An Idea for a Theatre Ecology - by Carl Lavery (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book reconfigures theatre's relationship with urgent issues to do with ecology and environment by showing how theatre is an ecological event in and by itself. It does so by providing a new theory of theatre ecology that is clearly written and rigorously developed.

Book Synopsis

An Idea for a Theatre Ecology is the first book in the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies to provide a rigorous and coherent theory of the ecology that is immanent to the theatrical medium. Over six clearly written chapters, the book provides a genealogy, outlines a method, provides a lexicon and demonstrates an alternative practice of ecoperformance analysis grounded in the figure of the archipelago. Focusing on Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty, the book argues that theatre has no need to provide ecological messages nor to transform itself into a platform for the narration of ecological stories. Instead, more is to be gained, environmentally and politically, by concentrating on the power of images, gestures and voices to create corporeal affects and sensations that implicate the spectators in a terrestrial event.

From the Back Cover

An idea for a theatre ecology is the first volume in a loose trilogy of texts dedicated to rethinking theatre's relationship with the earth.

Unlike existing publications in this field, the book does not seek to unpack the meaning of performances, plays and performance lectures that deal with explicitly environmentally themes (climate change, pollution, flooding, soil erosion, etc.). On the contrary, it unfolds an alternative theory of theatre ecology that reflects on the ecology that is immanent to the theatrical medium itself. The aim is to recalibrate what ecology and theatre are considered to be once they are approached as being implicated in and with each other, from the very beginning. To do that, the book unfolds its argument, patiently and rigorously, over six chapters that investigates the genealogies, methods, practices, and histories of theatre ecology.

The book provides Theatre and Performance Studies with an immanent ecology that will contribute to the work of thinkers and practitioners within those disciplines as well as clarifying the specific contribution that theatre can make to the Environmental Humanities.

About the Author

Carl Lavery is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Glasgow