The module will serve both as an introduction to contemporary theatre and as a first investigation of the relationship between literary texts and the conditions of performance. Major plays of the period will be studied in their own right but also as examples of trends and developments in the period. Design, theatrical architecture, performance styles, organisations and repertoires will be studied, with special attention to assumptions concerning the social role of the drama. Where possible, texts will be related to specific productions. Writers studied will normally include: John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Bond, Caryl Churchill, Brian Friel.
It wasn't until director Dominic Cooke arrived at Warwick University in 1985 that he began to understand theatre's capacity to be both a political and a moral force. Fittingly enough, it was the Royal Court that seized his attention:
"We did this brilliant course, which was basically all about the Court – about the shift from T. S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party to Look Back in Anger, right through Wesker, Bond, all those writers. Plays that really engaged, which were asking questions."'
Dominic Cooke, Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre (Guardia