of London, UK