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With the death of the folk storytelling tradition in Igbo society, the hope of passing Igbo stories to future generations seems to lie with the novel and dramatic theatre. Unfortunately, in the past two to three decades, both the reading culture and theatre practice in Igbo land have seriously declined. The political situation, the economy, the non-practical approach to problem solving by the literary and cultural intellectuals, the ceaseless streaming of popular and trash cultures from the West through television into Igbo towns and villages, the rise of home movies with pseudo-voodoo stories, have all contributed to the demise of honest and purposeful storytelling in Igbo society. Confronted by a society on the threshold of losing its identity, I thought of a practical step I could take to address the situation through the dramatic adaptation of one Igbo novel, Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People. Adapting the novel to stage offered me two opportunities in one: to contribute not only towards the revival of literary appreciation, but also of theatre practice, which, as anthropologists like Victor Turner, have argued, belongs to popular culture. This task involved rewriting the novel into a drama script, producing it on stage in Igbo land and observing how it impacted on the audience and community. I chose to adapt A Man of the People because of its relevance to my understanding of the socio-political atmosphere in Igbo land and in Nigeria as a whole. In order to understand the context, and complete my adaptation, I examined and analysed the history of the Igbo people, culture and literature, the political atmosphere in Nigeria and the nature of African drama. Adaptations, according to Linda Hutcheon, are not simply repetitions. They rather 'affirm and reinforce basic cultural assumptions' (Hutcheon 2006: 176) while re-creating and re-interpreting an earlier story in the light of new realities. Ours is a society in need of its earlier stories for its continued existence as a people, and as a nation with shared values. My conclusion is that adaptation and dramatisation can have an important role to play in reviving and then, in maintaining the Igbo culture and improving literary appreciation among the people.

This thesis explores the process of writing figures of political resistance for the British stage prior to and during the neoliberal era (1980 to the present). The work of established political playwrights is examined in relation to the socio-political context in which it was produced, providing insights into the challenges playwrights have faced in creating characters who effectively resist the status quo. These challenges are contextualised by Britain’s imperial history and the UK’s ongoing participation in newer forms of imperialism, the pressures of neoliberalism on the arts, and widespread political disengagement. These insights inform reflexive analysis of my own playwriting. Chapter One provides an account of the changing strategies and dramaturgy of oppositional playwriting from 1956 to the present, considering the strengths of different approaches to creating figures of political resistance and my response to them. Three models of resistance are considered in Chapter Two: that of the individual, the collective, and documentary resistance. Each model provides a framework through which to analyse figures of resistance in plays and evaluate the strategies of established playwrights in negotiating creative challenges. These models are developed through subsequent chapters focussed upon the subjects tackled in my plays. Chapter Three looks at climate change and plays responding to it in reflecting upon my creative process in The Ends. Chapter Four explores resistance to the Iraq War, my own military experience and the challenge of writing autobiographically. Finally, Chapter Five focusses on conscientious objection and the First World War, considering the history play as a strategy for effective resistance and my adoption of it in The Uncivilised Warfare of Zeppelins.

Based on the analytical framework that nuclear threats have always affected Japan after World War II, this thesis develops an alternative narrative of post-war Japanese theatre through the socio-cultural analyses of selected A-bomb (atomic bomb) and post-Fukushima plays. By shedding light on those plays, which respond to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima; and, by juxtaposing those theatre-makers not previously associated with one another, the study introduces five types of theatre, which are products of nuclear-afflicted society. Drawing from Robert J. Lifton’s contention that nuclear aftermath could be ‘invisible’, the study focuses on plays that not only report the tangible outcomes of the event, but also imagine beyond visible calamities. By adopting the interdisciplinary methodology of the Sociology of the Theatre, this thesis demonstrates how the plays in question materialised through constant dialogue with nuclear-afflicted societies. The keynote that this thesis strikes is that the languages, methodologies and aesthetics that are adopted in theatres, which respond to and represent various nuclear catastrophes, challenge the border of polar opposites such as here/there, life/death, science/ belief, rational/absurdity and present/past. The five strands of nuclear-afflicted theatres and the set of theatre-makers introduced are: ‘The Theatre of Collective Kūki’ (air) developed by Noda Hideki; ‘The Theatre of Guilt and Self-Censorship’, introduced through works by Hotta Kiyomi, Inoue Hisashi and Okada Toshiki; ‘The Theatre of Sensate Atomisation’, which argues the political standpoints of Miyoshi Jūrō and Takayama Akira; ‘The Comedy of Post-humanism Absurdity’, that deals with the post-humanist and post-human theories of Betsuyaku Minoru and Matsui Shū; and ‘The Theatre of Nuclear Nostalgia’, in which Kitamura Sō and Fujita Takahiro present a bifocal time structure. Rather than chronologically, the study is thematically structured, through which arguments on why analytical parallels could be drawn between theatres after Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukushima are developed.

