The Theatre of Simon Stephens

Description

Simon Stephens is one of Europe’s pre-eminent living playwrights. Since the beginning of his career in 1998, Stephens’s award-winning plays have been translated into over twenty languages, been produced on four continents, and continue to feature prominently in the repertoires of European theatre. His original works have garnered numerous awards, with his stage adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time winning seven Olivier Awards and enjoying acclaim on Broadway.
In the first book to provide a critical account of Stephens’s work, Jacqueline Bolton draws upon the playwright’s unpublished personal archives, as well as original interviews with directors and actors, to advance detailed analyses of his original plays and their productions, examine contemporary approaches to playwriting, and deliver insights into broader debates regarding text, performance and authorship. Caridad Svich addresses Stephens’s theatrical output between 2014 and 2019, and essays from Mireia Aragay and James Hudson provide additional perspectives on international productions and the playwright’s adaptive practices. Andrew Haydon’s edited interviews with six of Stephens’s key collaborators – Marianne Elliott, Sarah Frankcom, Sean Holmes, Ramin Gray, Katie Mitchell and Carrie Cracknell – further illuminate the work from a director’s viewpoint.
The Theatre of Simon Stephens situates the playwright’s oeuvre within his embrace of aesthetics and working relations encountered in European theatre cultures, focusing in particular upon shifting attitudes towards the function of the playwright, the relationship between playwrights and directors, and the role of the audience in live performance.
The Companion serves as a lively and engaging study of one of the most restlessly creative and important dramatists of our generation.

Jacqueline Bolton is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Lincoln, UK. Her research interests include dramaturgy, new writing and British fringe theatre of the 1970s and 1980s. She has written for the journal Studies in Theatre and Performance, is the editor of the Methuen Drama Student Edition of Pornography by Simon Stephens, and author of ‘Joint Stock’ in British Theatre Companies: 1980-1994, edited by Graham Saunders (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2015).

Acknowledgements
Introduction: Contextualization1. TensionBluebirdChristmasHeronsPortCountry MusicOn the Shore of the Wide World
2. TransgressionMotortownPornographyOne MinuteHarper ReganSea WallPunk Rock
3. JuxtapositionWastwaterThe Trial of UbuThree Kingdoms
4. ContradictionMorningSecret TheatreThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
5. Critical PerspectivesCan’t help Falling in Love: Simon Stephens’s ‘Late’ Plays (2014-19) Caridad SvichPornography’s European Directions: Germany and France Mireia Aragay (University of Barcelona, Spain)Precursive Texts in the Work of Simon Stephens: Motortown, Birdland, Punk Rock James Hudson (Lincoln University, UK)The Directors Andrew HaydonNotes
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

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