New Plays of Ideas and an Aesthetics of Reflection and Debate in Contemporary British Political Drama

In recent years a number of British plays, especially political dramas, have been laying emphasis on argumentation and reflection rather than quick action. This is particularly the case when complex national or global political issues are addressed. This article argues that since the late 1990s a new drama of ideas has taken the stage and created a “thinking place” within the “viewing place,” the theatron. It looks at current dramatic, politico-philosophical and cultural contexts surrounding the concepts of reflection and debate which point to a revival of deliberative processes and a renewed interest in big questions regarding, for example, the military, the economy, the environment, health and multi-ethnicity. These contexts can be connected to the emergence of new plays of ideas. At the same time, the essay examines strategies that can be used to aestheticise the notions of reflection and debate in such dramas and to move them to the forefront in terms of, for instance, relativising ideologies, adding challenging figures as ‘audiences’ to the debate and fusing personal matters with ideas. Examples of a focus on reflection and debate can be found in Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange (2000), Lucy Prebble’s Enron (2009), D.C. Moore’s The Empire (2010) and Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs (2011).