Title
Upholstered Realism and 'The Great Futurist Railroad': Theatrical 'Train Wrecks' and the Return of the Repressed
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Abstract
Theatre critics often refer to disasters on stage as ‘train wrecks,’ as if missed entrances and technical difficulties force plays ‘off the tracks’ established by scripts, blocking or lighting cue sequences. The term has been around long enough to grow cliché and to lose much of its original referential power, but the industrial nature of the metaphor is significant. Why, in the locomotive and its annihilation, does theatre find a useful image to describe its own failures?
Identifier
10.1080/13528165.2010.490437
Publisher
Routledge
Repository Citation
Gillette, K. (2010). Upholstered realism and 'The great futurist railroad': Theatrical 'Train wrecks' and the return of the repressed. Performance Research, 15(2), 88-93. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2010.490437
Publication Information
Performance Research