Description
Book SynopsisHow can plays and performances, past and present, inform our understanding of ageing? Drawing primarily on the Western dramatic canon, on contemporary British theatre, on popular culture and on paratheatrical practices, Staging Ageing investigates theatrical engagement with ageing from the Greek chorus to Reminiscence Theatre. It also explores the relationship of the plays, performances, and practices to the material, social and ideological conditions that produced them. A seminal work on the cultural past and present of ageing, the book will find grateful audiences not only among scholars but also among theatre and health care professionals.
Trade Review'Mangan has written a key text on the subject that widens the debate and lays the ground for further study'
-- Contemporary Theatre Review, Gianna Bouchard
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Mind, Body and Ageing in Drama, Theatre and Performance
Part I: Frames and Contexts
Chapter 1: On Gerontology
Chapter 2: On Age, Stage and Consciousness
Part II: Tragedy and Comedy
Chapter 3: On Liminality and Late Style: Oedipus at Colonus
Chapter 4: On Negative Stereotypes in Classical and Medieval Drama
Chapter 5: On Sex and the Senex: English Restoration Comedy
Chapter 6: On Dirty Old Men and Trickster Figures
Part III: Memories
Chapter 7: On Memory and Its Modes
Chapter 8: On Reminiscence, Interaction and Intervention
Part IV: The Value(s) of Old Age
Chapter 9: On Longevity
Chapter 10: On Institutions
Chapter 11: On Song and Dance
Epilogue: The Amazing One-Hundred-and-Sixty-One-Year-Old Woman
