Verbatim theatre is a term for a genre of factually-based plays that in recent years have become increasingly popular on stages around the world. This study contains two components: creative and critical. The creative component consists of two original plays, Trash and Cuts. Both take the form of an inquiry into the deaths of women in the care of the State, and, at the same time, the plays create a metatheatrical argument on how theatre itself fulfils the role of an inquiry. The critical component investigates issues raised by the practice of verbatim theatre. Through an appraisal of the intentionality and process of a number of verbatim plays, and the empirical analysis of writing Trash and Cuts, the study asks whether there is there room for imaginative expression in a genre that promotes itself as a form of theatre predicated on a literalist interpretation of testimony and document. It also explores the extent that fidelity to the testimony and the document limits the form of the genre. The study examines notions of authenticity and representation in the use of factually-based material and considers the process whereby those who create verbatim control the perception and response of the audience. Finally, the study addresses the issues of who (morally and legally) owns the texts and the inherent ethical and legal implications of working within the genre. The methodology of the critical study is principally an empirical study of verbatim theatre, an analysis of a number of contemporary verbatim plays written for the stage, and an experiential analysis of the work of researching, editing and writing Trash and Cuts.

In a visual culture where the dividing line between the theatrical and visual art forms is becoming increasingly blurred, it is important to reconsider the ways in which the spatial is conceived. Space is another non-linguistic medium of communication-it does not convey ideas through language, but through an array of visual and spatial components augmented by aural or linguistic threads. Robert Wilson, Maria Irene Fames, John Byme, David Storey and John Arden were trained as fine artists before becoming playwrights. Their works are used to describe stage space as a visible medium of expression. These playwrights make use of principles from painting, sculpture and installation to create spatio-temporal images that work with a text to form a theatrical performance. They have constructed their pieces with an implicit visual structure that is essential to their staging. Each manipulates aesthetic concepts gleaned from the fine arts as mechanisms to create threedimensional theatrical compositions, which can be categorised as 'scopic building blocks'. By analysing these mechanisms with a methodology and vocabulary drawn from the visual arts, a theatrical conception of spatial analysis will become apparent. These playwrights will be placed in the context of the theatre as a seeing place, into which artists often have crossed over and made use of as an expressive form. Then a summary of the playwrights' fine art training will introduce their aesthetic technique, thereby connecting their visual art and theatrical work. Their working methods will be examined so that their 'playwriting' or 'visual scripting' can be defined. Once the evidence is presented, there will be an exploration of the ways in which these techniques can be applied to physical theatre, theatres of images or other visually influenced texts.

In dealing with blank verse tragedy, from 1790 to 1825, we may not take it for granted that every play was written specifically for the stage; of the 2k9 plays in this period 165 have never been publicly performed. Byron, for example, was most anxious that his plays should not be performed, as witness the legal action he took when Drury Lane, in defiance of his wishes, performed Marino Paliero, Dogs of Venice, 2 5/iv/l82l; of lesser dramatists, W.Preston, in the Preface to The Siege of Ismail, deprecates any theatrical performance of his plays. Nevertheless, the theatres of the time inevitably influenced the dramatists, either directly by hopes of performance, such as stimulated Coleridge to write Osorio, with Mrs. Siddons and Kemble in mind of indirectly, through their despair of the contemporary theatre which led them far from the stage into the rarifi ed atmosphere of poetic dramas as was the case with H.H. Milman, for example.

This thesis examines the narration in screenplay texts. The aim is to explore how the screenwriter, through the screenplay text, communicates the potential film to the reader. The thesis thus situates the screenplay in a communicational context, and argues that the screenplay text is a means of communication. In many cases, the screenplay text is the writer's only means of communicating with a potential investor, thus determining whether the screenplay will fulfil its purpose of becoming a film. Using a communicational approach enables a close examination of the different extratextual and intratextual narrating voices that communicate the story and the look of the potential film. The thesis relates the screenplay text to narrational theories from literary and film theory, and proposes its own narrative communication model suited to the screenplay. The model places the various narrating voices on different narrative levels that show the voices' relation to the text, the fiction, and the scene. The communication model also identifies the voices' addressees. Through close readings of screenplay texts, the thesis examines how different narrating voices function and how they can be characterised. The discussions focus on how these voices use different techniques to narrate the story and indicate the look of the potential film. The discussions particularly highlight how the voices influence the readers' visualisation of the potential film, since this is a distinguishing feature of the screenplay text-type. Narration in the Screenplay Text is an important contribution to text-based screenplay research. It offers a unique approach and a clear terminology that creates a platform for future screenplay research.

