I am interested in the way performance is made and enjoyed (or not!), what happens when we apply the term 'avant-garde' in a British context, and tricky concepts such as 'unperformability' and 'difficulty'. I am excited by contemporary performance practice that engages with theatre history in interesting, embodied ways. The most recent publication is the Edinburgh Companion to Modernism in Contemporary Theatre which I co-edited with Adrian Curtin, Nick Johnson and Naomi Paxton (2023). As well as the introductions, I wrote a chapter on the legacy of Ernst Toller in British theatre. I've also written the following:
'Drama', J.B. Smith ed. The Cambridge Companion to British Literature of the 1930s (Cambridge UP 2020): 47-52
‘No life without stigmata’: the spiritual, the Bible and final regeneration in British expressionist drama. The Glass (2017): 32-42.
‘Wide margins: finding performance in the border and borders in performance’ Keywords 15 (2017).
'Performance', Mads Rosenthal Thomsen ed. Literary Theory and Analysis (Bloomsbury 2017).
'Modernism and theatre/drama in Europe', Stephen Ross and Allana Lindgren eds. The Modernist World (Routledge 2016).
'John Piper's Modernist Scenography' Modernist Cultures (2016).
Modernist and Avant-garde performance: an introduction (Edinburgh UP 2015 partly funded by the Scouloudi Historical Fund).
Amy Skinner in Theatre Research International (2016): 'the greatest attribute of this book is its utility, providing a practical, performative and much-needed introduction to modernism and the avant-garde' .
British Avant-Garde Theatre (Palgrave MacMillan 2012).
Maggie Gale in New Theatre Quarterly (August 2014): 'a must-read'
John Bull in Theatre Notebook (September 2014): 'a remarkable book'
Brian E.G. Cook in Theatre Survey (September 2014): 'epitomizes the avant-garde itself: it provokes, challenges and changes the work of these artists'.
'Drama', J.B. Smith ed. The Cambridge Companion to British Literature of the 1930s (Cambridge UP 2020): 47-52
‘No life without stigmata’: the spiritual, the Bible and final regeneration in British expressionist drama. The Glass (2017): 32-42.
‘Wide margins: finding performance in the border and borders in performance’ Keywords 15 (2017).
'Performance', Mads Rosenthal Thomsen ed. Literary Theory and Analysis (Bloomsbury 2017).
'Modernism and theatre/drama in Europe', Stephen Ross and Allana Lindgren eds. The Modernist World (Routledge 2016).
'John Piper's Modernist Scenography' Modernist Cultures (2016).
Modernist and Avant-garde performance: an introduction (Edinburgh UP 2015 partly funded by the Scouloudi Historical Fund).
Amy Skinner in Theatre Research International (2016): 'the greatest attribute of this book is its utility, providing a practical, performative and much-needed introduction to modernism and the avant-garde' .
British Avant-Garde Theatre (Palgrave MacMillan 2012).
Maggie Gale in New Theatre Quarterly (August 2014): 'a must-read'
John Bull in Theatre Notebook (September 2014): 'a remarkable book'
Brian E.G. Cook in Theatre Survey (September 2014): 'epitomizes the avant-garde itself: it provokes, challenges and changes the work of these artists'.
