This exciting collection of essays explores the complex area of madness and performance. The book spans from the 18th century to the present and unearths the overlooked history of theatre and performance in, and about, psychiatric asylums and hospitals. The book will appeal to historians, social scientists, theatre scholars, and artists alike.

This collection, edited by Anna Harpin and Juliet Foster, works across performance and medicine, with a specific focus on 'madness' and psychiatry, and performances of and in the asylum. This is exciting and important work, capturing a pivotal moment in understanding particular histories of mental illness as it relates to site and performance. (Gianna Bouchard, Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol. 26 (1), February, 2016)

'This is a rich and textured book that brings together debates about madness and mental illness with contemporary analyses of performance. Historically informed, this ground-breaking edited collection traverses disciplinary boundaries, shedding new light on connections between theatre and madness.' - Helen Nicholson, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

'[A] wonderful book' - Femi Oyebode, National Centre for Mental Health

Autorentext
Susan Cox, University of British Columbia, Canada Bridget Escolme, Queen Mary, University of London, UK Juliet Foster, University of Cambridge, UK Anna Harpin, of Exeter, UK Rebecca Loukes University of Exeter, UK Sarah Rudolph University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, USA Richard Stern Queen Mary, University of London, UK Dylan Tighe, Independent Theatre Maker, UK

Inhalt
Introduction: Locating Madness and Performance; Anna Harpin and Juliet Foster PART I: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES 1. Smart's Authority and the Eighteenth-Century Mad-Business; Richard Stern 2. Performance in Bethlem, Fulbourn and Brookwood Hospitals: A Social Psychological and Social Historical Examination; Juliet Foster PART II: APPLYING PERFORMANCE 3. A Life of Their Own: Reflections on Autonomy and Ethics in Research-Based Theatre; Susan M. Cox 4. Whose Mind is it Anyway: Acting and Mental Illness; Sarah Rudolph PART III: CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES 5. Start Making Sense; Dylan Tighe 6. 'No one ever listens': Body, Space, and History in RedCape Theatre's The Idiot Colony; Rebecca Loukes PART IV: THEATRICAL MALADIES 7. Ophelia Confined: Madness and Infantilisation in Some Versions of Hamlet; Bridget Escolme 8. Dislocated: Metaphors of Madness in Contemporary Theatre Anna Harpin Conclusion: Relocating Madness and Performance; Anna Harpin and Juliet Foster Select Bibliography Index