Overview

""Informative, provocative and entertaining all at the same time."" - Michael Billington This is a wide-ranging and accessible account of new writing in British theatre during the 2010s, written in a boldly experimental style. A guide to the key plays and playwriting innovations, it enlightens, amuses and provokes in equal measure. Across 15 chapters, each written in a different form, it takes the reader on an engaging tour of new drama in British theatre from 2010 until the arrival of COVID-19. It considers mega hits such as Fleabag and Matilda the Musical, as well as offering accounts of some 250 plays that premiered in those years. Structured around the big concerns of the decade, it explores social issues, politics, Brexit, dystopias, experimental theatre, family, gender, race, history, adaptations and the West End. ­­A decade of drama is thrown into sharp relief through the symphony of literary styles and voices that characterize the chapters: from dialogues, monologues, a diary and a listings magazine, to an experimental A to Z, informal notes, quotations from real-life interviews, a documentary script and a memoir. The variety of perspectives mirrors the richness of our contemporary culture and the innovations in theatre that are celebrated in New British Drama in 15 Scenes.

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9781350567917

Table of Contents

Reviews

Aleks Sierz’s New British Drama in 15 Scenes: Adventures in Theatre Criticism is an invaluable addition to his current trilogy chronicling the last three decades of British drama (1990s-2010s). His encyclopedic knowledge of the plays produced in the 2010s results in his covering over 250 plays, ranging from Olivier award winning plays to fringe performances, all of which are treated equally as representatives of a remarkably diverse decade of theatre. In order to capture the disparate themes of the 2010s Sierz offers readers a novel and creative exploration of the decade by dropping his critic’s voice and instead in each chapter adopting a different persona, ranging from a sociologist to a Gen Xer to visual artist, providing innovative pathways to appreciating the complexity of the theatre in the 2010s. Because of Sierz’s playful and highly readable approach, his book will be prized by general readers, students, and academics. * William Boles, Rollins College, USA *

Author Information

Aleks Sierz FRSA is a lecturer at the London Programme of Boston University, UK.

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