Introductory description

This module explores what theatre has to do with the climate crisis, and, conversely, what the climate crisis has to do with theatre. What is it about an embodied art form, that takes place in shared space and time, in the civic realm and the public sphere, that makes it such a potent platform for environmental narratives?

The environment has long been used by playwrights for dramatic effect, for example by utilizing place as the contextual background for human action (such as Shakespeare's comedies) or levering weather as an external manifestation of inner turmoil and divine displeasure (such as Greek tragedies). But, in the face of the rising seas, many playwrights now speak to the environmental crisis directly in their work, through - for example - experimenting with form and genre to create narrative structures that most keenly represent the multifaceted aspects of climate breakdown; dramatizing agency in nature and de-centring the human; and drawing on multiple dramaturgical tools to provoke audience responses that vary from shock and fear to hope and activism.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Indicative syllabus

Week 1:
Primary text:
An Enemy of The People by Henrik Ibsen (1882) (Norway)
Critical text:
Chaudhuri, Una (1994) ‘“There Must Be a Lot of Fish in that Lake”: Toward an Ecological Theater’, Theatre, 25: 1, pp. 23-31.

Week 2:
Primary text:
The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder (1942) (USA)
Critical text:
Ahmadi, Mohebat (2022) Towards an Ecocritical Theatre: Playing the Anthropocene, Routledge.

Week 3:
Primary text:
Then She Said It by Tess Osonye Onwueme (2002) (Nigeria)
Critical text:
Woynarski, Lisa (2020) Ecodramaturgies: Theatre, Performance and Climate Change, Palgrave.

Week 4:
Primary text:
Kill Climate Deniers by David Finnegan (2018) (Australia)
Critical text:
Taxopoulou, Iphigenia (2023) Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice, Methuen Drama.

Week 5:
Primary text:
Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill (2020) (UK)
Critical text:
Stibbe, Arran (2021) Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By, Routledge.

Week 6:
Primary text:
A History of Water in the Middle East by Sabrina Mahfouz (2019) (UK/Egypt)
Critical text:
Angelaki, Vicky (2019) Theatre and Environment, Methuen Drama.

Week 7:
Primary text:
The Birds by Aristophanes, (414BC) (Greece)
Critical text:
Cless, Downing (2010) Ecology and Environment in European Drama, Routledge.

Week 8:
Primary text:
A Bicycle Country by Nilo Cruz (1994) (Cuba)
Critical text:
May, Theresa J. (2020) Earth Matters on Stage: Ecology and Environment in American Theater, Routledge.

Week 9:
Primary text:
A Fable For Now by Wei Yu-Chia (2010) (Taiwan)
Critical text:
Kulick, Brian (2023) Staging the End of the World: Theatre in a Time of Climate Crisis, Methuen Drama.

Week 10:
Primary text:
(Not) The End Of The World by Chris Bush (2024) (UK)
Critical text:
Beer, Tanja (2022) Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance, Palgrave Macmillan.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how theatre-makers around the world are grappling with the environmental crisis in their work;
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a range of critical approaches to eco-theatre, including eco-scenography and eco-dramaturgy, from a range of intersectional perspectives;
• Develop a critical methodology for the analysis of playtexts from an environmental perspective.

Indicative reading list

Primary reading is listed above.

Further reading:
brown, adrienne maree (2017) Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, AK Press.
Caracciolo, Marco (2021) Narrating the Mesh: Form and Story in the Anthropocene, University of Virginia Press
Daroy, Alys and Paul Prescott (2025) Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide, Bloomsbury/Arden Shakespeare.
Freestone, Elizabeth, and Jeanie O’Hare (2021) 100 Plays to Save the World, Nick Hern Books.
Ghosh, Amitav (2016) The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable, Penguin.
Hudson, Julie (2019) The Environment on Stage: Scenery or Shapeshifter?, Routledge.
Kershaw, Baz (2007) Theatre Ecology: Environments and Performance Events, Cambridge University Press.
Lonergan, Patrick (2023) Theatre Revivals for the Anthropocene, Cambridge University Press.
May, Theresa J. (2017) “Tú eres mi otro yo – Staying with the Trouble: Ecodramaturgy and the AnthropoScene”, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 29: 2, 1-18.
McGibben, Bill (2005) “What the warming world needs now is art, sweet art”, Grist Magazine, 22 April, https://grist.org/article/mckibben-imagine/
Solnit, Rebecca (2015) Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, Haymarket Books.

Research element

The assessment, whether taken as an essay or as a creative project, will be research-led, exploring an aspect of eco-theatre of the student's own choosing.

Interdisciplinary

This module intersects with literary studies, theatre and performance studies, and environmental humanities.

International

The syllabus is global in nature.

Subject specific skills

• Critical analysis
• Subject knowledge
• Formulation of critical argument
• Academic writing and referencing

Transferable skills

• Verbal and written communication
• Understanding of professional theatre in theory and practice