Description
In this lecture, Professor Benjamin Poore introduces the idea of the contemporary history play: a piece of new writing for the stage that features a historical setting. Sometimes, this type of play will feature events taking place across multiple historical periods and countries; it may also include scenes set in the present day. However, the essential characteristic is that these plays are always speaking to the contemporary moment. They are about how we feel about history now. The most exciting contemporary history plays, therefore, are those that expose and examine their own processes of history-making with a live audience. To illustrate this point, the lecture includes discussion of two American contemporary history plays, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation by Jackie Sibblies Drury (2012) and Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl (2019). In the former, a theatregroup tries to find the theatrical language to represent a nineteenth-century colonial genocide in what is now the African state of Namibia. In the latter, a descendant of one of the victims of the Salem witch trials in the 1690s is catapulted back in time, in a play that takes issue with Arthur Miller’s classic history play The Crucible (1953) while also reflecting on the United States’ opioid crisis in the 21st century. Analysis of these two texts will provide tools for interpreting other contemporary history plays. At the same time, it will emphasise the value of thinking through theatre as an approach to the study of history.
| Period | 23 May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Held at | Chungbuk National University, Dept of English Language and Literature, Korea, Republic of |
| Degree of Recognition | International |