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Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre

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Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre

Description

Analysing an expanding body of theatre and performance works, Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre examines how the themes and images of science fiction are enabling practitioners to intervene on the most urgent social and political issues of the present moment.

By exploring the genre's impact on the live theatrical event, the book presents an original and topical interrogation of issues that remain at the heart of the national and global political agenda, including military conflict, social injustice, economic inequality, migration, nationhood, anti-democratic populism, and climate collapse.

The author draws upon a wide range of dramatic forms, from critically acclaimed plays by writers such as Alistair McDowall, Caryl Churchill, Dawn King, Anne Washburn and Ella Road, to devised work, site-specific performance, Shakespearean drama and physical theatre.

The book's chapters are based on some of the genre's most resonant images, including post-apocalyptic wildernesses, dystopian regimes and artificial lifeforms. Furthermore, by placing examples in dialogue with a range of theories and scholars, this book constructs an innovative interdisciplinary framework comprised of theatre studies, sociology, philosophy, economic and political science.

Providing an engagingly written, intellectually rich and uniquely compelling analysis, Science Fiction and Contemporary British Theatre charts a new and growing landscape of scholarly research, and establishes science fiction as an exciting, expanding and urgent dramatic and political practice.

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  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

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The publication contains no hazards

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Has alternative text descriptions for images

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  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Hamlet in space
Locating science fiction: Media, culture, theory
Science fiction and the theatre
These are the voyages: Book overview
1. Post-apocalypse: Staging ruins
Introduction: Ruins on my mind
The modern ruin in society, theory and culture
Midwinter: The ruins of war
Eat Your Heart Out: Scarcity and ruin
On Bear Ridge: Language in ruins
Home of the Wriggler: The ruins of capitalism
Mr Burns: Memory in ruins
North Country: The nation in ruins
Conclusion: Beyond ruination
2. Androids: Staging posthumanism
Introduction: Presumption
Robots and cyborgs: Uncanny figures in society and on stage
The android: Embodying posthumanism in science fiction
Henceforward … and Instructions for Correct Assembly: Android camp
Loving Androids and Sex with Robots and Other Devices: Automating consent
Glowstick and Hidden: Humanizing care
Conclusion: Embodying posthuman interconnectivity
3. Cyberpunk: Staging transhumanism
Introduction: Blindsight
Transhumanism: Engineering the future
Cyberpunk: Transhumanism and science fiction
The Nether: Leaving the body
Elegy: Changing the mind
A Dead Body in Taos: Selling the soul
Future Bodies: Transforming the self
Conclusion: Giving flesh to the future
4. Dystopia: Staging precarity
Introduction: Here and soon
Defining dystopia: On page, stage and screen
Grievable and ungrievable: Dystopia and precarity
The Cut, The Lifesavers and Meek: Structures of precarity
Far Away, Foxfinder, The Trials and War with the Newts: Climate precarity
The Phlebotomist: Neoliberal precarity
Conclusion: Towards a utopian future
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Explore Methuen Drama
Published 24 Jul 2025
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Pages 216
ISBN 9781350394353
Imprint Methuen Drama
Illustrations 10 b&w
Series Methuen Drama Engage
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Ian Farnell

Ian Farnell is a teaching fellow at the University…

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Environment: Staging