The key focus of this research project is the marginalisation of radical and alternative politics in modern democratic societies, how they have been presented in a mainstream theatrical context and what strategies a political playwright can employ to present the issues of those politics while overcoming such marginalisation. Referencing cultural theorists including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Howard Zinn, this study argues that contemporary cultures operate within the boundaries of an internalised conservative value set propagated through systems of coercion utilised by the media, governments and corporations. With a specific interest in contemporary theatre, this study proposes that this internalisation functions as an efficient and nearly invisible censor, rendering more complex the task of the political playwright in communicating with a wider and more inclusive audience and that by examining the methods used in the manufacture of consent and then returning to the strategies utilized by political playwrights in the past and at present, we can better identify how to bypass that internal censor and do something more than " preach to the converted." This project comprises two interrelated components; one is an original full length play script, Pornography: The True Confessions of Mandy Lightspeed; the other is an exegesis which compliments and augments the play. The play script represents %60 and the exegesis the remaining %40 of the examinable output of this project, although both are considered integral (and integrate) parts of the whole. Central to both these texts is the question; " How has political theatre been presented in the past and what strategies can the playwright employ to make issues of radical or alternative politics more accessible to a mainstream theatre audience?"
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/265573 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Reid, Robert |
| Publisher | Queensland University of Technology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Robert Reid |
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