The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781525537554)

WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, BIRNAM WOOD COMES TO DUNSINANE HILL

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.

Author: Edwin Wong
ISBN-10: 1525537555
ISBN-13: 9781525537554
Publisher: FriesenPress
Language: English
Published: 02/04/2019
Pages: 378
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 05/15/2019