Stage Fright, Animals, and Other Theatrical Problems

Nicholas Ridout is Lecturer in Performance at the School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.

• Part I: 1. From the promise of performance to the return of theatre; 2. Kleist's Uber das Marionettentheater; 3. From an ethics of performance to an affective politics of theatre; Part II. Stage Fright: The Predicament of the Actor: 1. In an 'awful hole'; 2. A very 'modern' hole; 3. Into the hole and out: diagnosis and cure; 4. Abject hole: first 'blowback'; 5. Face your fear; Part III. Embarrassment: The Predicament of the Audience: 1. Please don't look at me; 2. What is embarrassment?; 3. Towards a politics of shame; Part IV. The Animal on Stage: 1. Mouse in the house; 2. Signs of labour; 3. Animal politics; Part V. Mutual Predicaments: Corpsing and Fiasco: 1. Laughter; 2. Corpsing; 3. Fiasco; 4. Forced entertainment; 5. Lyotard on theatre: 'last blowback'; Afterword; Bibliography.

'… an intelligent and likeable study that merely attempts a virtually holistic understanding of theatre in its fullest possible contest.' The Times Literary Supplement