New writing in contemporary British theatre
conference sustained by Aleks Sierz
Aleks Sierz is the author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), The Theatre of Martin Crimp (Methuen, 2006) and John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008). Presently he is co-editor of the website www.theatreVOICE.com, and works as a journalist, show producer, and theatre critic for Tribune. He teaches Post-war British Drama in Boston University’s London programs and does research work at Rose Bruford College.
In-yer-face theatre is the theatre that shakes its audience. The New Oxford English Dictionary defines it as something extremely aggressive or provocative, impossible to ignore or avoid. It involves forcing somebody to see something very close up, and invading the personal space in a violent way.
In-yer-face theatre shocks the audience through language and images, emotional sincerity and the way it casts doubts on existing moral standards. Most plays do not describe events in a detached manner and do not let the audience speculate on them. Their aim is to make the audiences feel the extreme emotions shown onstage. The three authors who created a new aesthetic sensibility and can be identified with this movement are Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Anthony Neilson.
