Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure

What does it mean to 'fail' in performance? Or, what do performances founded upon the collapse of their own invention illuminate that other modes of theatre usually aim to conceal?Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure begins by approaching Samuel Beckett's dramatic disposition where failure is perceived as a deliberate and effective poetics. Sara Jane Bailes extends such strategies through theoretical and archival modes of investigation in an enlightening analysis. This book offers case studies of acclaimed UK and US experimental theatre companies Forced Entertainment, Elevator Repair Service and Goat Island as exemplars of performance as failure.The author uses detailed rehearsal and performance analysis to engage critical theory and contextualise avant garde practice. The result is an incisive and original critique of contemporary theatre that makes essential reading for practitioners, scholars and students of Theatre and Performance Studies.