Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners. (Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre & Performance, Vol. 30 (3), November, 2010)
'This is a timely book. Following hard on the heels of the 2006 TDR special issue on documentary theatre, and at a time when public and critical interest in documentary theatre has - in the UK at least - never been higher, the editors have produced a collection of essays that sets out (in their words) 'to re-evaluate the historical traditions' of the genre, and 'to examine the remarkable mobilization and proliferation of documentary forms across Western theatre cultures in the past two decades'. In this the book, with very few reservations, succeeds...The standard of writing is uniformly high.' - Anthony Jackson, New Theatre Quarterly
'Academic interest in documentary theatre has been slowly growing and this anthology, the first book-length study of the subject in a decade, offers an overdue and distinctive contribution to disciplinary knowledge...Get Real is an extremely timely and valuable collection of essays that highlights the historical trajectories and developing poetics of documentary theatre and performance. It is a must-read text for arts/humanities academics and students, and performance practitioners.' - Kerrie Schaefer, Studies in Theatre and Performance
'Get Real explores reality-based theatre in two main directions. The first presents a historic overview of the hybrid nature of Western documentary theatre since the 1930s... The second direction points to insightful analysis of a range of current practices, with a specific interest in British verbatim theatre.' - Katia Arfara, Theatre Research International
'Like the documentary plays it analyses, Get Real presents a multiplicity of voices and a diversity of viewpoints...the selection and organisation of these essays indicate an acute eye.' - Caroline Wake, Performance Paradigm