In-yer-face Theatre: British Drama Today

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Still In-Yer-Face? Towards a Critique and a Summation". New Theatre Quart. 18.1 (2002): 17–24. Published online by Cambridge University Press, journals.cambridge.org. Retrieved 9 June 2008. (Abstract. Subscription required for full access.)

Holden, Nicholas (17 October 2011). "Chapter 2: "In the Pursuit of New Writers": The Royal Court Young Peoples' Theatre and the Development of First-Time Playwrights in the 1990s". In Boles, William C. (ed.). After In-Yer-Face Theatre: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.27–29. ISBN 978-3-030-39426-4. a b c d e f g h i j David Eldridge, "In-Yer-face and After" [ permanent dead link], Intellect 23.1 (Mar. 2003): 55–58. (Abstract.) Sierz included Martin Crimp's play Attempts on her Life as one of the "mighty moments" in the development of in-yer-face theatre. Performed in 1997 at the Royal Court, Sierz described the premiere production as "an event that secured [Crimp]'s reputation as the most innovative, most exciting and most exportable playwright of his generation." [29] Presented by Crimp as "seventeen scenarios for the theatre", the play has been cited as a pioneering work for its unconventional form and structure. Sierz has described the play as "a postmodernist extravaganza that could be read as a series of provocative suggestions for creating a new kind of theatre. The recipe was: subvert the idea of coherent character; turn scenes into flexible scenarios; substitute brief messages or poetic clusters for text; mix clever dialogue with brutal images; stage the show as an art installation. The playtext doesn't specify who says which lines, but Tim Albery's production brought out the acuity and humour of Crimp's writing, with its characteristic irony, and its pointed comments on the pointlessness of searching for a point." [30] Sierz has called Attempts on Her Life "one of the most influential pieces of contemporary theatre" [6] and has lauded the play as being "Crimp's masterpiece", "the best play of the [1990s]" [29] and stated in 2005 that the play "has a good claim to be considered one of the very best British plays of the past 25 years". [31] Decline of in-yer-face theatre [ edit ] Finally, it’s time for a publisher to spread the word. About a month after Neilson’s interview, Ian Herbert, critic and editor of Theatre Record, gave the expression “in-yer-face theatre” an enormous new lease of life, plugging several different variations of it in his ‘Prompt Corner’ column in Theatre Record. Happily, he chose the more direct “in-yer-face” formulation over the more staid “in-your-face”. His first foray was published in January 1996: “Last year’s in-yer-face theatre gets the welcome addition of in-yer-heart emotional commitment.” In the next issue, Herbert was talking again about “in-yer-face playwrights” and, anticipating critic David Nathan’s comment on Kane’s Phaedra’s Love, he also wrote: “it’s vital, engaged work, going on in tiny spaces where the actors are as likely to be in your lap as in yer face”. Even at an early stage, this style of experiential theatre was associated with small studio spaces. In March, Herbert was taking a historical perspective on the new young Turks, or — to give one of his preferred formulations — the “in-yer-face school”, commenting that veteran playwright Bill Morrison “was doing in-yer-face a decade or more ago”. Writernet adds: "This problem was reflected in number of papers from all over the world, which primarily explored the works of Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill through theoretical lenses of postmodernism, metaphysical theatre, Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty, and Lacan. Through no fault of the organizers – this was apparently an accurate reflection of the conference submissions." [50]In this article, we explore a brief history of in-yer-face theatre, review a few of its key players and their notable works. We’ll also talk about the evolution of the style into a genre, and examine where it sits today. A Brief History of In-yer-face Theatre Ridley started writing the play during the 1980s while he was an art student at St Martin's School of Art, with the play evolving out of a series of performance art monologues he had created in his final year of study. [13] [14] Ridley identifies himself as a contemporary of the Young British Artists (also known as the YBAs). [15] These artists are regarded to have started with Damien Hirst's exhibition Freeze in 1988 [16] and have been described by Sierz as "the in-yer-face provocateurs of the art scene [whose] 1997 Sensation exhibition was an immensely influential example of that 1990s sensibility". [7] Ridley has claimed that he knew "most of the people that went on to be in the controversial Sensation show". Although Ridley's early plays were produced years before this exhibition, he states that his plays share the same "sensibility" as Sensation, particularly in the plays' use of imagery. [17] Sierz in part attributes Ridley's originality as a playwright from him training at an art school instead of attending a drama school or a theatre's 'new writing programme'. Sierz therefore feels that the history of new writing during the 1990s should not start with The Royal Court Theatre, but "perhaps, more accurately" should look instead at "St Martin's College of Art and Goldsmiths College. Culturally, there's clearly a nexus between the YBAs, Cool Britannia and Brit Pop." [6] The murder of James Bulger [ edit ] In the 1990s, a revolution took place in British theatre. Out went all those boring politically correct plays with tiny casts portraying self-pitying victims; overthrown were all those pale imitations of European directors’ theatre; brushed aside were all those shreds of self-regarding physical theatre and long-winded, baggy state-of-the-nation plays. The Life of Stuff and In-Yer-Face Theatre – Theatre503 The Life of Stuff and In-Yer-Face Theatre – Book online or call the box office 020 7978 7040". theatre503.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 31 May 2017.

