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  • TRI agitating for change Acceptance manuscript

    Rights statement: Copyright Theatre Research International; Cambridge University Press http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=TRI The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theatre Research International, 41 (1), pp 5-20 2016, © 2016 Cambridge University Press.

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Agitating for change: theatre and a feminist 'network of resistance'

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>30/03/2016
<mark>Journal</mark>Theatre Research International
Issue number1
Volume41
Number of pages16
Pages (from-to)5-20
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date11/02/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Focusing on the UK, where feminism is gaining momentum through multiple sites of activist dissent from a neoliberal hegemony, my primary concern in this article is to understand how, given this renewal of feminist energies, theatre might be able to play its part in agitating for change. Inspired by Chantal Mouffe’s compelling description of a ‘network of resistance’, as a possible way forward I conceive of theatre politically as a series of heterogeneously formed sites of oppositional and affirmative activity, each linked into articulating dissent from neoliberalism and the desire for socially progressive change.
This provides the critical framework for my engagement with three radically diverse performances ranging from new playwriting (Lucy Kirkwood’s NSFW), through the flash mob (Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising campaign), to the West End musical Made in Dagenham.

Bibliographic note

Copyright Theatre Research International; Cambridge University Press http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=TRI The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Theatre Research International, 41 (1), pp 5-20 2016, © 2016 Cambridge University Press