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Film authorship has been attributed to directors since the 1940s. The auteur theory typifies a practice of crediting directors with all meaningful, creative responsibility for the films that they direct. The literary notion of single authorship dominates analysis of an art form that is collaborative in its process of making. These two persistent, yet anachronistic assumptions undermine any nuanced understanding of authorship in film. This thesis refutes the notion of single authorship, and establishes a model of collaborative authorship in film, which is inclusive of producers, scriptwriters, actors, designers, cinematographers, editors and composers. Analysing the contribution of all potential co-authors is too great a task for one thesis, therefore the thesis takes the cinematographer to examine in detail, as a prima facie example of a co-author. The cinematographer’s role is often discussed in terms of technology or style, rarely in terms of authorship of their images. The thesis asks if the authorial contribution of the individual cinematographer to classical, narrative-based film, can be identified and attributed. The thesis presents an analytical toolkit for studying the filmic image, and the cinematographer’s creative contribution to the films they shoot. These tools are applied in the thesis to analyse the work of Gregg Toland. Toland’s case typifies the historical neglect of many cinematographers. He is invariably only discussed in terms of his technical contribution, and his authorial contribution to the films he shot is invariably credited to the auteur directors with whom he worked, for example, Welles, Hawks, and Ford. By the use of close textual and image analysis, Toland’s authorial status is established, satisfying all historical and contemporary definitions of a filmic author. The thesis advocates the notion of multiple co-authorship in film and, within this context, provides a methodology for the analysis of one of those co-authors, the cinematographer.

Dans la première moitié du dixhuitième siècle, les théâtres des foires Saint- Germain et Saint-Laurent sont régulièrement accusés d’enfreindre le monopole de la Comédie-Française et inventent toutes sortes de stratagèmes pour pallier les interdictions de dialoguer, de parler français, et même de paraître sur scène : pièces en monologues, en jargon, en pantomime précèdent le développement des marionnettes. Les exigences de l’Académie royale de musique conduisent à la création des pièces par écriteaux et de l’opéra-comique. Malgré la popularité de ces spectacles, la diversité du répertoire produit sous la contrainte est mal connue : la célèbre anthologie de Le Sage et d’Orneval a biaisé la connaissance et la réception du théâtre de la Foire. Nous nous attachons à éditer une trentaine de pièces et à analyser tout ce qui a été écarté, que nous nommons « l’autre répertoire ». C’est aussi l’histoire du théâtre forain que nous entendons reconstruire pour la période 1717- 1727, en nous appuyant sur de nombreuses archives méconnues, comme les minutes notariales. Dresser un calendrier permet de repenser l’historiographie foraine et de fixer à 161 les pièces jouées après le retour des Comédiens-Italiens et avant le début de Pontau à l’Opéra-Comique. / In the first half of the eighteenth century, the theaters of the Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent fairs were frequently accused of challenging the monopoly of the Comédie- Française, and they had to find all kinds of strategies to overcome prohibitions against dialogue, speaking French, and even appearing in scenes: plays with monologues, jargon, pantomimes, preceded the development of puppets. The requirements of the French Royal Academy of Music lead to the creation of new genres such as the pieces par écriteaux or the opéra-comique. Despite the popularity of these shows, the rich diversity of the repertoire that was produced in spite of the academic restrictions, is poorly known: the famous anthology of Le Sage and d'Orneval tainted the way the Fair theatre has been known and received. In this thesis we will attempt to edit around thirty plays and to analyse everything that was ruled out, which we call the “other repertoire”. It is also the history of the Fair theatre that we intend to rebuild for the period between 1717 and 1727, relying on many unknown archives, such as notarial protocols. Setting up a calendar allows us to rethink the fairground historiography and to set at 161 the number of plays performed after the return of the Italian actors and before Pontau's beginning at the Opéra-Comique.

The thesis is made up of two plays and a piece of writing that is a reflection and critical sharing of a developmental and critical process of writerly development. The thesis explores the use of memory and autobiography in playwriting and is concerned with the development and enhancement of playwriting through a process experienced and analysed by its author. The work draws upon recent psychological research into memory, particularly the idea that memories can be manipulated. The work of Mazzoni and Geraerts enables links between scientific psychology and narrative fiction and autobiography to be explored. Explorations of memory, narrative and the construction of self feed directly into the first of two plays, That Berlin Moment, in which a group of characters grapple with the implications of lost, false and unwillingly recovered memories. The thesis includes individual and comparative analyses of my own work alongside that of three other dramatists: Anthony Minghella, James Graham and Richard Bean. Much of this work is drawn from a series of interviews with each playwright, which focused on uses of autobiographical material. Ideas about appropriation and adaptation are significant in focusing and developing this material. Informed by this analysis, the second play, Petticoat Lane, represents an attempt to push further with autobiographical writing, developing characters and situations based closely on my own memories, whilst incorporating insights gained from the scientific and theoretical work on memory. The thesis is an articulation of a self-conscious process of writerly development, which suggests an unexpected connection between autobiographical and applied drama playwriting. Rather than setting up an opposition between self, creativity and original imaginary worlds on the one hand, and social utility and empowerment and political concern on the other, this process has opened up new ways of understanding the potential for playwriting to provoke and enable positive change.

