Unknown Characters and Lost Unity: Postdramatic Reflections in Martin Crimp’s Whole Blue Sky

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the postdramatic theatricalities in Martin Crimp's Whole Blue Sky (2005). Martin Crimp has been one of the most prolific, controversial and satirical playwrights since his plays were first staged in British theatres in the late 1980s. While his early plays evoke the absurdist tradition, his later plays emphasize innovative theatrical elements labelled in-yer-face, postdramatic and New Writing. Considering Crimp's wideranging body of work, his distinctive theatrical style is clearly recognizable. Although postdramatic theater is usually associated with theater movements that emerged after the 1990s, it dates back to the theater of Bertold Brecht. For this reason, postdramatic debates are briefly discussed in the Introduction. Whole Blue Sky (2005), which is the field of application of this study, is a short play in the collection of Fewer Emergencies (2005) and Face to the Wall (2005). Moreover, the text in question is completely anonymous and consists of three characters numbered 1, 2 and 3. It is known that character 1 is the only female character in the text. In addition, it is seen that the plot and other traditional principles of theatre evaporate in the play. This study presents an evaluation of Crimp's Whole Blue Sky (2005) in terms of postdramatic theatrical features.