New British Drama in 15 Scenes: Adventures in Theatre Criticism

Description: This is a wide-ranging account of new writing in British theatre during the 2010s, written in a boldly experimental style.

Brief description:

Aleks Sierz is the theatre critic of Tribune and a freelance theatre reviewer. He is a lecturer in modern British theatre whose seminal study, In-Yer-Face Theatre, defined a new generation of writers and their work. In 2006 Methuen Drama published his guide, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, which was followed up by 2012's Modern British Playwriting: the 1990s. Sierz's journalism has featured in the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Independent. He is a widely read, highly regarded critic of modern British theatre.

Aleks Sierz FRSA is Visiting Professor at Rose Bruford College, London, UK, and author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (Faber, 2001), John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Continuum, 2008), Rewriting the Nation: British Theatre Today (Methuen Drama, 2011) and Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s (Methuen Drama 2012). He also
works as a journalist, broadcaster, lecturer and theatre critic.

Review Quotes:

"Sierz is ever inventive in finding multiple interesting entry points for the reader ... New British Drama in 15 Scenes offers a clarity of writing which makes this book highly accessible for general and specialist readers." --Plays International & Europe

"There are as many ways to write theatre criticism as there are to skin a cat (not that I have ever done such a thing). In this highly original book, Aleks Sierz adopts a series of different voices to match the polyphonic variety of new drama over the course of a decade. The result is informative, provocative and entertaining all at the same time and reminds us that criticism is itself a form of art." --Michael Billington

"Aleks Sierz's New British Drama in 15 Scenes: Adventures in Theatre Criticism is an invaluable addition to his current trilogy chronicling the last three decades of British drama (1990s-2010s). His encyclopedic knowledge of the plays produced in the 2010s results in his covering over 250 plays, ranging from Olivier award winning plays to fringe performances, all of which are treated equally as representatives of a remarkably diverse decade of theatre. In order to capture the disparate themes of the 2010s Sierz offers readers a novel and creative exploration of the decade by dropping his critic's voice and instead in each chapter adopting a different persona, ranging from a sociologist to three millennials to a visual artist, providing innovative pathways to appreciating the complexity of the theatre in the 2010s. Because of Sierz's playful and highly readable approach, his book will be prized by general readers, students, and academics." --William C. Boles, Rollins College, USA

"Sierz's experimental approach to the decade and his 'adventures in theatre criticism' is refreshing, fun, and thorough. You can dip in at almost every topic and be both entertained and informed." --Lou Reviews