“Experiential, not Speculative”: Love in and After In-Yer-Face

Abstract

Briefly reviewing the difficulty of defining In-Yer-Face theatre, Stöckl argues for a broad and inclusive conceptualization of the phenomenon that focuses on “directness” and “experientiality” as its most characteristic features. Rather than the mere presence of shocking scenes, the argument runs, it is the underlying attempt to address the audience not so much on a cognitive but primarily on a pre-discursive and affective level that defines In-Yer-Face theatre. Its combination of comparatively plain, declarative language with gripping stage images asks for direct perception rather than comprehension or interpretation. This “aesthetics of directness” is made visible by comparing the treatment of love in Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking and Kane’s Cleansed on the one hand with that in Dennis Kelly’s Love and Money on the other.