REVERBERATIONS

REVERBERATIONS

across small-scale British theatre:

Politics, Aesthetics and Forms 

by Patrick Duggan & Victor Ukaegbu 

In the last twelve months Sidetracks & Detours daily not-for-profit blog and our companion Sunday Supplement PASS IT ON, have reported first on the demise of Oldham´s beloved Coliseum Theatre and the inevitable closing of its doors. There were then hints that an actors´ cartel might launch a rescye operation.

We were then able to report only a few weeks ago that Julie Hesmondhalgh, (once Hayley off Corrie) with support from colleagues like Sue Devaney (left) announced that the theatre will re-open at the start of the 2024 / 25 pantomime season will again open its doors to the public.

Oh yes it will !!

In searching on line for a book that might illuminate the current state of theatre in Britain, I was drawn to a book that might address the topic from an informed perspective.

Reverberations, the title of the book suggests that perhaps ´small scale British Theatre´ rolls with the flow. A reverberation does not convey an image of a knockout blow laying out the theatres, nor does it suggest that what theatre produces is any kind of real threat to their communities.

In fact the book tells how, between 1960 and 2010, a new generation of British avant-garde theatre companies, directors, designers and performers emerged. By questioning what ‘Britishness’ meant in relation to the small-scale work of these practitioners, contributors articulate how it is reflected in the goals, manifestos and aesthetics of these companies.

we´re gonna need a bigger bookshelf

The Author, Dr. Victor I. Ukaegbu is a senior lecturer and course leader for Drama at The University of Northampton. He has written on African and intercultural theatres, postcolonial performances, gender, black British theatre, applied theatre, including a book; The Use of Masks in Igbo Theatre in Nigeria: the Aesthetic Flexibility of Performance Traditions. He is Associate Editor of African Performance Review and a member of the Editorial Board of World Scenography (Africa/Middle East).

‘This rich, fascinating text will hopefully inspire debate within the academy, and provide valuable insight into a wide range of companies as Britishness reaches a crossroads.’

Ben Fletcher-Watson

Scottish Journal of Performance

‘There is no other collection about British theatre companies like this: one that embraces smallness, employs its postcolonial approach so deftly to subjects both racially marked and unmarked and which treats company histories in such nuanced, concrete ways.’

Sara Freeman,

Contemporary Theatre Review

‘This book, then, is a valuable resource for academics and students alike, because it generously throws open methodological and archival questions, provides information about the working practices of a range of innovative companies (linked, perhaps, by their demonstrations of resistance, resilience and creativity) and works to pose critical questions about the theatre ecology of Britain over the past 30 years. ‘

Rachel Clements,

Studies in Theatre and Performance