Nation, community, self

Female voices in scottish theatre from the late sixties to the present

Gioia Angeletti

• Publisher: Mimesis International
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9788869772054
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre

From the late 1960s until the present day, a significant number of women playwrights have emerged in Scottish theatre who have made a pioneering contribution to dramatic innovation and experimentation. Despite the critical reassessment of some of these authors in the last twenty years, their invaluable achievement in playwriting, within and outside Scotland, still deserves more thorough investigations and fuller acknowledgement. This work explores what is still uncharted territory by examining a selection of representative texts by Ann Marie di Mambro, Marcella Evaristi, Sue Glover, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead, Sharman Macdonald, and Joan Ure. The three macro-thematic areas of the book – the rewriting of the Shakespearean canon; the representation of female communities and minorities; and the conflicts between the self and society – find significant and paradigmatic expression in their dramas. All seven writers examined in this book have explored new theatrical methods, introduced aesthetic innovations and opened new perspectives to engage with the complexities of national, community and individual identities. This study will surely contribute to wider recognition of their achievement, so that their work can never again be described as "uncharted territory".

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Writing Back to the English National Bard
• Chapter 1 Joan Ure’s Shakespearean Trilogy
• Chapter 2 Re-Experiencing The Tempest for a Young Audience: The Magic Island by Liz Lochhead
• Chapter 3 After Shakespeare: Sharman Macdonald’s Sequel to Romeo and Juliet
• Part II (Trans)national Communities
• Chapter 4 Expatriate Italians: Tally’s Blood by Ann Marie di Mambro
• Chapter 5 Empowering the Female Community: Bondagers by Sue Glover
• Chapter 6 Voicing the Female Subaltern: The Lamplighter by Jackie Kay
• Part III Self and Society
• Chapter 7 Imaginary and Real Female Emancipation: I See Myself as This Young Girl and Take Your Old Rib Back, Then by Joan Ure
• Chapter 8 Torn Selves, Conflicting Relations: Commedia by Marcella Evaristi
• Chapter 9 Discourses of Sameness and Otherness: Medea by Liz Lochhead
• Bibliography