Mae'r thesis hwn yn dogfennu hanes un o'r cwmnïau theatr fwyaf adnabyddus ar gyfer plant a phobl ifanc yng Nghymru, sef Cwmni Theatr Arad Goch, a hynny ar adeg newidiol yn ei gynulleidfa, sydd yn troi at dechnoleg ddigidol fel y cyfrwng trechol ar gyfer cyfathrebu ar nifer o agweddau. Mae'r thesis yn trafod ymateb y diwylliant ifanc yng Nghymru a diwylliant y theatr i'r digidol yn yr oes sydd ohoni, a hynny wrth grynhoi cenhadaeth barhaol Arad Goch sef i ddatgelu drych brofiad ac agor drws y dychymyg ar gyfer ei gynulleidfa. Y prif gwestiwn sydd wrth wraidd y gwaith hwn yw sut y gellir gweithredu cenhadaeth Arad Goch mewn modd sy'n ymateb yn fentrus i'w gynulleidfa ddigidol, ddeallus, gyfoes. Ymchwilir i ddulliau o greu darn o theatr ar gyfer cynulleidfa benodol y cwmni, a hynny gan ystyried gweithgaredd diweddar y cwmni a diffiniadau o du fas i'r cwmni o gynyrchiadau theatr ddigidol, a hynny yng Nghymru a thu hwnt. Wrth ystyried arsylwadau'r ymchwiliad hwnnw, ac ymchwil mewn i hunaniaeth cynulleidfa Arad Goch, cyflwynir cynhyrchiad theatr newydd o'r enw Outsiders. Cyflwynir trafodaeth gan arwain at y cynhyrchiad hwn, a gan hynny cynnig fframwaith perfformiadol ar gyfer y cwmni, hynny yw, esiamplau o sut gellid llwyfannu cynhyrchiad theatr ddigidol o'r fath i gynulleidfa benodol y cwmni. Mae'r gwaith yn cynnig ystyriaeth o'r cymhlethdodau sydd wrth wraidd y broses o gyflwyno gwaith i gynulleidfa benodol y cwmni, ac i rai tebyg o ran diwylliant, iaith neu oedran y gynulleidfa.

The purpose of this study is to identify the extent music was used as a dramaturgical component in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century theatre. In order to complete this project paradigmatic examples and historical evidence of theatrical practice are considered alongside film sound theory. This combination reveals similarities between the techniques, functions and effects music provides in a dramatic context and establishes the interdisciplinarity of the musical language used in modern film. Indeed, the apparent parallels between music’s role in film and the way theatre music was used in a historically and technologically separated period highlights both the lineage and overarching principles of musical dramaturgy. In addition, this thesis provides a framework for subsequent studies which seek to develop current understandings of dramatic expression by connecting historical cultural artefacts with modern cultural products that bear the same semiotic characteristics. The results of this investigation have been organised into two main categories: non-diegetic music (part 1) and diegetic music (part 2). Both have been divided into smaller sections which identify and analyse particular musical techniques. Although the analysis focuses exclusively on British theatre this geographic boundary incorporates dramatic texts written by Ibsen and Chekhov which appeared on the British stage during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Furthermore, by discussing the plays performed during this period instead of concentrating on a single genre the following thesis identifies music’s role in both melodramatic and naturalistic productions. The methodology adopted in this study has been developed from the field of semiotics and as such the main analytical focus centres upon the way in which musical material creates meaning through its relationship with other signs. These semantic connections include elements within the production itself, established theatrical conventions, as well as additional cultural and inter-textual associations.

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This thesis seeks to explore Anne Frank and her representation in theatre and how it has changed over time. Anne Frank is one of the most well known victims of the Holocaust and is often used to represent the 1 million children who perished in the Nazi genocide. As such, numerous theatrical products have been created about her, including those that have been “allowed” by the official organizations who protect her memory (the Anne Frank House and Anne Frank Fonds) and those that are written by artists wishing to explore their own relationship to Anne. While the two Broadway products of The Diary of Anne Frank are often explored in literature relating to the Holocaust in theatre, as of yet, there has been no thesis exploring Anne in theatre as a whole. Speaking about only the Broadway productions severely limits the discourse and leaves out the question of why so many artists are compelled to create new productions about Anne Frank and why, when so many pieces already exist about her, people continue to attempt to capture her “true essence” in theatre—and the question of whether authenticity is important when producing a historical piece. This thesis also explores the enduring popularity of the Broadway production with professional and amateur theatrical groups throughout the United Kingdom and what motivates companies to continue to perform this piece, despite the glaring flaws that both historians and theatrical professionals have noted in its writing as well as its dated nature. Lastly, this thesis seeks to explore the on-going issues and controversy concerning the future Anne’s legacy in theatre since the death of her father and first cousin, both of whom were in charge of allowing pieces to be made about Anne. This thesis fills a much-needed gap in research about Anne Frank, but also speaks to the representation of the Holocaust in modern art as a whole and whether true historical representation is necessary and how interpretation of texts change over time.