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Abstract

[First paragraph]

Determining that seminal moment when a new theatrical movement comes to life has been one of the points of debate surrounding the challenging new plays and their talented, twenty something authors that have appeared on the British stage since the mid-1990s. Plays and authors like: Mojo (1995) by Jez Butterworth; Blasted (1995) by Sarah Kane; Closer (1997) by Patrick Marber; The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996) by Martin McDonagh; Butterfly Kiss (1994) by Phyllis Nagy; Love and Understanding (1997) by Joe Penhall; Essex Girls (1994) by Rebecca Prichard; Shopping and Fucking (1996) by Mark Ravenhill; and Ashes and Sand (1994) by Judy Upton. Two of the most recent book-length studies of this burgeoning group of writers have identified the various moments that can be seen as heralding the start of this explosion of talent. Both Aleks Sierz's In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, a comprehensive look at the writers to have emerged in the mid-90s, and Graham Saunders' "Love Me or Kill Me": Sarah Kane and the Theatre of Extremes, the first full length text to focus on one of these new writers, posit that, more than likely, Sarah Kane's Blasted will be seen as the Look Back in Anger of its era, not only because of the quality of the play and its detonation of theatrical expectations, but also because of the resulting media coverage which made an entire nation aware that something different was occurring on the British stage. However, both authors also concede that prior to Kane's Blasted, other writers had already begun to explore the same violent and sexually explicit territory found in her work, notably Upton's Ashes and Sand, which opened in the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs just before Kane's play, Prichard's Essex Girls, and Anthony Neilson's Penetrator (1993). One could also make the argument that the genesis of this new movement of writers could be traced back into the 1992 and 1993 theatre seasons, when Upton, Ravenhill, Penhall and Kane were having their first plays produced at fringe venues like the London New Play Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Finally, others have suggested that Butterworth's Mojo could be considered as the tide-turning play, since its production was the first time in forty years (since Look Back in Anger) that the Royal Court Theatre had produced a play by a first-time playwright on the Downstairs stage.

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