Political returns on the twenty-first century stage: Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? and Seven Jewish Children

There is some hesitation in theatre scholarship to confront and engage with the resurgence of political theatre in the 21st century, despite the vast numbers of political plays that have been performed in a variety of genres on the British stage in the last decade. This article considers the rejuvenation of political theatre in the 21st century and focuses in particular on Caryl Churchill’s Far Away (2000), Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? (2006) and Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza (2009). I argue that these plays rehabilitate explicit political comment for the stage as well as discover fresh theatrical languages to represent what are often familiar political narratives. The discussion borrows from the writings of Jacques Rancière to help identify strategies Churchill’s plays use to find innovative ways of producing new forms of political subjectivity in audiences

The utopian potential of aging and longevity in Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (1921)

The utopian potential of aging and longevity in Bernard Shaw’s Back to Methuselah (1921

Drama and utopian forms of relationality

This paper begins by challenging the use of “domestication” in the phrase the “domestication of utopia” because of the term’s gendered, raced, and classed histories. It emphasizes how “domestication” is both a (patriarchal) metaphor for femininity, and a potential site of resistance, particularly within Black feminism. Instead, a range of alternative terms, such as co-option or appropriation are offered in its place. The paper then moves on to argue for the importance of centring fundamental, systemic change in engagements with utopian art (drama in this instance). It discusses the difficulty of discovering utopian theatre texts, and suggests that one of the reasons for this might be the tightly circumscribed field of utopian studies itself, which has been historically preoccupied with measurement, categorisation, narrow definitions, and exclusions. The paper then proposes that drama and performance are potentially rich sites for the exploration of new, utopian forms of subjectivity, social relationality, and utopian affective attachments. The paper ends by noting the importance of encouraging an ongoing process of self-critique within the field of Utopian Studies, as well as pointing to the limitations of academic critique and practice for a utopian politics

Acts of communion: encountering taste in Reckless Sleepers’ The Last Supper

An article about the aesthetics, politics and dramaturgy of taste implicit in Reckless Sleepers’ The Last Supper (2003). The authors explore notions of gustatory taste and the multi-sensory potential of serving food in performance and the ethics of (mis)representation of real life events; the assassination of the Romanovs and Che Guavara proving to be the most unreliable narratives. The piece sits between fact and fiction, the found and the fabricated, and is punctuated with the arrival of the real last suppers of convicted felons. The work speaks from a primarily western religious perspective, inspired by Da Vinci’s Last Supper (1498) and the act of communion that takes place in church services. In this way, it leans towards an occidental, spiritual notion of taste, where transubstantiation allows the rice paper script to become both the body of Christ and the symbol of his own last supper. Nietzsche’s notion of intoxication comes into play as performers and audience share wine, or blood, and drink to absent friends. The article proposes that the piece enacts a dramaturgy much like a meal, where conversation ebbs and flows, and a sense of togetherness, or act of communion, is engendered. The authors posit that the tacit contract with the audience is redrawn by food as both an aesthetic and dramaturgical encounter. As such, it becomes an invocation (or intoxication) of taste, mortality and last-ness that continues to resonate thirteen years after its devising. Both Pinchbeck and Westerside wrote about this performance when they first saw it at the same venue in 2006, both conducted interviews with members of the Reckless Sleepers, Mole Wetherell and Tim Ingram, for their ongoing research into dramaturgy, aesthetics and taste in contemporary performance. Now this research is woven together into a tapestry of reflections on the piece, a pentimento of memories

Cuff inflation time significantly affects blood flow recorded with venous occlusion plethysmography

© 2019, The Author(s). Purpose: We tested whether the values of limb blood flow calculated with strain-gauge venous occlusion plethysmography (VOP) differ when venous occlusion is achieved by automated, or manual inflation, so providing rapid and slower inflation, respectively. Method: In 9 subjects (20–30 years), we calculated forearm blood flows (FBF) values at rest and following isometric handgrip at 70% maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) when rapid, or slower inflation was used. Result: Rapid and slower cuff inflation took 0.23 ± 0.01 (mean ± SEM) and 0.92 ± 0.02 s, respectively, reflecting the range reported in published studies. At rest, FBF calculated from the 1st cardiac cycle after rapid and slower inflation gave similar values: 10.5 ± 1.4 vs. 9.6 ± 1.3 ml dl − 1  min − 1 , respectively (P > 0.05). However, immediately post-contraction, FBF was ~ 40% lower with slower inflation: 54.6 ± 5.1 vs. 33.8 ± 4.2 ml dl − 1  min − 1 (P < 0.01). The latter value was similar to that calculated over the 3rd cardiac cycle following rapid inflation: 2nd cardiac cycle: 40.5 ± 4.5; 3rd cycle: 32.6 ± 4.5 ml dl − 1  min − 1 . Regression analyses of FBFs recorded at intervals post-contraction showed those calculated over the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd cardiac cycles with rapid inflation correlated well with those from the 1st cardiac cycle with manual inflation (r = 0.79, 0.82, 0.79; P < 0.01). However, only the slope for the 3rd cycle with rapid inflation vs. slower inflation was close to unity (2.07, 1.34, and 0.94, respectively). Conclusion: These findings confirm that the 1st cardiac cycle following venous occlusion should be used when calculating FBF using VOP and, but importantly, indicate that cuff inflation should be almost instantaneous; just ≥ 0.9 s leads to substantial underestimation, especially at high flows

Caryl Churchill's ecological dystopias

This chapter discusses Caryl Churchill's The Skriker (1994) and Far Away (2000) as ecological dystopias