title: Staging Risk Society: A Cultural Sociological Reading of In-Yer-Face Theatre
Creators: name: Khani, Somayeh
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: In-Yer-Face theatre
subject: Risk society
subject: Post-Thatcherite
subject: Playwrights
subject: British theatre

description: The central purpose of this thesis is to explore the interconnections between historical, political, economic, and cultural context of a society and the creation of socio-cultural meaning through a specific theatrical style and genre. Known as In-Yer-Face (IYF) this genre of theatre became highly controversial and could be said to represent the zeitgeist of the 1990s in Britain, mainly through its reflection of post-Thatcherite concerns and anxieties relating to the increasingly precarious conditions of everyday life which dominated the British society at the time, particularly in the context of Britain’s youth. With regards to those anxieties, this study explores IYF theatre in light of Frank Furedi’s (1997, 2006) theories on culture of fear and Ulrich Beck (1992, 2001) and Anthony Giddens’ (1991, 1997) theories of individualization, risk society and late modern uncertainties. The thesis aims to align the forgoing sociological theories with the blatantly provocative, relentless, confrontational and aggressively shocking content of IYF theatre, the work of a group of young British playwrights that included Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill, and Anthony Neilson. In examining the texts of selected plays by these and other IYF playwrights, the thesis endeavours to understand how socio-economic circumstances can culminate in immense cultural shifts which in turn can alter the cultural products and artistic perspectives of a nation, in this case Britain during the early 1990s. To this end, the thesis is divided into two interconnected sections, the first of which begins by situating IYF in the broader tradition of avant-garde British theatre. This is followed by establishing the theoretical framework upon which I ground my own interpretation of IYF theatre as well as a brief examination of the socio-historical context of Britain in the 1990s. This first section is concluded by the study of IYF in alignment with other forms of cultural product, suggesting that the political and economic philosophy of IYF takes stylistic and methodological nourishment from punk music and fashion of the 1970s. In doing so, IYF theatre is considered in a broader cultural trajectory of oppositional and polemical cultural practices. In this respect the similar historical, cultural and socio-economic state of affairs that resulted in the emergence of Punk and IYF is explored and analysed. In the second part of the thesis, three selected IYF play scripts are textually analysed to demonstrate how the exemplary artefacts of young playwrights of the 1990s are thematically representative of the socio-economic malaise dominating the society of the time. The overarching themes explored in these plays include, but are not limited to, the culture of escapism and therapy culture as a response to risk society and social insecurity, representation of the culture of fear within working class society and among working class subcultures such as skinheads, and dissociation of familial bonds and intimate relationships as a result of domination of post-modern interpretations of social and familial values. The thesis is drawn to a close by looking at the legacy of IYF in the context of contemporary British theatre, particularly investigating the state of today’s theatre in representing contemporary uncertainties, social insecurities and economic and political fears on stage.