Performance, Madness and Psychiatry

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: Locating Madness and Performance

   1. Introduction: Locating Madness and Performance

      • Anna Harpin, Juliet Foster

      Pages 1-16

3. Historical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Smart’s Authority and the Eighteenth-Century Mad-Business

      • Richard Stern

      Pages 19-41

   3. Performance in Bethlem, Fulbourn and Brookwood Hospitals: A Social Psychological and Social Historical Examination

      • Juliet Foster

      Pages 42-62

4. Applying Performance

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-63

      PDF

   2. A Life of their Own: Reflections on Autonomy and Ethics in Research-Based Theatre

      • Susan M. Cox

      Pages 65-84

   3. Whose Mind is it Anyway?: Acting and Mental Illness

      • Sarah Rudolph

      Pages 85-108

5. Contemporary Practices

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109

      PDF

   2. Start Making Sense

      • Dylan Tighe

      Pages 111-136

   3. ‘No one ever listens’: Body, Space and History in RedCape Theatre’s The Idiot Colony

      • Rebecca Loukes

      Pages 137-162

6. Theatrical Maladies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163

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   2. Ophelia Confined: Madness and Infantilisation in Some Versions of Hamlet

      • Bridget Escolme

      Pages 165-186

   3. Dislocated: Metaphors of Madness in British Theatre

      • Anna Harpin

      Pages 187-215

   4. Afterword: Relocating Madness

      • Anna Harpin, Juliet Foster

      Pages 216-218

7. Back Matter

   Pages 219-229

   PDF

This exciting collection of essays explores the complex area of madness and performance. The book spans from the 18th century to the present and unearths the overlooked history of theatre and performance in, and about, psychiatric asylums and hospitals. The book will appeal to historians, social scientists, theatre scholars, and artists alike.

• Madness in performance
• Performance and psychiatry
• Applied theatre
• autonomy
• history of theatre
• psychiatry
• theatre

“This collection, edited by Anna Harpin and Juliet Foster, works across performance and medicine, with a specific focus on ‘madness’ and psychiatry, and performances of and in the asylum. … This is exciting and important work, capturing a pivotal moment in understanding particular histories of mental illness as it relates to site and performance.” (Gianna Bouchard, Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 26 (1), February, 2016)

'This is a rich and textured book that brings together debates about madness and mental illness with contemporary analyses of performance. Historically informed, this ground-breaking edited collection traverses disciplinary boundaries, shedding new light on connections between theatre and madness.' - Helen Nicholson, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

'[A] wonderful book' - Femi Oyebode, National Centre for Mental Health

• University of Exeter, UK

  Anna Harpin

• University of Cambridge, UK

  Juliet Foster

Susan Cox, University of British Columbia, Canada Bridget Escolme, Queen Mary, University of London, UK Juliet Foster, University of Cambridge, UK Anna Harpin, of Exeter, UK Rebecca Loukes University of Exeter, UK Sarah Rudolph University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, USA Richard Stern Queen Mary, University of London, UK Dylan Tighe, Independent Theatre Maker, UK

Policies and ethics