In-yer-face theatre has often been mistakenly categorised as being a 'movement' [43] [44] [45] which Sierz has disputed: [46] a b Sierz, Aleks (24 May 2012). Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. Great Britain: Methuen Drama. p.231-234. ISBN 9781408181331.a b c Sierz, Aleks (2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.234–235. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8 . Retrieved 12 November 2020. a b c d e Sierz, Aleks (2008). "1. 'we all need stories': the politics of in-yer-face theatre". In D'Monté, Rebecca; Saunders, Graham (eds.). Cool Britannia?: British Political Drama in the 1990s. Palgrave Macmillan. p.34. ISBN 978-1-4039-8813-3. In-yer-face theatre is a term used to describe a confrontational style and sensibility of drama that emerged in Great Britain in the 1990s. This term was borrowed by British theatre critic Aleks Sierz as the title of his book, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, first published by Faber and Faber in March 2001. [1] Sierz, Aleks (24 May 2012). Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. Great Britain: Methuen Drama. p.82-84. ISBN 9781408181331. a b c d e Sierz, Aleks (2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. p.249. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8 . Retrieved 12 November 2020.

Towards the end on the 1990s there were declining numbers of new in-yer-face plays being performed in Britain. Sierz credits three events, which for him "suggested that the tide was turning and that an era of confrontation had come to an end", signalling the decline of in-yer-face theatre: [33] Eldridge, David. "In-Yer-face and After" [ permanent dead link]. Intellect 23.1 (Mar. 2003): 55–58. (Abstract.) In his lecture entitled Blasted and After: New Writing in British Theatre Today Sierz cites "five mighty moments in the history of the 1990s" that shaped in-yer-face theatre. Outside of this lecture Sierz has gone into greater detail about the importance of these moments: [6] The influence of North American plays and Scottish theatre [ edit ] Taylor, Paul. "Rainbow Kiss, Royal Court Upstairs, London". The Independent . Retrieved 29 March 2021.Sierz, Aleks (2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. p.47. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8 . Retrieved 12 November 2020. Eyre, Richard and Nicholas Wright. Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century. London: Bloomsbury, 2001. ISBN 0-7475-5254-1. The last key event Sierz cites is the death of Sarah Kane in February 1999 [33] which he has referred to as "a convenient end point". [34] a b Sierz, Aleks (March 2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.90–107. ISBN 0-571-20049-4.

In-Yer-Face Theatre: A Contemporary Form of Drama Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis performed at the 2008 Edinburgh festival. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian However, despite the near ubiquity of in-yer-face theatre, the ‘movement’ burned brightly but briefly. Audiences and playwrights alike began to tire of on-stage brutality. Many established stage writers, such as Martin Crimp, Martin McDonagh and the American playwright Tracy Letts owe their careers to explosive starts in in-yer-face theatre. However, the anger of their younger work is largely missing from their recent, more ‘mature’ work. Notable Figures Irving Wardle, "The Birthday Party", Encore 5 (July–Aug. 1958): 39–40; rpt. in The Encore Reader: A Chronicle of the New Drama, ed. Charles Marowitz, Tom Milne, and Owen Hale (London: Methuen, 1965) 76–78 (reissued as: New Theatre Voices of the Fifties and Sixties [London: Eyre Methuen, 1981]); "Comedy of Menace", Encore 5 (Sept–Oct. 1958): 28–33; rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 86–91. Sierz has stated that "the idea of writing a book about in-yer-face theatre was originally Ian Herbert's" as he originally spoke about the concept to Peggy Butcher, who was the drama editor of Faber and Faber. Herbert also decided to name the book 'In-Yer-Face Theatre' and was asked by Butcher to write an outline for it. However, Herbert was unable to provide an outline, jokingly stating that "I realised that [writing] a book would mean actual work, something to which I am not accustomed." Sierz however states that Herbert "was too busy to embark on a book" due to his many work commitments. As a result Herbert pulled out of writing the book and told Butcher that it should be written by Sierz instead because his "interest in new writing at the time made [him] an obvious candidate for the job". Early during the development of the book Sierz considered renaming it to Cool Britannia but Sierz says that this was vetoed by Butcher "on the grounds that in a couple of years no one would have any respect for that label - and how right she was." Sierz finished writing the book in January 2000, and it was published by Faber and Faber in March 2001 under the title In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. [5] History [ edit ] Aleks Sierz's 'five mighty moments' [ edit ]

Works Cited

To answer your question, in yer face theatre did not first originated in sports journalism, but the colloquial expression ‘in your face’ was used for the first time by sports commentators, and that’s when the expression became popular. Later on, this new wave of British playwrights decided to use the term to describe their theatre, but the theatre itself didn’t originate in sports journalims at all! The three main figures in in-yer-face theatre, according to Aleks Sierz, are Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Anthony Neilson. However, other writers have been associated with the movement, including: Jez Butterworth, Martin Crimp, Stephen Daldry, Denis Kelly, Tracy Letts, Martin McDonagh and Phyllis Nagy. Notable Works