Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,3, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, language: English, abstract: “In-Yer-Face Theatre is to the 1990s what absurdism was to the 1950s” In the following paper, I’d like to investigate whether this statement is true or if both movements should be seen as two different theatre forms without any connection. As a basis of my investigations serves Agnes M. Kitzler’s study about the influence of Absurdist Theatre on Contemporary In-Yer-Face Theatre (Kitzler, 2011) as well as Aleks Sierz’ book on In-Yer-Face-Theatre (Sierz, 2001) and Martin Esslin’s book on the Theatre of the Absurd (Esslin, 2001). I will mostly try to give a general overview about similarities and differences between absurdism and In-Yer-Face Theatre before I give distinct examples of Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame and Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and F***ing and finally come to a conclusion if In-Yer-Face Theatre is to the 1990s what absurdism was to the 1950s or not. I firmly believe that as this paper is limited to seven until eight pages it is more important to give a general overview which is more effective to answer the question whether both movements show similarities or not. However, I think it is important to undertake several aspects a closer examination in a broader study, which could be, for example, a bachelor thesis.

This ground-breaking drama was Mark Ravenhill's first full-length play and part of a movement in the 1990s of "in your face" British theatre which frankly dealt with issues of sex and violence and pointedly challenged societal values. The play explores how consumerism has become our new value system which reduces everything else to a mere transaction, as shopping malls become the new cathedrals of Western consumerism. The plot follows a crowd of drifters and sex traders in a seedy area of London in the 1990s. Five main characters are linked loosely and intermittently and at the center of the play is an ever-changing love triangle of petty criminals. It is a gritty, grimy urban society, a depressing microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society.

The most controversial and newsworthy plays of British theatre are a rash of rude, vicious and provocative pieces by a brat pack of twentysomethings whose debuts startled critics and audiences with their heady mix of sex, violence and street-poetry. In-Yer-Face Theatre is the first book to study this exciting outburst of creative self-expression by what in other contexts has been called Generation X, or Thatcher's Children, the 'yoof' who grew up during the last Conservative Government. The book argues that, for example, Trainspotting, Blasted, Mojo and Shopping and F**king are much more than a collection of shock tactics - taken together, they represent a consistent critique of modern life, one which focuses on the problem of violence, the crisis of masculinity and the futility of consumerism. The book contains extensive interviews with playwrights, including Sarah Kane ( Blasted), Mark Ravenhill (Shopping and F**king), Philip Ridley (The Pitchfork Disney), Patrick Marber (Closer) and Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane).

This textbook provides a global, chronological mapping of significant areas of theatre, sketched from its deepest history in the evolution of our brain's 'inner theatre' to ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern developments. It considers prehistoric cave art and built temples, African trance dances, ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern ritual dramas, Greek and Roman theatres, Asian dance-dramas and puppetry, medieval European performances, global indigenous rituals, early modern to postmodern Euro-American developments, worldwide postcolonial theatres, and the hyper-theatricality of today's mass and social media. Timelines and numbered paragraphs form an overall outline with distilled details of what students can learn, encouraging further explorations online and in the library. Questions suggest how students might reflect on present parallels, making their own maps of global theatre histories, regarding geo-political theatrics in the media, our performances in everyday life, and the theatres inside our brains.

Mark Ravenhill's Faust (Faust is Dead) is a dark and often brutally funny journey through a world of virtual reality The world's most famous philosopher arrives in Los Angeles and is greeted as a star. In a round of chat show appearances, he announces the Death of Man and the End of History. When he meets up with a young man who is on the run from his father, a leading software magnate, they embark on a hedonistic voyage across America. But in the play's bloody conclusion, they discover that not all events are virtual. "In Shopping and Fucking, Mark Ravenhill made theatre relevant to the Thatcher generation. Now he's put videos and Net-surfing in FAUST. And it's no less stunning." (The Guardian)

With over 500 entries on the most important plays and playwrights performed today, The Theatre Guide provdies an anuthoritative A - Z of the contemporary theatre scene. From Aristophanes to Mark Ravenhill, The alchemist ot The Talking Cure, the guide is both biogrpahically detailed and critically curent, while an extensive cross-referencing system allows for wider perspectives and new discoveries. Stimulating, observant and informative, The Theatre Guide is an essential companion and reference tool for anyone with an active interest in drama.