Postmodernism is a significant element Caryl Churchill uses within her book of plays Blue Heart of Hearts Desire and Blue Kettle . Therfore I have conducted research into post modernism using The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance by Jen Harvie and Paul Allain. I discovered that postmodernism is an assortment of cultural practices, architecture, criticism and sensibilities that have evolved since the 1980’s and that reject some of the apparent certainties, or ‘ grand narratives’ of modern paradigms of thought. With that being mentioned Postmodernism embodies the departure from  modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories. Also, post-modernism explores how meaning is always multiple contingent on contexts, audiences and makers(Allain and Harvie,2004:231).

Furthermore, I discovered that in theatre postmodernism rejection of apparent certainties takes various forms.  It is identifiable in movements away from text-based theatre which aims towards the potentially more democratic devising methods practised by Split Breaches and Robert Lepage and the playful and destabilizing approaches to identify that are characteristic of much performance art(Allain and Harvie,2004:232).

I also discovered that postmodern performance is usually easy to identify. This is because its effects are widely discussed. For its advocates, it is democratizing since it challenges elitist, universal assumptions, and it is often thrillingly pleasurable in its lively abandon of the familiar, its renegade engagement with a variety of  source materials, its exuberance and its humour. Moreover, the debate that surrounds postmodern performance’s effects make it visible that it questions representational practices by has by no means settled them. Post modernism is a term that’s is used with less frequency in the twenty first century, when much of what it meant to capture is now embraced by post dramatic theatre(Allain and Harvie,2004:233).

Bibliography

Allain, P. and Harvie, J. (2006). The Routledge companion to theatre and performance. London ; New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.