Adaptation in Contemporary Theatre and Performance (DRA2071)

30 credits

You will learn to account for stage adaptation as a prominent and evolving phenomenon in contemporary theatrical representation. In the first week you will historically locate specific examples of the directions adaptation has taken since the Restoration Theatre era.  You will investigate the factors that have contributed to the popularity of adaptation and make a case for its impact on drama and performance history, but also on theatre going communities more broadly as a powerful means of making urgent statements about the collective historical present. You will also interrogate the status given to adaptation as somehow ‘secondary’ or as having an ‘infidelity’ to the ‘original’ source text. The adapted text forms part of a unique continuum of intertextuality that encompasses the past, present and future of performance and our class will aim to capture the inherent liveness of this strand of representation and its distinctive resonance as we examine its changing aesthetics, trends and approaches.     

Students can take this module from other disciplines. This module would be of interest to English and Visual Culture Students.