The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science, ed. Kirsten E Shepherd-Barr (Cambridge University Press, 2020), has just been published. Kirsten Shepherd-Barr is Professor of English and Theatre Studies in the Faculty of English and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford.
Theatre has engaged with science since its beginnings in Ancient Greece. The intersection of the two disciplines has been the focus of increasing interest to scholars and students. The Cambridge Companion to Theatre and Science gives readers a sense of this dynamic field, using detailed analyses of plays and performances covering a wide range of areas including climate change and the environment, technology, animal studies, disease and contagion, mental health, and performance and cognition. Identifying historical tendencies that have dominated theatre’s relationship with science, the volume traces many periods of theatre history across a wide geographical range. It follows a simple and clear structure of pairs and triads of chapters that cluster around a given theme so that readers get a clear sense of the current debates and perspectives.
Go to www.cambridge.org/theatreandscience for a 20% discount on the book in both hardcover and paperback (valid until 31 Dec 2020)
**Professor Shepherd-Barr will be in conversation about the book with Michael Billington on 14 December 2020 as part of Cambridge University Press’s Digital Festival.**