Dramaturgy of Form

Kasia Lech has written a subtle, substantial, alert analysis of the practice and power of verse in Contemporary Theatre. Her deep, wide, impressive scope of reference displays her command of relevant methodology, underlining the centrality of poetry in much of the most innovative drama now being created on world stages. Lech is most skilled and sensitive in deciphering linguistic games and guile stretching the art of playwriting to its furthest, breathtaking extremes. Her book is the work of an outstanding critic. - Frank McGuinness, University College Dublin Lech's scholarship is a fascinating (and much needed) conversation about the intersections of dialogic language (specifically verse speech patterns and its aural effects) and dramaturgy in meaning-making. In exploring a sense of verse that mostly focuses on verse patterns common in Poland, Ireland, and the UK, but bringing in artists from around the globe, Lech's deep dive into these theoretical and practical waters will help spawn global conversations about language, verse patterns, and their political and social resonances with audiences for years to come. - Martine Kei Green-Rogers, SUNY New Paltz Adopting a performative rather than literary perspective, Kasia Lech makes us rethink the potential of the oral and aural dramaturgies of verse within our global contemporary. She persuasively shows how - far from being the pinnacle of white, male elitist culture - the quintessentially dialogic nature and multi-voiced humanness of the stylized metric form may in fact turn it into a powerful instrument to counter the egocentric ideology of individual singularity, as it affords artistic as well as political agency to silenced, precarious voices from the margins, not least those speaking in second, foreign languages. The links her detailed analysis opens up between Greek and Shakespearean tragedy and the contemporary spoken word art of Hip Hop, the rhymes of Hamilton and the postdramatic chorus, will help a young, multimedia-savvy generation (and their teachers) to unlock anew this radical force of the verse. - Peter M. Boenisch, Aarhus Universitet A work of impressive depth and originality which sensitises its readership to the formal and societal practice and to the experience of verse in performance contexts. - Lauren Clark, Irish University Review Of great value for not only its ideas and content, but also for paving a path to open up, often ethnocentric and closed-mind, scholarship to other cultures and languages than English - David Livingstone, Litteraria Pragensia The old/new art that Lech is at such pains to describe is one that intentionally deconstructs familiar theatrical forms to create an artistic continuum. As such, it is part of an important ongoing conversation among the spectacular range of voices from the multiverse in which we now live. - Patricia Keeney, Toronto's York University