Suicide and the Modern Stage

Abstract

Suicide and the Modern Stage

From the drama of Sophocles to Shakespeare to Ibsen, suicide has featured prominently in Western theatre for nearly two and a half millennia. Yet as suicide was decriminalised and destigmatised across Europe and the Anglosphere, playwrights tested the limits of what could be represented on the stage and, in doing so, examined this emotionally charged and ethically fraught subject from new perspectives. Dr Dubby's book project, Suicide and the Modern Stage, considers some of the ways in which playwrights after the Second World War innovated dramatic form to engage with ethical questions, aetiological causes, and psychological experiences of suicidal behaviour. He argues that these dramaturgical experiments offered new modes of interaction with the subject of suicide, enabling the theatre to serve as a vital cultural space for exploring this complex human phenomenon. In this talk, he will give an overview of the project and the questions that continue to drive my curiosity. He would be very interested in learning from IMH/Durham researchers also working on the relationship between art, health, and storytelling.

All welcome to attend.