Idea for a Theatre Ecology Methods, Theories, Histories and Practices

An Idea for a Theatre Ecology is the first book in the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies to provide a rigorous and coherent theory of the ecology that is immanent to the theatrical medium. Over six clearly written chapters, the book provides a genealogy, outlines a method, provides a lexicon and demonstrates an alternative practice of ecoperformance analysis grounded in the figure of the archipelago. Focusing on Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty, the book argues that theatre has no need to provide ecological messages nor to transform itself into a platform for the narration of ecological stories. Instead, more is to be gained, environmentally and politically, by concentrating on the power of images, gestures and voices to create corporeal affects and sensations that implicate the spectators in a terrestrial event.

About the author

Carl Lavery is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Aberystwyth University.

Product details

• Authors: Lavery Carl, Carl Lavery
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Content: Book
• Product form: Hardback
• Publication date: 15.07.2025
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Ecology; Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet
• EAN: 9781526188922
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-8892-2
• Pages: 264
• Subjects: SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Ecology, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism, Applied ecology, Theatre Studies, Posthumanism, Ecocriticism, Antonin Artaud, Jean-François Lyotard, Édouard Glissant, Theatre Direction & Production, Theatre direction and production, Karen Barad, Félix Guattari, Decolonisation, theatre analysis, cruel theatre, Gilles Deleuze and