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This thesis is an examination of the extent to which contemporary British plays written by women constitute an ideological theatre. It is based upon the premise that there is a relationship of feminist theatre practice to feminist theory, where theory is seen to have informed practice and practice has informed the theory. I argue that an ideological theatre can be understood with reference to first, playstructure and second, the place of the performer in relation to both character and spectator. The implications of these can be seen terms first, of representation and second, of the physical presence of the body of the performer on stage and are therefore seen to be to do with the representation of issues on stage and performance issues to do with the woman performer respectively. Using aspects of a materialist-feminist analysis I examine the ways in which feminist epistemology has brought about a transformation of social relations in so far as these are deployed through representation and specific processes of performance based upon the slogan "the personal is political". This involves looking at the influence of performance issues and acting, especially at power-relations as they are reproduced and represented in selected theatre exercises. Importantly, these strategies for reading are always seen in the context of modem British political theatre; the importance of this emerges through my proposition that an ideological theatre practice is one which both establishes and foregrounds a relationship or resistance to existing theatrical form or genres. This constitutes the first part of my thesis. The second part of the thesis is comprised of three case studies. In these I draw together aspects of representation and the processes of performance established in Part One as a way of understanding selected plays constructed in relation to existing genres. In Chapter Three I look at the plays of Sarah Daniels in relation to melodrama; in Chapter Four I look at the plays of Liz Lochhead in relation to adaptation. Chapter Five is my concluding chapter in which I stress the importance of both foregrounding previous genres and questioning generic expectations by examining the interactions of theatre with stand-up comedy in the work of Claire Dowie.

This thesis is the first full-length study of the experiments in performer training undertaken by Alessandro Fersen in his studio laboratory in Rome between 1957 and 1983 and practiced since then in the codified technique which he calls Mizemodrama ( literally, "a drama of memory"). The purpose of my research is twofold: firstly, to focus on the development of the core technique of mnemodrama which is a theatrical simulation of ritual object manipulation employed by shamans in traditional cultures in order to induce an altered state of consciousness. In Fersen's terms such transic techniques provide the contemporary performer with a psychic training which enables him to explore different aspects of his persona rediscovered from both the autobiographical and archetypal levels of his unconscious. Secondly, the thesis presents a case for viewing Alessandro Fersen as a pioneer of post-war experimental theatre practice, particularly from the standpoint of the interdisciplinary nature of his experiments (theatre combined with anthropology, ethnology and psychology) and his focus on training rather than performance within the confines of a laboratory. The philosophy behind his research, its goals and methodology are therefore compared with those of his more celebrated peers, Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Richard Schechner and Eugenio Barba. This thesis combines academic research with two periods of observation of the mnemodrama in performance at Fersen's studio in Rome in 1990 and 1992. Subsequently, I was able to introduce Fersen and his work to British academic theatre professionals for the first time at the international conference on Performance, Ritual and Shamanism organised by the Centre for Performance Research and held in Cardiff in January 1993. Finally, the appendices contain Fersen's essential justification for his research, from which the arguments of this thesis have been developed. The appendices also represent the first substantial translation of Fersen's writings on theatre to appear in the English language.

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Abstract This project was in the Dorothy Somerset Studios on the University of British Columbia Campus during the week of April 14th till the 20th, 2008. I was advised by Professor Alison Green and Professor Richard Prince. The project’s title was When I’m in it… . It consisted of three groupings of sculptures set within the black box theatre space (see Illus. 1A, B and C). The Pattern Bubbles sculpture consisted of hollow tissue balls suspended from the ceiling, each containing a small and suspended object. These bubbles were suspended in a line, at different heights, and they were lit from within (see Illus. 2A and B). The entire theatre space was also lit using the lights on the grid in the theatre. A Silhouetted Cast consisted of Styrofoam cutouts shaped like dress forms covered with muslin and padding (see Illus. 3A, B and C). These cutouts were about 4ft X 2ft X 3inches. On one side I had a mixed media collage of imagery pinned to the muslin covering and on the other side were phrases stenciled right onto the muslin. These forms stood on the floor atop actual iron dress form stands. There were eight of these silhouettes, each one representing a character from a theatre production for which I had designed the costumes and the information on each one came from that experience. Costume Aprons, the final sculpture in the space, was also suspended from the ceiling. It had eight aprons made from cottons, silks and burlap hanging from a laundry carousel. The aprons were hung from the lines with silver bulldog stationary clips. I had hand-embroidered words on the aprons using embroidery threads of many different colors. In the pocket of each of the aprons was the title page from a script on blue paper (see Illus. 4A, B, C, and D). The black curtains were drawn around the square perimeter of the theatre stage, and you could still see the audience seating and the theatre booth. There was a soundtrack playing constantly within the space.

This inquiry is a two-tongued performance as research project asking &quotWhy was the voice of the Sirens deadly?" and &quotHow can the Sirens inform contemporary feminist theatre praxis?". The two questions in constant dialectic have been explored in a written dissertation as well as in a one-hour original and ensemble performance called The Quivering: a Matter of Life and Death. Analysing references in mythology, art and history, the written component suggests how the Siren's sonic qualities are manifest in distinct cultural icons and embodied by actual female performers. Four Siren vocalities are identified and theorised: The Monster vocality is evidenced in the figure of the femme fatale; the Lamenter exists in traditional funerary singers and contemporary torch songs; the sound of the Diva is heard in the opera queen; and the Lullaby Maker acoustics oscillate between the banter of Mother Goose and the 'red hot mamas' of the blues. Pursuing what is deadly about each of these embodied voices, the thesis articulates why female sound, like the Siren song of knowledge, is so ambivalently received - its evocation of otherness (Monster), liminality (Lamenter), jouissance (Diva) and contra-diction (Lullaby Maker) is both feared and revered. These four vocalities have grown in and out of The Quivering, a performance odyssey that has interrogated aesthetic, content, characterisation, narrative and devising practice, all with an ear to the Siren's 'deadly' sonority. Subverting portrayals of death as a woman and a taboo, its comic-tragic heroines exist in a liminal landscape as lamenters who confront and facilitate the audience's death passage. In counterpoint to Homeric legacy, it has been designed as an open text, which, combined with its heightened physicality and musicality, make for an 'other' aesthetic or contemporary Siren 'song'. The Quivering is pitched at the same tone as the distilled Siren vocalities or 'blue notes', and, as a performance as research project, also re-sounds provocatively within traditional academic discourse. The 'deadliness' of the female voice, in myth, in theory and in performance thus resides in its dissolution of logos and certainty. It quivers with the pleasure and trauma of a corporeal jouissance that exceeds narrative and linguistic frames with its full-bodied, acoustic and imagistic resonance.