ABSTRACT
A lived experience of the ruptured relationship between humans and nature, in the form of a strikingly ecotheatrical production (Frankcom’s 2015 immersive production of Churchill’s (1994) The Skriker, starring Maxine Peake), leads the way in to an extended discussion of the positioning of live theatre in the broader field of ecocriticism. This discovers the active presence of the environment on stage over several decades. An accelerating wave of exciting developments in theatre ecologies, ecocritical theatre and theatre ecocriticism has been under way for some time and demonstrates that live theatre is a powerful locus in which to consider whether humans might be capable of changing their damaging relationship with the environment. The ecosystemic perspective on theatrical events described in the Introduction positions this book in the so-called fourth wave of ecocriticism, in describing the environment on stage as an ecosystem of ambiguous, ubiquitous flows of energy, matter and ideas. This ecocritical perspective informs this chapter’s discussion of relationships between scenery, scenography, green theatre, site-specific theatre, environmental theatre and ecotheatre.
