National Drama

Barthes belonged to a hugely influential group of intellectuals who took the post-war work of Jacques Lacan and ran with it into the late twentieth century and beyond; these included Deleuze, Kristeva, Foucault, Cixous, Althusser, and Irigaray. Like Barthes they all experienced the cultural shift from structuralism to poststructuralism that Lacan had identified in Freud’s work on the unconscious – and they each tried to get their heads around its implications in their different ways.

Stages in the Revolution was first published in 1982 and remains one of the most important studies of the growth of what it describes in a subtitle as ‘political theatre in in Britain since 1968’. Together with 1980’s Dreams and Deconstructions (edited by Sandy Craig) it paints an intimate portrait of important developments in British theatre that held out the promise of escapes from what many of its participants regarded as a sclerotic established theatre that chose to ignore significant changes in the social and political status quo.

The use of drama in lifelong learning is a well-evidenced endeavour, giving the adult learner the opportunity to involve themselves in a liberating, dialogic community.

Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis is an important and challenging collection of writing from educators, practitioners and activists. It both recognises the enormity of the challenges that we face at this moment in our collective history- yet gives this reader, as practitioner, educator and activist- hope, by giving insight, invitations and provocations to act.