What Theatre can do Ecologically: Thoughts on the Empathic Ecocritical Dimension of Playtexts

Abstract

This article provides a critical awareness of a major controversy at the intersection of ecology and theatre, namely the notion that the theatre medium is inherently anthropocentric, due to its primary focus on human subjects and culture, and its use of the environment as a secondary player or mere background. By probing into a work of the dramatic canon not associated to ecology in normative terms (The Homecoming by Harold Pinter, 1964), and a contemporary work that directly addresses climate change (Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, 2011), the article reveals how they both contribute towards the ethical--political-aesthetic dimension of ecology suggested by ecophilosopher Félix Guattari.