Subject Area: Theatre and Performance Studies

ARTS2121 is the core course for the Theatre and Performance Studies Major.
It investigates the current state of the field of Theatre and Performance Studies both in terms of the diverse range of critical approaches to it, and in terms of the latest developments in repertoire and performance approaches. The course focuses on theoretical perspectives that have had considerable impact on contemporary Western theatre and performance.

Approaches may include: postmodernism, poststructuralism, cultural materialism, feminism, psychoanalysis, postcolonialism etc. These approaches are explored with regard to: their relation to the countercultural movements and arts practices of the 1960s and 70s; their usefulness as analytical frameworks for performance commentators; and the varied ways in which they have been ‘played out’ in seminal experimental works by playwrights and performance companies from contemporary Europe, North America and Australia.