This thesis focuses on 'carnivals of transition', as it examines cinematic representations in relation to socio-political and cultural reforms, including globalization, from 1960 to 2000, in Cuban and Russian films. The comparative approach adopted in this study analyses films with similar aesthetics, paying particular attention to the historical periods and the directors chosen, namely Leonid Gaidai, Tomas Gutierrez. Alea, El'dar Riazanov , Juan Carlos Tabio, Iurii Mamin, Daniel Diaz Torres and Fernando Perez. This thesis maintains that most of the selected Cuban films are carnivalesque comedies comparable to films made during the same period in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. This thesis further argues that the carnivalesque became a strategic mode for socio-political subversion in these two countries. Informed by textual, contextual and intertextual examinations of selected films, this thesis establishes that the carnivalesque in both countries has been characterized by an eclectic mixture of genres, ranging from light farcical comedies to black, surreal comedies and satires, thus making this mode instrumental for the representation of competing socio-political. cultural, and intercultural trends. By investigating the evolution. from bright camivalesque film comedies to dark grotesque humour in Cuba and Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, this thesis provides new insights on black humour and on the importance of intercultural dialogue for the formation of new local and global cultural trends. This thesis will also consider how shifting social attitudes prompted the appearance of new genres, such as critical utopia and dystopian critique, The thesis concludes by asserting that as well as serving as a fertile strategy for mutual cultural illumination, the carnivalesque mode is also the cinematic mode that best captures the constant process of renewal in all areas of social life.

This thesis attempts to answer the question "Can we devise a language for interpretation of behavioural simulation of engineered systems (of arbitrary complexity) in terms of the systems’ purpose?" It does so by presenting a language that represents a device’s function as achieving some purpose if the device is in a state that is intended to trigger the function and the function’s expected effect is present. While most work in the qualitative and model-based reasoning community has been concerned with simulation, this language is presented as a basis for interpret- ing the results of the simulation of a system, enabling these results to be expressed in terms of the system’s purpose. This, in turn, enables the automatic production of draft design analysis reports using model based analysis of the subject system. The increasing behavioural complexity of modern systems (resulting from the increasing use of microprocessors and software) has led to a need to interpret the results of simulation in cases beyond the capabilities of earlier functional mod- elling languages. The present work is concerned with such cases and presents a functional modelling language that enables these complex systems to be analysed. Specifically, the language presented herein allows functional description and interpretation of the following. • Cases where it is desired to distinguish between partial and complete failure of a function. • Systems whose functionality depends on achieving a sequence of intermittent effects. • Cases where a function being achieved in an untimely manner (typically late) needs to be distinguished from a function failing completely. • Systems with functions (such as warning functions) that depend upon the state of some other system function. This offers significant increases both in the range of systems and of design analysis tasks for which the language can be used, compared to earlier work.

The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the development of scenography at the Barberini court in Rome during the period 1628-1656, filling a gap in the study of the staging of performances in this city during the seventeenth century. Differently from the performances staged in other contemporary courts, the spectacles staged by the Barberini (nearly all of them at the Palazzo alle Quattro Fontane) have been discussed mainly from a musicological perspective and have been little investigated from a theatrical point of view. This thesis shows that members of the Barberini family played a key role in the development of staging techniques and theatrical devices in Rome, using dramatic productions in order to advance and consolidate their power. It also gives special attention to the development of scenographic techniques in Rome in the first half of the seventeenth century. The discussion makes use of a wide range of primary sources, including reports, avvisi, letters, engravings, and contemporary manuals of scenography and theatrical sketches. Most notable are the rich archival resources of the Vatican Library, especially the payment records (giustificazioni) that shed light on people hired and materials employed for the various spectacles. A selection of these documents is transcribed and made available for the first time in the Appendix. Since the impressive development of scenography at the Barberini court was achieved thanks to the collaboration of numerous artists and artisans, either belonging to the Barberini entourage or engaged from other courts, their contribution also forms part of the discussion. The thesis includes computer-aided reconstructions of stage plans for several of the spectacles investigated. These provide a methodological tool for clarifying the hypotheses proposed, consisting in the graphic representation of the scenographic elements of the performances analysed.

This thesis is a study of the stage history of six plays and three seasons of Shakespeare at the Old Vic as they are related to one man: Sir John Gielgud. Through the assembly of various sorts of evidence ranging from promptbooks, sound-recordings, reviews, programmes, interviews, correspondence, designer's blue-prints, I have attempted to reconstruct the performances and the productions in order to assess Gielgud's contribution as a Shakespearean actor and director. The plays looked at are Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest, the Old Vic seasons those from 1929 to 1931. Each chapter, except for the first on the Old Vic which considers a repertory of productions of different plays performed by the same company, examines a series of separate productions of one play in chronological sequence to highlight developments in Gielgud's technique over the years and his response to the more widespread changes in the tradition of the stage interpretation of Shakespeare. So the selection of roles and productions was governed by the idea of examining trends and to set Gielgud's work in the context of the accumulating tradition of the play's interpretation in performance, not to look at single productions only. The resulting selection focuses on Gielgud, the actor and director, at various points throughout his entire career. The earliest production considered is in 1929, the latest in 1974. The conclusion then attempts to draw Gielgud's involvement with Richard II, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear and The Tempest together to establish an overall view of their relationship in the light of the principal currents of change in the theatre from the early part of this century to the present day. The appendices at the back list the full range of Gielgud's Shakespeare, including his film appearances, and the dates of openings with complete casts of the productions concentrated on in the text.

