Get Real

Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners. (Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre & Performance, Vol. 30 (3), November, 2010)

' This is a timely book. Following hard on the heels of the 2006 TDR special issue on documentary theatre, and at a time when public and critical interest in documentary theatre has - in the UK at least - never been higher, the editors have produced a collection of essays that sets out (in their words) ' to re-evaluate the historical traditions' of the genre, and ' to examine the remarkable mobilization and proliferation of documentary forms across Western theatre cultures in the past twodecades' . In this the book, with very few reservations, succeeds. . . The standard of writing is uniformly high. ' - Anthony Jackson, New Theatre Quarterly

' Academic interest in documentary theatre has been slowly growing and this anthology, the first book-length study of the subject in a decade, offers an overdue and distinctive contribution to disciplinary knowledge. . . Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners. ' - Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre and Performance

' Get Real explores reality-based theatre in two main directions. The first presents a historic overview of the hybrid nature of Western documentary theatre since the 1930s. . . The second direction points to insightful analysis of a range of current practices, with a specific interest in British verbatim theatre. ' - Katia Arfara, Theatre Research International

' Like the documentary plays it analyses, Get Real presents a multiplicity of voices and a diversity of viewpoints. . . the selection and organisation of these essays indicate an acute eye. ' - Caroline Wake, Performance Paradigm