Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

The risk theatre model of tragedy, gambling, drama, and the unexpected, Edwin Wong

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

The risk theatre model of tragedy

bibliography

Edwin Wong

gambling, drama, and the unexpected

The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy presents a profoundly original theory of drama that speaks to modern audiences living in an increasingly volatile world driven by artificial intelligence, gene editing, globalization, and mutual assured destruction ideologies. Tragedy, according to risk theatre, puts us face to face with the unexpected implications of our actions by simulating the profound impact of highly improbable events. In this book, classicist Edwin Wong shows how tragedy imitates reality: heroes, by taking inordinate risks, trigger devastating low-probability, high-consequence outcomes. Such a theatre forces audiences to ask themselves a most timely question---what happens when the perfect bet goes wrong? Not only does Wong reinterpret classic tragedies from Aeschylus to O'Neill through the risk theatre lens, he also invites dramatists to create tomorrow's theatre. As the world becomes increasingly unpredictable, the most compelling dramas will be high-stakes tragedies that dramatize the unintended consequences of today's risk takers who are taking us past the point of no return...

Part I. The structure of tragedy : how risk theatre is arranged. Temptation, wager, and cast -- Tempo and tragedy -- Forms of tragedy -- Part II. The philosophy of tragedy : how risk theatre works. The myth of the price you pay -- Four principles of countermonetization -- Part III. A poetics of tragedy : how to write risk theatre. The art of the all-in wager -- "The best laid plans of mice and men" -- Part IV. Beyond tragedy : risk theatre in relation to other genres and the role of risk theatre in modernity. Us and them -- Why risk theatre today?

adult