This thesis explores the relationships between stage costume and British historical culture in the period 1776-1834. Until the painstakingly researched antiquarian stagings of the mid-nineteenth century, the history of historical stage costume has typically been described in terms of a stereotyped ‘Van Dyck dress’. Yet the period witnessed the expansion of antiquarianism and portrait print collecting, the development of the Picturesque and Neo-Gothic aesthetics, the success of historical novels and a general desire to know more about the habits and costumes of the past. This interdisciplinary analysis situates stage costume within the wider visual and historical culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Drawing on theatrical material related to the London theatres as well as paintings, engravings, book illustrations, shows and exhibitions, this study argues that the representation of historical stage costume in the visual arts reflects new ways of conceiving and depicting history, in which interest in the everyday life of past periods and a focus on the material and the visual were fundamental. My research suggests that historical costume in the theatre and its representation in theatrical portraiture played a role in a broader process that sought to define British art and identity. The first chapter maps out advances in the knowledge of historical dress and explores how historical costume became a key feature in theatrical portraiture. The second chapter explores contemporary conceptions and uses of anachronism in relation to shifting notions of historical truth in the representation of dress in the arts. The third chapter demonstrates how costume was used to create visual representations of historical continuity, a process that signalled new conceptions of historiography. The following three chapters focus on depictions of the costume of different periods. They suggest that representations of historical dress in the theatre helped shape the period’s historical imagination. A study of classical costume enables an examination of contemporary debates about authenticity, while reconstructions of Scottish dress and English medieval costume reflect prevalent aesthetic trends and thoughts about British identity and the responsibility of art and the theatre in teaching national history. The final chapter considers representations of historical figures beyond the theatre: an examination of portraits in extra-illustrated books and of tinselled toy theatre sheets demonstrates novel ways of engaging with history that evince a new concern with the materiality of stage costume and effected a theatricalisation of the past.

This dissertation builds a comprehensive analysis of the affective and ideological worlds of former guerrillas and their transitions towards civilian identities in contemporary Colombia, through the lens of a theatre and performance studies scholar. It is an ethnographically grounded and historically informed examination of how secondary care practices and institutions contribute to contemporary conflict transformation. It looks beyond familiar representations and binaries of victims and perpetrators, and follows a practice-based approach to the design and implementation of public policy that regards an affective turn towards embodied practice as a core element of reintegration. At its focus are reintegration programmes tailored for former combatants held in line with Colombia’s multiple peace-building efforts. Built around these two pillars, this study presents the process of reintegration as a performative practice where human emotions and transactions illuminate how social processes produce new political subjects.

This thesis is about the environment on stage in production and reception, in several guises. Ecocritical theatre speaks for the environment. Theatre ecologies denote the system of feedback loops running through theatrical events. Theatre ecocriticism describes an ecoaware spectatorial lens. The main theoretical innovation is the conception of the theatrical event as a living ecosystem in a literal sense. The vibrant chemistry between production and reception, and the spiralling ideas and emotions this generates in some conditions, are unavoidably driven by flows of matter and energy, thus, by the natural environment, even when human perspectives seem to dominate. Acceptance of this perspective requires a mind-set I describe as ‘ecoanthropocentric’, and theatre that succeeds in inculcating this perspective is ‘ecoeffective’. Both terms contain the idea that nature is culture and culture is nature, running through the work of Gregory Bateson and others. Methodologies applied in the empirical work are shaped in the same spirit: circularity, ambiguity, oscillating feedback loops and runaway warming systems are necessarily characteristic of effective ecotheatre. My thesis question was prompted by suggestions that the environment is occluded on stage, an idea at odds with evidence of an active presence. Archival material suggests that coherent productions of Coriolanus put dearth (thus, the environment) on stage. Waiting for Godot is regularly staged as a response to environmental disasters. The campaigning group BP or Not BP speaks out for the environment through stage invasions. The bicycle reveals the environmental shapeshifter at the core of a cycling theatre company's productions. Critics reviewing a climate-change play in 2015 were more engaged in the play's ecological dimensions than their 1994 counterparts. Overall, the environment on stage is found to be at its most effective when consistently embedded, in the lived experience of production and reception, as an open secret.

