Theatre History and Historiography

Drama and Theatre Arts

Our work in this area covers a range of theatre histories, as well as conceptual and critical approaches to the study and construction of theatrical history.

The specialisms of the department include histories of popular theatre and performance; twentieth century British theatre, including playwrights, adaptations and appropriations of Early Modern plays, funding and the Arts Council; Irish and Russian theatre; the Historical Avant Garde; Victorian theatre; genealogies of Live and Performance Art; and approaches to heritage and legacy in performance.

Dr David Pattie

  • Samuel Beckett
  • Contemporary British theatre and performance
  • Performance and popular culture

Dr Caroline Radcliffe

  • Victorian theatre
  • Performance practice (contemporary and historical)
  • Popular theatre and performance
  • All areas of theatre and music
  • Technologies and performance

Dr Ellen Redling

  • Contemporary socio-political drama (British and European)
  • Ancient Greek and Roman plays and their influence on British theatre
  • Medieval and Renaissance drama
  • Non-standard forms of contemporary drama and theatre
  • Drama and narration
  • Literary and cultural theory and networks
  • Ethics and drama
  • Post-postmodernism
  • Intermediality

Professor Graham Saunders

  • Harold Pinter
  • British alternative or fringe theatre
  • Contemporary Shakespeare
  • Arts Council
  • Samuel Beckett

Dr Rose Whyman

  • Russian actor training, particularly Stanislavsky, Michael Chekhov, Meyerhold
  • The history of Russian theatre of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
  • The plays of Anton Chekhov
  • Actor-training and Alexander Technique