The (In)Human Condition

The article examines Simon Stephens's seminal play Three Kingdoms (2012), a defining moment in his enduring working relationship with director Sebastian Nübling and a decidedly internationalist staging effort that enabled cross-collaboration between artists based in Britain, Estonia and Germany...

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Main Author: Vicky Angelaki
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2016-07-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4411
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author Vicky Angelaki
author_facet Vicky Angelaki
author_sort Vicky Angelaki
collection DOAJ
description The article examines Simon Stephens's seminal play Three Kingdoms (2012), a defining moment in his enduring working relationship with director Sebastian Nübling and a decidedly internationalist staging effort that enabled cross-collaboration between artists based in Britain, Estonia and Germany. The particular focus of the article is the depiction of animality in Simon Stephens's play and the rich signification that it accomplishes in a piece that effectively proceeds from the detective fiction genre to offer wide-ranging, bold and experimental theatrical representation. As the article argues, this is achieved through the poignant relevance to contemporary social concerns that animality allows on both a literal and metaphorical level. There is an imaginary binary at the heart of the problematics that Stephens exposes: between the European East and West, but also between human and animal. As the article goes on to demonstrate, Stephens, Nübling and their international team of collaborators arrive at a staging method that is both aesthetically intuitive and politically astute in order to offer rigorous stage commentary on the state of sex trade - and especially sex slavery - in our time. In so doing, they also powerfully question the primacy of humans over animals, raising important points as to vulnerability and transgression, the assumption of authority over nature, and also to humans in positions of power versus humans in positions of vulnerability.
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1969-6302
language English
publishDate 2016-07-01
publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
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series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-86908cde0c964ee599e0f09316bee8572025-01-30T13:47:44ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022016-07-012010.4000/sillagescritiques.4411The (In)Human ConditionVicky AngelakiThe article examines Simon Stephens's seminal play Three Kingdoms (2012), a defining moment in his enduring working relationship with director Sebastian Nübling and a decidedly internationalist staging effort that enabled cross-collaboration between artists based in Britain, Estonia and Germany. The particular focus of the article is the depiction of animality in Simon Stephens's play and the rich signification that it accomplishes in a piece that effectively proceeds from the detective fiction genre to offer wide-ranging, bold and experimental theatrical representation. As the article argues, this is achieved through the poignant relevance to contemporary social concerns that animality allows on both a literal and metaphorical level. There is an imaginary binary at the heart of the problematics that Stephens exposes: between the European East and West, but also between human and animal. As the article goes on to demonstrate, Stephens, Nübling and their international team of collaborators arrive at a staging method that is both aesthetically intuitive and politically astute in order to offer rigorous stage commentary on the state of sex trade - and especially sex slavery - in our time. In so doing, they also powerfully question the primacy of humans over animals, raising important points as to vulnerability and transgression, the assumption of authority over nature, and also to humans in positions of power versus humans in positions of vulnerability.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4411sexismviolenceSimon StephensThree KingdomsSebastian Nüblinganimality
spellingShingle Vicky Angelaki
The (In)Human Condition
Sillages Critiques
sexism
violence
Simon Stephens
Three Kingdoms
Sebastian Nübling
animality
title The (In)Human Condition
title_full The (In)Human Condition
title_fullStr The (In)Human Condition
title_full_unstemmed The (In)Human Condition
title_short The (In)Human Condition
title_sort in human condition
topic sexism
violence
Simon Stephens
Three Kingdoms
Sebastian Nübling
animality
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4411
work_keys_str_mv AT vickyangelaki theinhumancondition
AT vickyangelaki inhumancondition