Parler d’éléments comiques dans les tragédies grecques, même les plus tragiques, peut sembler paradoxal ; mais l’étude de l’agencement du texte tragique, la composition des dialogues ainsi que la variété des personnages offrent de nombreuses possibilités pour que différentes expressions comiques s’établissent : le comique joyeux, porte par les personnages populaires, le comique blessant des roi-tyrans et l’ironie tragique elle-même. Ils inscrivent la fable dans plusieurs tonalités et complexifient les rapports qu’elle entretient avec les spectateurs de sorte l’histoire représentée sur la scène se fait vraiment spectacle. Le comique n’est donc pas un corps étranger de la tragédie. Sur la scène contemporaine, le traitement de ces éléments comiques diffère d’un metteur en scène a l’autre, d’une esthétique théâtrale a l’autre. Quand ils sont représentés, leur interprétation varie elle aussi. L’analyse des mises en scène d’Agamemnon d’Eschyle mis en scène par Olivier Py (2008) et Cyril Cotinaut (2015), d’Antigone de Sophocle mise en scène par Farid Paya (1998), Jacques Nichet (2003), Paulo Correia (2009), Olivier Broda (2012) et Adel Hakim (2013), ainsi que des Bacchantes d’Euripide mises en scène par Coralie Pradet (2013) et Philippe Brunet (2015), dévoilent soit l’illustration d’un comique ≪ assume ≫ qui fait rire soit celle d’un comique ≪ suggéré ≫ qui fixe la distance. La drôlerie et le grotesque revêt plusieurs manteaux et assurent différentes fonctions qui viennent a chaque fois nourrir et enrichir le spectacle tragique. / Talking about comic elements among ancient Greek tragedy, specially the tragic ones, might seem paradoxical ; however the text’ arrengement, the dialogues’composition, and the multiplicity of characters provide many opportunities for the comic expression to set down : joyful when it is driven by popular characters, offensive when it is driven by the tyrannical kings, or even the tragic irony itself. Comic elements set the mythos on different tonalities and complicate the connection with the spectators so that the story performed on the stage become a truly show. Comic thus is not a foreign object from tragedy. On the contemporary scene, stage directors process those comic elements in different way according to the aesthetic they put forward ; when they choose to use them, their rendering are always different. The study of the staging of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon directed by Olivier Py (2008) and Cyril Cotinaut (2015), Sophocles’ Antigone directed by Farid Paya (1998), Jacques Nichet (2003), Paulo Correia (2009), Olivier Broda (2012) and Adel Hakim (2013), as well as Euripides’ Bacchae directed by Coralie Pradet (2013) and Philippe Brunet (2015), reveal either an ≪ assumed ≫ comic, a funny one, either a ≪ suggested ≫ comic which creates detachment. Ludicrusness and grotesque take different shape and carry out several functions which enrich and nourrish the tragic show.

This practice-based PhD comprises an original screenplay Loy, about the modernist poet and artist Mina Loy (1882-1966), and a thesis which reflects on the writing of the screenplay using The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler (2007) as a creative aid. Vogler presents a screenwriting paradigm called The Hero's Journey which is adapted from the mythological theories of Joseph Campbell (1949) and is influenced by Jungian psychology. The research question asks how the Hero's Journey is relevant to the development of Loy with two female protagonists and whether the paradigm is universal in terms of gender. A secondary aim considers the potential value offered by Jungian feminist paradigms of Murdock (1990), Shinoda Boden (2004) and Pinkola Estes (1992) to the writing of Loy. The thesis reflects on the creative process of using these paradigms, and evaluates their effectiveness for Loy which explores the themes of identity and intimate relationships from a feminist perspective. Chapter 1, 'The Transformational Journey', explores the usefulness of the stages of the Hero's Journey to the structure and character stories of Loy's protagonists. Chapter 2, 'The Heroine's Journey', questions to what extent Murdock's 'Heroine's Journey' offers alternative value for the development of narratives with female protagonists. Chapter 3, 'Archetypes and Character', explores the archetypes of both Vogler and Jungian feminism as creative systems for character development in Loy. Chapter 4, 'Beyond Heroes', describes how the application of Jungian concepts which are wider than those used by Vogler assists the exploration of intimate relationships in Loy. The Conclusion contends that while Vogler's paradigm has some value for the writing of Loy, it is limited for the exploration of relationships and there is a masculine bias to his principles. An emerging screenwriting framework for relationship-orientated narratives with protagonists of both sexes is then proposed which may be useful to screenwriters.