Course Description

Representations of mental illness have been predominant on British and American stages. Yet the uses of mental illness differ widely. Traditional depictions are sensationalized, exaggerated, or exploitative; they contribute to stigmatization and obfuscation of the realities faced by those who suffer from mental illness. In large part, mental illness functions primarily as a metaphor, a literary trope embodying resistance, revelation or dissolution of society’s conventions and bonds. Nevertheless, transforming perceptions of mental illness emerge in new plays, plays that strive to offer detailed and truthful portrayals of mental disease with their associated etiologies, attendant symptoms, and varying behaviors. In other words, the new plays deal with mental illness as a subject in its own right. The writers of the plays give voice to a wide array of experiences of mental illness. This course will explore the dynamics of five new works representing madness, melancholia, schizophrenia, trauma, and dementia: Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (1999), David Auburn’s Proof (2000; 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange (2000), David Linsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole (2005; 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), and Tanika Gupta’s Mind Walking (2013).