A definitive look at a brash and provocative genre of contemporary British theater.

In the 1990s, British theater audiences were shocked to see blatant portrayals of physical and psychological violence, murder, rape, incest, adultery, drug abuse, and homosexuality onstage. These confrontational and aggressive plays, written by young, honest, and uncompromising playwrights, came to be known as in-yer-face theater. With their use of obscene language, nudity, and even the performance of actual sex acts onstage, the playwrights in this genre intended to force people to think about and question their own desires and impulses. On the flip side, sly humor proved an equal part of the mix when in-yer-face dramatists turned their barbed tongues on the hypocrisy and denial inherent in the decorum of traditional drama.

Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking, Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Patrick Marber's Closer are just a few of the plays examined in In-Yer-Face Theatre. Aleks Sierz closely analyzes this new genre in relation to audience and critical reaction as well as to the history and current state of mainstream and fringe British theater. In the process, he provides a vital evaluation demonstrating that in-yer-face is not simply comprised of sensationalist ploys and pessimistic assessments of modern life but in fact offers keen observations on current attitudes toward consumerism, violence, sexuality, and morality.

Aleks Sierz is the Tribune's (U.K.) theater critic and also reviews for The Stage and other publications. He also teaches at Goldsmiths College, University of London.