This space is a collaborative eco-theatrical hub. It is experimental. If it succeeds, the hope is that it will become an eco-system of theatre eco-criticism.

What is Eco-theatre?

Eco-theatre is theatre in which the ecosystem or the environment or both are on stage, by accident or design. Eco-theatrical reviewing is about viewing and reviewing theatre through an eco-critical lens, teasing out threads of meaning that are almost always ignored in conventional theatre reviews. There seems to be an environmental gap in theatre reviewing. Is this true? Does the absence of the environment in most reviews properly reflect the way production teams and audiences respond to theatrical events? The aim of this eco-reviewing hub is to provide a home for such perspectives.

Some theatrical productions are obviously eco-theatrical because they directly thematise the environment - the UK climate-change plays for instance, or the work of Caryl Churchill. To consider only the plays that obviously focus on environmental themes as eco-theatre is to miss an important point. The ecosystem is ubiquitous, ever-present on stage, thus it is very often an important part of the picture in plays not necessarily thought of as eco-theatre. All of the plays of William Shakespeare could be said to fall into this category. Is it true that this is rarely discussed? Do contextual cues, such as theatre companies known by audiences and production teams to be driven by an environmental mission, draw out eco-theatrical threads of meaning? This is the sort of question eco-theatrical reviewing hopes to address.

You Are Invited.....

If you would like to submit material to this site, please send it to j.hudson@warwick.ac.uk

Reviewers are invited to tease out ecological threads of meaning in play texts, engage with the seeming environmental gap, historicise ecological threads of meaning within contemporary theatrical events, explore the thematisation and problematisation of environmental issues as seen on stage, consider the impact of environmental design in scenography or theatre infrastructure, document eco-theatrical moments, suggest useful links to other relevant websites, or discuss reactions seen in the audience, in the production team, or outside the theatre, or all of the above.