Analyses/Rereadings/Theories: A Journal Devoted to Literature, Film and Theatre

“Don’t Mention the War”: Live Aid Concert and UEFA EURO 2020 Finals as Examples of the Separation of Global Mega-events from Political Conflict

2023-01-12T14:42:19+01:00

This research compares two important British live entertainment mega-events held at Wembley Stadium in London, and examines their attempts to distance themselves from the mentioning of political conflict or war. The paper will argue that the Live Aid concert in 1985 and UEFA EURO 2020 final, held in 2021, despite being separated by thirty-six years, share many common features which, in turn, determined their approach to social responsibility. The paper will support this claim by explaining the two events’ official social responsibility programs and providing examples of performer activism occurring within a small window left open for independent free speech. It will conclude that despite the prominence allocated to addressing social issues at both events, anti-political conceptualisation prevailed, resulting in the avoidance of all mentioning of political conflict and war. It proposes that it is only through the analysis of activism that it becomes possible to understand the complexity of the political realities surrounding a major live music or sporting event.

Religious and Emotional Communities in John Heywood and John Bale’s Interludes

2023-01-12T14:42:16+01:00

The paper examines emotional communities in early modern English drama, specifically interludes by John Heywood and John Bale. It explores the connections between emotion and religion, and seeks to uncover whether and how emotionality changes according to the politically acceptable religious doctrine – particularly in the time of Protestant reformation under Henry VIII Tudor – and how these changes are expressed in the early sixteenth century English interludes by a Catholic (Heywood) and a Protestant (Bale) author. This paper considers early modern texts of culture which have not been researched as broadly as the drama of the later English Renaissance period (such as works by William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe), and, drawing upon the concept of “emotional communities” introduced by Barbara Rosenwein, additionally offers insights into an ongoing discussion on emotions in history.

Symptomizing Crises. Theatres of the Pandemic – Isolated But Open and Inside/Outside

2023-01-12T14:42:13+01:00

My aim in this article is to look into manifestations of the corona crisis in theatre and performance as well as representations of other conflicts and problems, revealed or intensified by the pandemic. Drawing upon theories on the social influence of the pandemic developed by Snowden, Žižek and Neiman, I examine the potential of the pandemic theatre to critique and change the existing structures and to envision a more caring and considerate society. My analysis focuses on two British theatre projects: Inside/Outside: Six Short Plays (2021) and Isolated But Open: Voices from Across The Shutdown (2020) and their representations of the conflicted reality of the pandemic, addressing the questions of limitations and restrictions of rights and freedoms, on the one hand, and care and protection, on the other. The plays expose the conflicts between survival and life worth living, inside and outside, and the problems of the new normal and its life-changing potentials.

Them and Us – Pintér Béla’s Blood-Red, Off-White, Dark Green and András Urbán’s Sacra Hungarica in Context

2023-01-12T14:42:11+01:00

The paper wishes to document a recent trend visible in the Hungarian independent theatre scene – a turn towards social, political issues, as well as a growing sensitivity towards the visible tensions in Hungarian political discourse. It does so through the analysis and the contextualization of two recent Hungarian independent theatrical productions. Studio K’s 2019 Sacra Hungarica is an in-your-face attempt to portray the current distortion of the language and the abuse language is used for, while Béla Pintér’s Blood Red, Off-White, Dark Green, a clever Oedipus Rex paraphrase that depicts marginalization, racism, and nationalism in a pointedly non-pc allegory.

The essay introduces the status of independent theatre vis-à-vis politics after 1989 and will delineate the changes the conservative governments brought into the alternative scene. Then, through an in-depth analysis of the above-mentioned two productions, it discusses the various means of theatricality they use to comment on contemporary Hungary.

Introduction

2023-01-12T13:39:34+01:00

Shakespearean Doubling: Issues of Action, Theme and Stage Presence

2023-01-12T14:42:02+01:00

Tanja Cummings’ Line 41: A Reflection

2023-01-12T13:51:04+01:00

Café Zelig: A Seniors’ Hangout and a Whole Lot of History

2023-01-12T13:54:25+01:00

O VENICE! By Borys Fynkelshteyn

2023-01-12T13:57:13+01:00

Teaching Psychomachia in The Castle of Perseverance

2023-01-12T14:41:51+01:00