How are theatre practitioners (re)defining the realist project, a form of theatre intrinsic to the ideological domestication of capitalism? This paper takes up this question through an examination of Simon Stone's production of The Wild Duck 'after Ibsen', staged at Belvoir Theatre in Sydney in 2011, and the late Mark Fisher's (2009) theorization of a market-dominated present as capitalist realism. In doing so, it refers to three different cultural contexts by making parallels to the German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier's work and pointing to developments in Britain. It argues that performances dependent upon the subject's capacity to know and represent the world are predicated on a subjective response and therefore risk locating systemic issues in the closed fictional cosmos of situational dramatic art as part of its exploration of the paralysis intrinsic to the capitalist realist politics of (theatre) spectatorship.
From Withnail and I on stage to Olivia Rodrigo on tour, Sally Wainwright’s new drama to Blondie, Bruckner and Jez Butterworth, our experts guide you through the treats in store this year
PATRICK MARMION: Comedies and tragedies, adaptations and original works - as well as some of the finest stage actors in the world, jockeying for our attention - yes, it looks like being a bumper year.