A Postdramatic Reading: Misogyny in Simon Stephens’s Play Three Kingdoms
A Postdramatic Reading: Misogyny in Simon Stephens’s Play Three Kingdoms

Summary/Abstract: In Poetics, Aristotle explains the first known framework of dramatic theatre in history, basing it on certain principles. The restrictive structure of these principles makes playwrights apply an understanding that prioritizes performance, and seek a theatrical aesthetic shaped according to the mentality of the present. In this sense, Postdramatic Theater (2006), which Lehmann puts forward, shows the realities of postmodern society and highlights the performance text created with active participation of audience and reader. Contemporary British playwright Simon Stephens, who presents the lives of postmodern individuals in his plays, draws attention as a leading playwright of the Postdramatic theatre. Stephens’s play Three Kingdoms, which was staged in three different countries and in three different languages, stands out as it contains the postdramatic elements put forth by Lehmann. The aim of this article is to examine the play Three Kingdoms by Simon Stephens, focusing on Postdramatic theater principles determined by Lehmann.

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