Contemporary Drama and Theatre

A major focus of English studies at Konstanz is the vibrant field of contemporary Anglophone drama and theatre around the world. Our projects connect theory with practice, as well as text with performance. We are interested in intertextual, intercultural, and interdisciplinary readings that foreground the intersection between theatre, other art forms, politics, and wider social and cultural concerns.

Our past and current research projects include:

Gender and Genre in Contemporary Drama

Hysteria, trauma and melancholia have not only become powerful tropes in modern-day culture at large; they are also prominent in the theatre. How do contemporary plays employ these concepts? How does the staging of these ‘disorders’ affect the aesthetics of the plays? What exchange relations between theory and theatre can be traced? Christina Wald pursues such questions in her study Hysteria, Trauma, and Melancholia: Performative Maladies in Contemporary Drama, establishing the characteristics and concerns of ‘The Drama of Hysteria’, ‘Trauma Drama’, and ‘The Drama of Melancholia’ through in-depth readings of works by playwrights such as Anna Furse, Terry Johnson, Sarah Daniels, Phyllis Nagy, Claire Dowie, David Auburn, Marina Carr and Sarah Kane. Conceptualising hysteria, trauma and melancholia as ‘performative maladies’, Wald educes an exciting interaction of theatrical performance, psychiatric and psychoanalytic theory, and the theory of gender performativity.

Christina Wald, Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia: Performative Maladies in Contemporary Anglophone Drama(publisher's website)

Contemporary Political Drama in Britain and Beyond

Can theatre change the world? If so, how can it productively connect with social reality and foster spectatorial critique and engagement? Anja Hartl examines the forms and functions of political drama in what has been described as a post-Marxist, post-ideological, even post-political moment. In her first monograph, Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today, she argues that German theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht’s dialectical legacy represents a central source of inspiration and contestation for contemporary British playwrights. Analysing the work of five influential British dramatists – Mark Ravenhill, David Greig, Andy Smith, Tim Crouch, and Caryl Churchill – the book investigates the potentials and challenges of making Brechtian-inspired political theatre today.

Anja Hartl, Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today (publisher's website)

Related to her work on Brecht’s influence in contemporary British theatre, Hartl is also working on a new edition of Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera with a focus on revisiting the play from a contemporary perspective. The book will be published as part of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama’s Student Editions.

Building on these research interests, Hartl co-edits the new Bloomsbury Methuen Drama Agitations series together with William C. Boles. The series aims to explore theatrical responses to crises as a source of progress and change, seeking to interrogate the manifold intersections between theatre and the contemporary, while making a case for the urgency and topicality of theatre in the current moment. The series posits theatre as political engagement and intends to investigate its radical, change-provoking potential by pursuing an issue-oriented approach, including contemporary politics, environmental concerns, issues of gender and sexuality, the complexities of race and race relations, and the challenges of globalisation. The series will provide a testament to the theatre’s engagement with the most pressing issues of contemporary society.