Synopses & Reviews
A study into the things which go wrong on the theatre stage.
Synopsis
Things nearly always go wrong in the theatre. This study looks at the things that shouldn't happen: stage fright, embarrassment, animals on stage, getting the giggles and bumping into the furniture. All these turn out to be neither anomalies nor accidents, but are instead what makes theatre, theatre.
Synopsis
Why do actors get stage fright? What is so embarrassing about joining in? Why not work with animals and children? Why is it so hard not to collapse into helpless laughter when things go wrong? These questions are usually ignored by theatre scholarship, but are of enduring interest to theatre professionals and audiences. Nicholas Ridout explains the relationship between these apparently unwanted and anomalous phenomena and the wider social and political meanings of the modern theatre.
About the Author
Nicholas Ridout is Lecturer in Performance at the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.
Table of Contents
Part I: 1. From the promise of performance to the return of theatre; 2. Kleist's Uber das Marionettentheater; 3. From an ethics of performance to an affective politics of theatre; Part II. Stage Fright: The Predicament of the Actor: 1. In an 'awful hole'; 2. A very 'modern' hole; 3. Into the hole and out: diagnosis and cure; 4. Abject hole: first 'blowback'; 5. Face your fear; Part III. Embarrassment: The Predicament of the Audience: 1. Please don't look at me; 2. What is embarrassment?; 3. Towards a politics of shame; Part IV. The Animal on Stage: 1. Mouse in the house; 2. Signs of labour; 3. Animal politics; Part V. Mutual Predicaments: Corpsing and Fiasco: 1. Laughter; 2. Corpsing; 3. Fiasco; 4. Forced entertainment; 5. Lyotard on theatre: 'last blowback'; Afterword; Bibliography.