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How has the media since the First Gulf War altered political analysis and how has this alteration has in turn affected socially-critical art? Colleran examines more than forty plays, many written in direct response to the 1991 war in Iraq as well as to the 9/11 attacks and the retaliatory actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Introduction: Spectator of Calamities Five Political Crises: The New Semiotic Environment Turning History into Happening The Persians From the Ruins of 9/11: Grief and Terror Facing Terror War Documents Bodies Count The Spectacle of Our Suffering

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"Colleran pushes at the boundaries among disciplinary approaches to wartime theatre: performance, media, culture, and theatre history studies. The result is a remarkable work that points the way to future studies in an era when war seems without end." - Theatre Journal

"All in all, this is a very well researched and insightful book, taking into account a great array of theoretical perspectives on media culture, representation, accountability, and ethics in its analysis of how theatre has responded to the increasing mediatisation of warfare in the last two decades." - Journal of Contemporary Drama in English

"This is a meaty, informed study of how and why a certain canon of plays matters . . . This excellent book could serve as the basis for an entire topics class; introductory chapters and any one other could be a freestanding unit in an advanced undergraduate seminar. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." - CHOICE

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Jeanne Colleran is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor of English at John Carroll University, USA.

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