File(s) under permanent embargo
Reason: This item is currently closed access.
7:84 (England): performance and ideological transaction
thesis
posted on 2010-11-03, 16:26 authored by Nadine HoldsworthThe central enquiry of this thesis is an exploration of the 7:84 (England) Theatre
Company which was operational during the period 1971-1985. Contextualizing
the company within the broad spectrum of ideologically oppositional theatre
practice which developed after 1968, it will examine the interface between
political theatre and societal and political structures evident in the 1970s and
1980s. The study will also address the reflexive relationship between theory
and practice as it considers the dynamic relationship between formal structures,
performative strategies and subject matter as a means of addressing both a
macro and micro political agenda.
The first chapter traces the relationship of 7:84 to the Arts Council. It charts the
shifting ethos of this institution leading to the withdrawal of the company's
subsidy in 1984. In particular it will assess the role of the Arts Council as an
agent of economic, cultural and political control. The second chapter addresses
the ideological framework which informed the rejection, by many politically
motivated theatre practitioners, of hierarchical management structures and
working practices in favour of collective and co-operative methods of
organisation and creation. It relates this to the composition and working
practices of 7:84, with specific reference to the function of women and the
performer, director and writer. The third chapter draws on serniotic theory to
analyse the shifting function of the audience within political theatre. It considers
how 7:84 sought and consolidated a specifically working-class audience and
explores their function as active negotiators of meaning within a process of
ideological transaction. The fourth chapter addresses the conceptual
framework underpinning the choice of performative strategies utilized within the
plays performed by 7:84. The chapter has as the object of its enquiry such
devices as: the adoption of epic structures, the foregrounding of history, comic
intervention, direct address and the function of dialect and song. The final
chapter contains close textual analysis of a number of 7:84 plays in order to
examine the representation of women and the working-class and how this
relates to shifting patterns of identification and societal structures. The thesis
concludes with a brief assessment of the achievements and impact of 7:84.
History
School
- The Arts, English and Drama
Department
- English and Drama
Publisher
© Nadine HoldsworthPublication date
1995Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University. If you are the author of this thesis and would like to make it openly available in the Institutional Repository please contact: repository@lboro.ac.ukEThOS Persistent ID
uk.bl.ethos.283318Language
- en