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'Contemporary Australian Playwriting provides a thorough and accessible overview of the diverse and exciting new directions that Australian Playwriting is taking in the twenty-first century.
'In 2007, the most produced playwright on the Australian mainstage was William Shakespeare. In 2019, the most produced playwright on the Australian mainstage was Nakkiah Lui, a Gamilaroi and Torres Strait Islander woman. This book explores what has happened both on stage and off to generate this remarkable change. As writers of colour, queer writers, and gender diverse writers are produced on the mainstage in larger numbers, they bring new critical directions to the twenty-first century Australian stage. At a politically turbulent time when national identity is fractured, this book examines the ways in which Australia’s leading playwrights have interrogated, problematised, and tried to make sense of the nation. Tracing contemporary trends, the book takes a thematic approach to the re-evaluation of the nation that is dramatized in key Australian plays.
'Each chapter is accompanied by a duologue between two of the playwrights whose work has been analysed, to provide a dual perspective of theory and practice.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Table of Contents
Introduction: Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage 1. Re-visioning the Comedy 1a. "Fuck Western classics": Anchuli Felicia King and Michelle Law in Conversation 2. Postmigrant Plays in Australia 2a. "Writing into otherness": Michele Lee and S. Shakthidharan in Conversation 3. Re-visioning Political Theatre and ‘Aussie Naturalism’ 3a. "We’re very anti-politics": Angela Betzien and Patricia Cornelius in Conversation 4. Theatre of the Anthropocene 4a. "We’re a teenage species": Andrew Bovell and David Finnigan in Conversation 5. Re-visioning Landscape from the Regions 5a. "Sorry about the swearing": Mary Anne Butler and Angus Cerini in Conversation 6. Adapt, or Else 6a. "I don’t adapt, I write": Kate Mulvany and Tom Wright in Conversation 7. Imagined Lives 7a. "You gotta glitter it up": Tommy Murphy and Alana Valentine in Conversation 8. Telling Stories in Person 8a. "I’m a polite visitor in this world": Glace Chase and Lally Katz in Conversation 9. Conclusion: Australian Playwriting in Lockdown
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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[Review] Contemporary Australian Playwriting Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , 1 October no. 83 2023; (p. 292-299)
— Review of Contemporary Australian Playwriting : Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage 2022 multi chapter work criticism 'Across the last two years, perhaps due to the paucity of live theatre available during the shutdowns of the COVID pandemic, there has been a welcome surge in books dedicated to Australian plays – from Julian Meyrick’s lucid Australia in 50 Plays (2022) to Chris Mead’s meditation on new play development, Wondrous Strange: Seven Brief Thoughts about New Plays (2022). Chris Hay and Stephen Carleton’s monograph, Contemporary Australian Playwrighting: Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage, sits within this good company as an elegant, cogently argued scholarly work, which honours the long tradition of play scholarship in Australia while illuminating the profound and necessary changes that have occurred to the field of Australian performance since 2007.' (Introduction)
-
[Review] Contemporary Australian Playwriting Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australasian Drama Studies , 1 October no. 83 2023; (p. 292-299)
— Review of Contemporary Australian Playwriting : Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage 2022 multi chapter work criticism 'Across the last two years, perhaps due to the paucity of live theatre available during the shutdowns of the COVID pandemic, there has been a welcome surge in books dedicated to Australian plays – from Julian Meyrick’s lucid Australia in 50 Plays (2022) to Chris Mead’s meditation on new play development, Wondrous Strange: Seven Brief Thoughts about New Plays (2022). Chris Hay and Stephen Carleton’s monograph, Contemporary Australian Playwrighting: Re-visioning the Nation on the Mainstage, sits within this good company as an elegant, cogently argued scholarly work, which honours the long tradition of play scholarship in Australia while illuminating the profound and necessary changes that have occurred to the field of Australian performance since 2007.' (Introduction)