The phenomenon of celebrity translation in the British theatrical system raises many hitherto unanswered questions about how we evaluate theatre translation using existing theories of translation. It also invites an exploration using a theoretical framework based on Relevance Theory, which examines the effects that a text potentially has on the receiver’s cognitive state in the light of the contextual background of the text, its author and its receivers. With the support of analysis of the source and target texts, audience data, reviews, blogs and social media posts, I explore the extent to which audiences are likely to infer the celebrity translator’s own voice from their translations because of the way in which the celebrity translator’s contextual background (i.e. their assumed style, values, agenda, personality, and so on) influences the reception of his or her text. I then question the implications of celebrity translation for the marketing of translated theatre in the UK, and argue that we should celebrate the way in which celebrity translators increase the visibility of the act of translation and showcase the genre of plays in translation. My assessment of the likely cognitive state of spectators attracted to a play because of the pull of a celebrity translator sheds new light on some of the existing ideas within translation studies regarding the role and responsibilities of the translator. It also adds to our growing understanding of the role played by the receiver’s cognitive context in his or her evaluation of translation and the relationships between source-text author and translator, and between source and target text. As well as adding to scholarly debate about the practice of theatre translation, my research is designed to encourage stakeholders in the UK’s theatrical system to further question the way in which translated play texts are commissioned, funded, marketed and critically evaluated.

Ethnic minorities in the UK Parliament are numerically under represented, despite recent increases in the number of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Members of Parliament in the 2010 and 2015 General Elections. This under-representation is a problem for several reasons but especially because of the possibility that their interests are not adequately represented. In this thesis I ask the complex question of how, why, and when substantive representation of ethnic minorities takes place in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, using a multi-pronged approach. I draw on theories and concepts developed in studies of representation of other historically marginalised groups, including female political representation, gaining insights mainly from those writing in Europe and the USA. In the first of four empirical chapters I examine substantive representation by those Members of Parliament from BME communities, and who thus are descriptive representatives of those communities. Second, I explore substantive representation amongst those who operate as critical actors, who are not necessarily descriptive representatives of these communities. Third, I ask whether Members of Parliament respond in the same way to BME constituents. Finally, I test certain mechanisms that have been proposed as factors underlying substantive representation. I find considerable evidence for a link between descriptive and substantive representation, with BME Members of Parliament responding in ways that are different from their non-BME counterparts when critical events occur, in the way that they speak about and represent ethnic minorities in debates (Chapter 3). I also find that non-BME Members of Parliament, or their offices, are less responsive to an ethnic minority constituent, even when the question asked of the representative is of critical importance (Chapter 5). In each of these chapters I find evidence that both electoral incentives and the political party of the Member of Parliament are important. I also look at substantive representation without descriptive representation, or the potential for non-BME representatives to act for ethnic minorities. I find, in Chapter 4, that these critical actors are most likely to be in the Labour Party and represent ethnically diverse seats, as well as being most often found among BME Members of Parliament. In Chapter 6 I test certain mechanisms proposed as underpinning the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation. There, I find good evidence supporting intrinsic mechanisms; linked fate and a sense of responsibility to represent, and some evidence for electoral incentives as a mechanism. By taking this multi-pronged approach I am able to capture how the substantive representation of ethnic minorities takes place in the UK Parliament, from initial contacts between constituents and their Members of Parliament to how their interests are presented in the House of Commons. Substantive representation is, I argue, a journey, although not necessarily a linear one, which involves constituents' attitudes, how they communicate their concerns to their representatives, and how their representatives communicate them to Parliament. The approach I have taken has allowed me to understand how substantive representation happens at these different stages, and explore why and when representatives are motivated to act for ethnic minorities.

This dissertation examines the shifts in the practice of political theatre in Pakistan through the study of two theatre groups, the Tehrik e Niswan (The Women's Movement) and Ajoka (Of Today), that emerged in the 80's under General Zia ul Haque's military regime, and through newer theatre groups (Raasti, Murk, Hayat e Nau) and NGO-based theatre training organisations (Interactive Resource Centre, IRC) that were created or were impacted by the advent of neoliberalisation in the country in the 90's. The impact of finances not only influenced the growth of many small theatre groups that prescribed to the needs and demands of the NGOs under the broader Development agenda, but also saw shifts in the work of Tehrik e Niswan and Ajoka, from the voluntary and ideology-based nature of their work to one that was ultimately incorporated into the dominant culture. Moreover, what was evident through the work done by theatre groups under the development agenda was that theatre as a tool for social critique was depoliticised and seen as a commodity, transforming its role from self-directed activism to donor-driven activism. One common aspect between the groups under discussion is their underlying adherence to western orientated approaches to political theatre through the theories of Brecht or Boal, which informs their work in many ways. While examining how Brecht's theories have influenced the practices of Tehrik e Niswan and Ajoka, or Boal's theories have been used and even extracted from their original context by the IRC, I also argue for a need to re examine notions about selfhood and agency that the groups advocate in their practice, through analysing or examining alternative concepts of agency in non liberal traditions and away from thedominant discourse.