Description: Theatre has engaged with science since its beginnings in Ancient Greece. The intersection of the two disciplines has been the focus of increasing interest to scholars and students. The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science gives readers a sense of this dynamic field, using detailed analyses of plays and performances covering a wide range of areas including climate change and the environment, technology, animal studies, disease and contagion, mental health, and performance and cognition. Identifying historical tendencies that have dominated theatre's relationship with science, the volume traces many periods of theatre history across a wide geographical range. It follows a simple and clear structure of pairs and triads of chapters that cluster around a given theme so that readers get a clear sense of the current debates and perspectives.
Brief description: Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr is Professor of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Oxford. Her publications include Science on Stage: From Doctor Faustus to Copenhagen (2006), Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett (2015), Modern Drama: A Very Short Introduction (2016), and Twentieth-Century Approaches to Literature: Late Victorian into Modern (2016), coedited with Laura Marcus and Michèle Mendelssohn and shortlisted for the Modernist Studies Association book prize.
Review Quotes: 'This is a mind-expanding book. It not only shows that theatre and science have been interacting for centuries but offers a series of pathfinding essays on subjects ranging from mental health to plague and infection. It establishes beyond doubt that theatre and science are indissolubly linked and challenges, informs and stimulates the reader at every turn.' Michael Billington