Article Abstracts

Source: Theatre Journal, Vol. 62, No. 4, CONTEMPORARY WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS

(December 2010), pp. 709-710
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41000833
Accessed: 03-04-2017 04:39 UTC

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 Article Abstracts

Feeling the Loss of Feminism: Sarah Kane's Blasted and an Experiential

Genealogy of Contemporary Women's Playwriting
Elaine Aston

This essay disinters Blasted, the highly controversial debut play by Sarah Kane, from
a masculinist cult of "in-yer-face-ism" in order to propose a genealogy of contemporary
women's playwriting on the British stage characterized by an experiential drive to feel-
ing the loss of feminism. Taking Blasted as a seminal point of reference, an experiential
genealogy of women's writing is constructed by looking back at work by Rebecca
Prichard and Judy Upton, and forward to millennial women's drama - in particular
to politically angry newcomer debbie tucker green, whose theatre is examined as a
savage critique of a world scarred by an acute lack of altruistic feeling for "others."
The essay concludes with brief reflections on the efforts made by new women writers
to claim a space on the British stage.

The Gendered Terrain in Contemporary Theatre of War by Women

Sharon Friedman

The Iraq wars and the ubiquitous war on terror have generated numerous theatri-
cal productions in the United States that envision the subjectivities of perpetrators as
well as victims of violence. A number of plays, predominantly composed by women,
focus more specifically on the experience of women in war and foreground ideolo-
gies of gender inscribed on bodies and transformed into brutal practices. This essay
focuses on the synergy between the emerging scholarship on women and war, reports
of widespread rape and sexual abuse in war-torn territories, the gendered culture of
the military, and theatre by women, particularly in the last decade, that addresses the
engendering of armed conflict in specific war zones. In addition to discussions of Lynn
Nottage's Ruined, Danai Gurira's Eclipsed, and Heather Raffo's Nine Parts of Desire, the
essay includes an extended analysis of Judith Thompson's Palace of the End.

Enough! Women Playwrights Confront the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Amelia Howe Kritzer

Seven women playwrights, including Caryl Churchill, have recently confronted au-
diences with the unique conditions inherent in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Their plays highlight the suffering brought on by the war that has been continuous
since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000, presenting characters and scenes
that urge an end to the violence. As a group, these plays provide a compelling view
of the conflict and its oppositions and a better understanding of the factors underlying
extreme acts of violence, such as suicide bombings, but also a bleak forecast for the
future. Only Naomi Wallace, in Fever Chart, dares to imagine conversations between
Palestinians and Israelis and to move thereby toward envisioning peace.

Theatre Journal 62 (2010) 709-710 © 2011 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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710 / Article Abstracts

Women Playwrights in Egypt

Nehad Selaiha, with Sarah Enany

The landscape of women playwrights in Egypt, like the theatrical landscape in gen-
eral, is inextricably bound up with the country's historical and political background -
specifically, that of the twentieth century, when theatre on the Western model first
appeared and with it the concept of playwriting. This essay introduces the reader to
these Egyptian female playwrights, dramaturges, and theatre-makers. Starting with
the first-ever piece called a "play" and written by a woman, May Ziyada, in 1922, this
comprehensive historical, chronological, and thematic overview continues through to
the present day with such contemporary writer-directors as Abeer Ali and Effat Yehia,
who came into their own in the 1990s and are still active today. It also places their work
in context by providing a background of the social and political climate in which they
produced, and still produce, their work, sometimes against great odds.

Making the Bones Sing: The Feminist History Play, 1976-2010

Katherine E. Kelly

The emergence of feminist historiography around 1976 has been amplified by

innovative historical dramas written between 1976 and 2010 that present women's
pasts through a new critical lens. Historiographers have reconsidered how to look at
the past to account for women's presence, while dramatists have used language and
performance in new ways to implicate a community in reshaping the past. Historical
drama and performance has registered the major questions vexing feminist historiog-
raphers during the last quarter of the twentieth century, but has implicated spectators
in a search for answers. Both writers of history and writers of drama recognize the
urgency of reforming women's history to produce a past on which they can build
toward the future.

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