Abstract
This paper argues for a reassessment of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “This Other Eden” season, which presented a range of new work in London in early 2001. It places the season in its historical context, in a British political landscape dominated by New Labour and its optimism about remaking the nation, and also in a world that within six months was to experience the turmoil of the September 11th attacks. Using Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History as a starting point, this essay analyses the ‘time-hop’ dramaturgies of two of the season’s plays in particular, Moira Buffini’s Loveplay and Luminosity by Nick Stafford. The turn of the millennium marked the beginning of the end for Adrian Noble’s tenure as Artistic Director of the RSC, and this paper argues that the placeless quality of the “This Other Eden” season – neither wholly a product of Stratford nor London – was symptomatic of tensions at the time, both within this flagship national organisation and in the nation at large.
About the author
Benjamin Poore is Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York. His books include Heritage, Nostalgia and Modern British Theatre: Staging the Victorians (2012), Theatre & Empire (2016) and Sherlock Holmes from Screen to Stage: Post-Millennial Adaptations in British Theatre (2017, all for Palgrave Macmillan). He has published several articles and book chapters on contemporary adaptations of literary and historical characters including Count Dracula, Joseph Merrick, Queen Victoria and Charles Dickens, and is the editor of Neo-Victorian Villains (Brill, 2017). Ben is also a member of the Death and Culture Network based at the University of York, and his forthcoming projects include a co-edited collection entitled Contemporary Gothic Drama
Works Cited
“Back to Methuselah.” Production file. 2001. RSC Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon.Search in Google Scholar
Bandele, Biyi. Brixton Stories. London: Methuen, 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Barnes, Martin, and Andrew Bellas. “Have the Nineties Been Caring and Sharing?” Independent 3 Jan. 1999. Web. Accessed 19 August 2017.Search in Google Scholar
BBC News. “Blair’s ‘Passion’ for Third Term.” 13 Feb. 2005. BBC. Web. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4261091.stm>. Accessed 19 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Bennett, Michael Y. Narrating the Past Through Theatre: Four Crucial Texts. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.10.1057/9781137275424Search in Google Scholar
“Brixton Stories.” Theatre programme. Tricycle Theatre, London. 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Buffini, Moira. Loveplay. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Chambers, Colin. Inside the Royal Shakespeare Company: Creativity and the Institution. Abingdon: Routledge, 2004. Print.10.4324/9780203488683Search in Google Scholar
Counsell, Colin. Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theatre. Abingdon: Routledge, 1996. Print.Search in Google Scholar
De Groot, Jerome. Remaking History: The Past in Contemporary Historical Fictions. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015. Print.10.4324/9781315693392Search in Google Scholar
Driver, Stephen, and Luke Martell. New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism. Cambridge: Polity, 1998. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Glaser, Eliane. “Bring Back Ideology.” Guardian 21 March 2014. Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/bring-back-ideology-fukuyama-end-history-25-years-on>. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Greengrass, Paul, and Simon Reade. “Stella’s Dirty Little Secret – An Epitaph for the Official Secrets Act, or Stella Does (Dirty) Tricks.” RSC Archive, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 2001. Paper.Search in Google Scholar
Grochala, Sarah. The Contemporary Political Play: Rethinking Dramaturgical Structure. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Print.10.5040/9781472588500Search in Google Scholar
Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Hollingshead, Iain. “Tony Blair, the Lightweight.” Telegraph 2 Sept. 2010. Web. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/7976021/Tony-Blair-the-lightweight.html>. Accessed 19 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Horvat, Srecko, “Where Are We 25 Years after the ‘End of History’?” Aljazeera 19 June 2014. Web. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/06/francis-fukuyama-end-history-201461952122417201.html>. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Malmo, Cahal. “What David Shayler Did Next.” Independent 27 July 2009: n. pag. Web. <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/what-renegade-mi5-officer-david-shayler-did-next-1763246.html>. Accessed 29 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Moosburger, Max. “What Happened to the End of History? Fukuyama’s Theory and Its Relevance in a World of Upheaval.” IRSoc 1Feb. 2015: n.pag. Web. < http://www.irsoc.com/2015/02/happened-history-fukuyamas-theory-relevance-world-upheaval/>. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Morrison, Richard. “The Most Reviled Man in Luvvieland.” Times 26 Apr. 2002: 2 [T2 Supplement]. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Nightingale, Benedict. “Noble Thoughts, Now for the Deeds.” Times 12 January 1991: 20. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Nightingale, Benedict. “RSC Has Never Been in Such Disarray, or So Endangered.” Times 6 July 2002: 8. Print.Search in Google Scholar
O’Neill, Brendan. “Meet the No Planers.” New Statesman 11 Sept. 2006. Web. <http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/meet-no-planers>. Accessed 21 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Poore, Benjamin. Theatre & Empire. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Print.10.1007/978-1-137-44307-6Search in Google Scholar
Pryor, Jaclyn I. Time Slips: Queer Temporalities, Contemporary Performance, and the Hole of History. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 2017. Print.10.2307/j.ctv47wbfsSearch in Google Scholar
Rentoul, John. “Blair Is a Touchy-Feely Leader. But the Feeling Now Is He Has Lost His Touch.” Independent 22 Feb. 2004. Web. <http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/blair-is-a-touchy-feely-leader-but-the-feeling-now-is-he-has-lost-his-touch-70439.html>. Accessed 19 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
Roberts, Philip. The Royal Court Theatre and the Modern Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.10.1017/CBO9780511486074Search in Google Scholar
Stafford, Nick. Luminosity. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Stanley, Timothy, and Alexander Lee. “It’s Still Not the End of History.” Atlantic 1 Sept. 2014. Web. <https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/its-still-not-the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyama/379394/>. Accessed 28 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
“This Other Eden.” Theatre programme. Barbican Theatre, London. 2001. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Trowbridge, Simon. The Rise and Fall of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Oxford: Editions Albert Creed, 2013. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Turner, Alwyn W. A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s. London: Aurum, 2013.Search in Google Scholar
Wiles, David. A Short History of Western Performance Space. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.Search in Google Scholar
Will, George F. “The End of Our Holiday From History.” Washington Post 12. Sept. 2011. Web. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2001/09/12/the-end-of-our-holiday-from-history/9da607fd-8fdc-4f33-b7c9-e6cda00453bb/?utm_term=.9fd824089f7a>. Accessed 23 Aug. 2017. Search in Google Scholar
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston