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In-Yer-Face Theatre Analysis

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2. Origins and influences that led to In-Yer-Face theatre. Elements of In-Yer-Face theatre originated in Britain in the 1960s but it was not an immediate success because only small forms and elements were identified in some plays. Later on, it started as something new in the 1990s. In-Yer-Face aggravated the audience and confronted them. In the 1990s it gradually became the dominant style of a lot of new works (Sierz, 2005). According to Sierz (2005): “The term In-Yer-Face originated in American sports journalism during the mid-1970s as an exclamation of derision or contempt, and gradually seeped into more mainstream slang during the late 1980s and 1990s, meaning 'aggressive, provocative, brash '. It implies being forced to see something close up, having your personal space invaded. It suggests the crossing of normal boundaries. In short, it describes perfectly the kind of theatre that puts audiences in just such a situation”. In a socio- political context In-Yer-Face theatre became personal to the social as well as political environments it had to originate in. The socio-political environment involved people to be separated according to class. Classes mixing not only on a business level but a personal level as well. In-Yer-Face theatre ignored reality and showed people the “rule breaking world”. Sarah Kane had a great deal of influence on In-Yer-Face theatre as she referred to it as experimental theatre and that people live through what is depicted on stage (Buchler,
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