Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology of British Theatre since 1945
- Introduction
- Part I Theatre Makers
- Part II Theatre Sectors
- Part III Theatre Communities
- Part IV Theatre and State
- Chapter 10 Government, Policy, and Censorship in Post-war British Theatre
- Chapter 11 Buildings and the Political Economy of Theatre Financing in Britain
- Chapter 12 Regions and Nations
- Further Reading
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from p.ii)
Chapter 10 - Government, Policy, and Censorship in Post-war British Theatre
from Part IV - Theatre and State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2024
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology of British Theatre since 1945
- Introduction
- Part I Theatre Makers
- Part II Theatre Sectors
- Part III Theatre Communities
- Part IV Theatre and State
- Chapter 10 Government, Policy, and Censorship in Post-war British Theatre
- Chapter 11 Buildings and the Political Economy of Theatre Financing in Britain
- Chapter 12 Regions and Nations
- Further Reading
- Index
- Other Volumes in the Series of Cambridge Companions (continued from p.ii)
Summary
This chapter offers a broad account of two key governmental themes in post-war British theatre: policy and censorship. The chapter’s discussion of these themes is informed by Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, which embraces both the activities of the state and the broader discursive regimes that constitute groups and individuals, including self-governing. The chapter examines a range of values that have featured in post-war cultural discourse in terms of continuities, ruptures, and changes between the post-war period and earlier moments in capitalist modernity, and within the period itself. The chapter surveys the expansionist arts policies implemented in the decades following the war, before turning to the effects of neoliberal governmental politics from the 1970s onward, which saw the value of the arts become subject to increasing scrutiny and justification. Next, the chapter addresses censorship and the contours of its post-war cultural politics. It notes overlapping shifts in focus from sexuality and gender to racial and religious identities – shifts which speak to the governmental ‘management of populations’. Finally, it analyses David Hare’s I’m Not Running (National Theatre: Lyttelton, 2018) – a work that responded to contemporaneous governmental crisis.
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- The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945 , pp. 209 - 228Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024