Theatre After Empire PDF
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THEATRE AFTER EMPIRE Emphasizing the resilience of theatre arts in the midst of signifcant political change, Theatre After Empire spotlights the emergence of new performance styles in the wake of collapsed political systems. Centering on theatrical works from the late nineteenth century to the p resent, twelve original essays written by prominent theatre scholars showcase the de- velopment of new work after social revolutions, independence campaigns, the overthrow of monarchies, and world wars. Global in scope, this book features performances occurring across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The essays attend to a range of live events—theatre, dance, and per- formance art—that stage subaltern experiences and reveal societies in the midst of cultural, political, and geographic transition. This collection is an engaging resource for students and scholars of theatre and performance; world history; and those interested in postcolonialism, multicul- turalism, and transnationalism. Megan E. Geigner is an assistant professor of instruction in the Cook Family Writing Program at Northwestern University. She researches the performance of racial, ethnic, and national identity. She is co-editor of Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance. Harvey Young is Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. His books include Embodying Black Experience and Performance in the Borderlands. THEATRE AFTER EMPIRE Edited by Megan E. Geigner and Harvey Young First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Megan E. Geigner and Harvey Young; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Megan E. Geigner and Harvey Young to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-36894-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-36895-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-42894-4 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by codeMantra CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii List of Contributors ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 Megan E. Geigner and Harvey Young 1 Dr. See-Through and His Kin: East African Theatre in the Interregnum 15 Joshua Williams 2 Between Empire and Dictatorship: The Decolonial Dreams of Raúl Leis 30 Katherine A. Zien 3 Absurdist Theatre Goes Postcolonial: Trans-Contextuality, Absurd Jokes, and Evocation in (Post)colonial Plays 49 Mina Kyounghye Kwon 4 History Plays: Performing the Anti-Apartheid Movement on Contemporary South African Stages 68 Gibson Alessandro Cima 5 Brendan Behan’s Depictions of Mid-Twentieth-Century Irish Failure 85 Eleanor Owicki and Megan E. Geigner vi Contents 6 Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Development of Western Turkish Theatre and the Pursuit of Identity 103 Elif Ba ¸s 7 Toward a New African Personality: The National Theatre Movement of Ghana from Nkrumah to Rawlings 118 David Afriyie Donkor 8 Rediscovering Tradition in Modern Asian Theatre 133 Siyuan Liu 9 The Empire Lingers: Staging Zainichi Korean Lived Experiences in Contemporary Japan 148 Jessica Nakamura 10 Toward a Third Performance: Dance, Exile, and Anti- Imperialism in Fernando Solanas’s Tangos: El exilio de Gardel 162 Victoria Fortuna 11 Bollywood Afects: Feeling Brown with Meena Kumari 177 Kareem Khubchandani 12 Sounding Asian American: Geeks and Superheroes in Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone 193 Esther Kim Lee Index 207 ILLUSTRATIONS 2.1 Map of the Panama Canal Area, showing lands reverted by the Torrijos-Carter Treaties 34 5.1 The Hostage at Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, 1959 96 7.1 N ational Theatre (Ghana) 128 10.1 E xilio de Gardel: Tangos (1985) 164 11.1 Rifco Theatre Company’s Miss Meena and the Masala Queens with Raj Ghatak as Miss Meena and Harvey Dhadda as Meena Kumari 181 12.1 James Ryen (Quang) and Will Dao (Nhan) in Vietgone at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2017 195 CONTRIBUTORS Elif Bas ¸ is an assistant professor at Bahçeşehir University Conservatory in Istan- bul. She completed her MA at the University of Essex and received her PhD in Dramatic Criticism and Dramaturgy from Istanbul University. She has worked as a director, dramaturg, and translator for over ten years. Her scholarly interests include political theatre, minority theatre, and Turkish theatre. Gibson Alessandro Cima is an assistant professor of theatre history and head of the Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies Program in Northern Illinois Uni- versity’s School of Theatre and Dance. His essays on South African theatre and performance have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, and South African Theatre Journal. David Afriyie Donkor is associate professor of performance studies and Afri- cana Studies at Texas A&M University, College Station. He is the author of the book Spiders of the Market: Ghanaian Trickster Performance in a Web of Neoliberalism as well as articles in Theatre Survey, Theatre History Studies, TDR, and Cultural Studies, among others. Victoria Fortuna is assistant professor of dance at Reed College. Her book, Moving Otherwise: Dance, Violence, and Memory in Buenos Aires, examines the rela- tionship between Buenos Aires-based contemporary dance practices and histo- ries of political and economic violence in Argentina from the mid-1960s to the mid-2010s. Megan E. Geigner is an assistant professor of instruction in the Cook Family Writing Program at Northwestern University. She researches the performance of racial, ethnic, and national identity. She is co-editor of Makeshift Chicago Stages: A Century of Theater and Performance.
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