Madness in Contemporary British Theatre

This book considers the representation of madness in contemporary British

theatre, examining the rich relationship between performance and mental health,

and questioning how theatre can potentially challenge dominant understandings

of mental health. Carefully, it suggests what it means to represent madness in

theatre, and the avenues through which such representations can become

radical, whereby theatre can act as a site of resistance.



Engaging with the heterogeneity of madness, each chapter covers different

attributes and logics, including: the constitution and institutional structures of


the contemporary asylum; the cultural idioms behind hallucination; the means by


which suicide is apprehended and approached; how testimony of the mad person

is interpreted and encountered.



As a study that interrogates a wide range of British theatre across the past 30

years, and includes a theoretical interrogation of the politics of madness, this is

a crucial work for any student or researcher, across disciplines, considering the

politics of madness and its relationship to performance.

Dr. Jon Venn works as Teaching Fellow in Drama at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research interests include contemporary British theatre, the politics of madness, and critical suicide studies. His work has appeared in The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice

Studies.