Mpho Molapo

Student Number:

09002463

In-Yer-Face:
The sanitised phrase 'in-your-face' is defined by the New Oxford English Dictionary (1998) as something 'blatantly aggressive or provocative, impossible to ignore or avoid'. The Collins English Dictionary (1998) adds the adjective 'confrontational'. In-Yer-Face theatre shocks audiences by the extremism of its language and images; unsettles them by its emotional frankness and disturbs them by its acute questioning of moral norms. It not only sums up the zeitgeist (meaning; the spirit of the times... or the norm), but criticises it as well. (Aleks Sierz (Author), www.inyerface-theatre.com) For example, in Edward Bonds Saved, produced in the 70s where the spirit of the times was the newly found (at the time) spirit of teenagehood, and the horrors that are showcased in the play were summing up how much young people were shunning responsibility and morality for the sake of their own happiness or freedom, and it is shown in such an aggressive and extreme way that you cannot ignore it as easily as you would the news. Most In-yer-face plays are not interested in showing events in a detached way and allowing audiences to speculate about them; instead, they are experiential - they want audiences to feel the extreme emotions that are being shown on stage. In-yer-face theatre is very much experiential theatre; often criticized for brutality and extremism at its dbut yet with time, alike with Sarah Kanes Blasted, acclaimed and praised for the creativity, and truth, even through the brutality and provocation.

In-Yer-Face Plays and Playwrights that got bad reviews due to the perversions and brutality of the plays. It seems a truly great In-YerFace play has to be first blasted by critics and then accepted/praised later on by its audience. Sarah Kane Blasted: A shocking play whose raw language and powerful images of rape, eye-gouging and cannibalism provoked critical outrage. The Daily

Mpho Molapo

Student Number:

09002463

Mail denounced the play as 'this disgusting feast of filth', the Sunday Telegraph fulminated against its 'gratuitous welter of carnage' and the Spectator called it 'a sordid little travesty of a play' Anthony Neilson Penetrator: Opened at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1993 with a terrifying knife attack, it had critics asking whether such a play should have been put on at all. Form: The form of In-yer-Face plays can take many different forms; From a clearly stated layout with a certain number of characters, stage directions and a clear plot/story line with scenes that moves traditionally from beginning-middle-end; e.g. Sarah Kanes Cleansed, Scene One Just inside the perimeter fense of a university. It is snowing. Tinker is heating smack on a silver spoon. Graham enters. Graham Tinker Graham Tinker Tinker. Im cooking. I want out. (Looks up.)

To monologue based narratives and open to artistic interpretation, interchangeable order and characters type of script like Simon Stephens Pornography, In the beginning of the play, the playwright writes the note; This play can be performed by any number of actors. It can be performed in any order

Mpho Molapo

Student Number:

09002463

I am going to keep this short and to the point, because its all been said before by far more eloquent people than me. But our words have no impact upon you, therefore Im going to talk to you in a language that you understand. Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood.

This type of script layout is also used by Sarah Kane, in 4.48 Psychosis; __ __ __ __ I am sad. I feel that the future is hopeless and that things cannot improve I am bored and dissatisfied with everything I am a complete failure as a person I am guilty, I am being punished I would like to kill myself ...

Content: 'In Yer Face' theatre describes the wave of new writing in the 1990s that was aggressive, raw, confrontational and angry. Designed to assault the audience's sensibilities it explored the gutwrenching extremes of the human condition and rammed the most extreme excesses of contemporary society down its throat. Many of the characters are morally reprehensible and the language is aggressive and raw. (www.inyerface-theatre.com). It can be argued that In-Yer-Face theatre is contemporary theatre. It is a new style of drama, starting out in the 1990s, that could not have been written 40 years earlier, and it is plays which shock and disturb audiences. In other words, in-yer-face theatre is to the 1990s what

Mpho Molapo

Student Number:

09002463

absurdism was to the 1950s, or what kitchen-sink drama was to the Macmillan years. (Aleks Sierz, www.inyerface-theatre.com). And I truly believe that the content of In-yer-Faces philosophy is to bring an issue, idea or theme to the surface; using the most extreme means, to show what could be the result of ignoring the problem. According to Aleks Sierz, author of In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, the is a way to conclude that a play is In Yer Face; How can you tell if a play is in-yer-face? Well, it really isn't difficult: the language is filthy, there's nudity, people have sex in front of you, violence breaks out, one character humiliates another, taboos are broken, unmentionable subjects are broached, conventional dramatic structures are subverted... At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces you to react - either you want to get on stage and stop what's happening or you decide it's the best thing you've ever seen and you long to come back the next night...

Mpho Molapo

Student Number:

09002463

Bibliography:
In-Yer-Face Theatre, What is In-Yer-Face?, www.inyerface-theatre.com/what.html# Simon Stephens; Plays: 2, Pornography, 2008, Methuen Drama, A & C Black Publishers Limited. Sarah Kane; Complete Plays, Cleansed, 1998, Methuen Drama, A & C Black Publishers Limited Modern theatre: 'In Yer Face' theatre, http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/m/in-yer-facetheatre/

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