New British Drama in 15 Scenes

There are as many ways to write theatre criticism as there are to skin a cat (not that I have ever done such a thing). In this highly original book, Aleks Sierz adopts a series of different voices to match the polyphonic variety of new drama over the course of a decade. The result is informative, provocative and entertaining all at the same time and reminds us that criticism is itself a form of art. * Michael Billington *
Aleks Sierz’s New British Drama in 15 Scenes: Adventures in Theatre Criticism is an invaluable addition to his current trilogy chronicling the last three decades of British drama (1990s-2010s). His encyclopedic knowledge of the plays produced in the 2010s results in his covering over 250 plays, ranging from Olivier award winning plays to fringe performances, all of which are treated equally as representatives of a remarkably diverse decade of theatre. In order to capture the disparate themes of the 2010s Sierz offers readers a novel and creative exploration of the decade by dropping his critic’s voice and instead in each chapter adopting a different persona, ranging from a sociologist to three millennials to a visual artist, providing innovative pathways to appreciating the complexity of the theatre in the 2010s. Because of Sierz’s playful and highly readable approach, his book will be prized by general readers, students, and academics. * William C. Boles, Rollins College, USA *