DRA323 - Madness and Theatricality - 2024/25

This module explores madness and mental illness in recent and historical performance. It asks questions about how a society's constructions of madness are reflected in and produced by performance, and about the versions of subjectivity or selfhood that emerge when we play mad. The module is taught through practice-based case studies of ancient Greek, English Renaissance and twentieth/twenty-first century European texts and performances. It examines the versions of madness and mental illness produced in historical performance, and the ways in which these have been reinterpreted and rewritten to reflect current constructions and concerns of and about madness. It explores recent constructions of madness and its 'treatment' on stage.