GLOBALIZATION AND PLAYWRITING: ​
​TOWARDS A SITE-UNSPECIFIC THEATRE

Rebellato, Dan. 'Globalization and Playwriting: Towards a Site-Unspecific Theatre.' Contemporary Theatre Review 16.1 (February 2006): 97-113.

This article was part of a special issue on ‘Theatre and Globalization’, co-edited by Jen Harvie and me.

The article rehearses some theme that I later d

evelop at greater length in Theatre & Globalization. I begin by citing a recent attempt to demonstrate that the ‘play’, passing indifferently through various global theatres, is the ultimate theatrical commodity form, indifferent to the local and ripe for exploitation.

I argue against this showing the example of McTheatre - a term for the megamusical from Cats to The Lion King - which genuinely does seem identical the world over and indifferent to local preference. I then take issue with the arguments for localism before showing the way in which contemporary playwrights like Sarah Kane and other have made their work unreproducible, in part due to impossible stage directions that cannot be produced faithfully in the first place.

You can read ‘Globalization and Playwriting’ here [opens as PDF]

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