Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre Space, Ethics and the Spectator

Abstract

The present PhD thesis, entitled “Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre: Space, Ethics and the Spectator”, aims to contribute to the field of contemporary British drama and theatre studies in the form of an extended monographic study of Greig’s theatre and globalisation with a particular focus on a triad of elements: space, ethics and the spectator. The thesis’s corpus spans two decades, from the 1990s to the present time. It examines Europe (1994), One Way Street (1995) [both under “Europe Plays”], The Architect (1996), The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (1999) [both under “Vertical Plays”], Outlying Islands (2002), San Diego (2003) [both under “Bird Plays”], The American Pilot (2005), Damascus (2007) [both under “Encounter Plays”], Fragile (2011) and The Events (2013) [both under “Here Plays”], all of which are seen as prominently responding to globalisation.

After articulating globalisation by drawing mainly on David Harvey, Zygmunt Bauman and Jean-Luc Nancy, the theoretical and methodological framework focuses on positioning Greig’s work in the context of contemporary British political theatre. Critical theories drawn from ethics (Emmanuel Levinas, Judith Butler), aesthetics (Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop, Jacques Rancière) and affect studies (Gilles Deleuze) are deployed in order to trace and attempt to explain the woundedness and porousness that characterises it. More specifically, the thesis lays out a theory of crosspollination between aesthetics, ethics and politics in order to address the co-work between world, playwright and play in Greig’s theatre, and uses affect theories in order to examine the transformative loop not just between world, playwright and plays, but also the spectator and the world-to- be-created (Nancy). It is claimed that by means of a complex experimentation with space, Greig’s plays represent all the above-named elements, including the spectator, as ‘holed’.

This produces a sense of ‘aesthethic’ confounding and bleeding across that ultimately articulates the idea of an urgently interconnected ‘here’.

Thus, Europe blurs the borders between two Europes (old and new), immigrants and locals, financial elites and economic pariahs, among others. One Way Street focuses on walking and destabilises space-times in several multivalent ways. The Architect engages with architectures of power, which eventually explode to reveal, perhaps, a new spatial understanding. Cosmonaut ingrains urban and outer spaces in an above-below dialectics wherein characters, despite communication failures, are able to reach out of themselves horizontally. Outlying Islands continues delving into the idea of ‘here’ through bird trajectories and the play’s insistence on the pervasiveness of water and the fluidity of watching acts. San Diego stitches up the whole globe, so that impossible connections are disclosed between supposedly distant occurrences. The American Pilot probes the concept of ‘here’ further through an emphasis on the space of the stage, where the entire cast remain visible throughout the performance. Gaining confidence in the power of both story and theatricality, Damascus acknowledges the presence of both performers and spectators through the use of music on stage, story-telling devices and a character that, by always being ‘here’, connects the worlds of the play and the spectator and the one ‘outside’. Fragile manages to render separate locations as one single space via Jack transcorporeally evoking all bodies and spaces and Caroline’s/the audience’s becoming part of that through the unusual conversation she/they establish(es) with Jack. Finally, The Events highlights ‘here’ via the highly a/effective strategy of having real local choirs participate in each performance so as to compellingly put forward the idea that events (albeit unevenly) always happen to all of us, in this cracked globe.

The thesis concludes by confirming that Greig’s theatre does indeed respond to globalisation ‘aesthethically’, that is, by engaging with complex articulations of space that

underline ethical questions by repeatedly and multifariously infusing the spectator with a sense of our irrepressible interconnectedness and co-responsibility.

El objetivo principal de la presente tesis, titulada “Globalisation in David Greig’s Theatre: Space, Ethics and the Spectator”, consiste en llevar a cabo un extenso estudio monográfico de la dramaturgia de David Greig y su imbricación con el fenómeno de la globalización, poniendo un énfasis particular en cuestiones de espacio, ética y espectador. El corpus de este estudio engloba aproximadamente dos décadas, desde los años 1990 hasta el momento actual. Específicamente, las obras estudiadas en relación al tema delineado son Europe (1994), One Way Street (1995) [ambas en la parte titulada “Europe Plays”], The Architect (1996), The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union (1999) [ambas en la parte titulada “Vertical Plays”], Outlying Islands (2002), San Diego (2003) [ambas en la parte titulada “Bird Plays”], The American Pilot (2005), Damascus (2007) [ambas en la parte titulada “Encounter Plays”], Fragile (2011) y The Events (2013) [ambas en la parte titulada “Here Plays”].

Tras introducir la globalización de la mano de David Harvey, Zygmunt Bauman y Jean-Luc Nancy, el marco teórico-metodológico se centra en posicionar el trabajo de Greig en el contexto del teatro británico contemporáneo de corte político a través de la utilización de enfoques crítico-teóricos provenientes tanto de corrientes éticas (Emmanuel Levinas, Judith Butler) y estéticas (Nicolas Bourriaud, Claire Bishop, Jacques Rancière) como de estudios de afecto (Gilles Delleuze) que permiten enmarcar de un modo adecuado la forma dañada y porosa que revelan las obras de Greig. Se trata no tan solo de explicar la entrada del mundo real en las obras, lo cual provoca rupturas en su forma, sino también de examinar y explicar la retroalimentación que se produce entre el mundo, el dramaturgo, la obra, el espectador y, de nuevo, el mundo, en un movimiento afectivo circular que puede, potencialmente, conducir a la creación de ese mundo en el sentido que le da Nancy.

La conclusión principal del trabajo apunta a que el teatro de Greig responde a la realidad de la globalización mediante complejas articulaciones del espacio que subrayan cuestiones éticas, dado que sugieren continuamente al espectador la profunda interconexión que nos une y nos hace corresponsables.