Dramatic Representations of ‘Them’ and ‘Us’ Class Struggle in Neoliberal Britain

Aston, Elaine (2024) Dramatic Representations of ‘Them’ and ‘Us’ Class Struggle in Neoliberal Britain. In: The Routledge Companion to Working-Class Literature :. Routledge, London, pp. 283-295. ISBN 9781032127866

Abstract

This essay navigates 40 years of neoliberal governmentality through a series of dramatic flashpoints that illuminate theatre’s counter-hegemonic opposition to the hierarchical, classifying structures of neoliberal Britain. A return to the Thatcherite war on class via Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982) and Jim Cartwright’s Road (1986), highlights the deepening of a class-divided nation. Richard Hoggart’s concept of the ‘Them/Us’ class divide anchors scrutiny of the eighties (and beyond). The long shadow cast by the ‘Them/Us’ eighties is evinced in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys (2002) and Roy Williams’ Sucker Punch (2010). A vignette of Jez Butterworth’s socially abject group of revellers in Jerusalem (2009) flanked by a cameo appearance of ‘Them’ via Laura Wade’s Posh (2010), compounds the portrait of a neoliberal nation repeatedly failing to address working-class interests. Brought together, these plays show how class-based dissent from neoliberal governmentality is dramatically expressed through a heterogenous mix of genres and forms, thus releasing realism from its former burden of working-class representation. Equally, the side-by-side viewing of the ‘Them/Us’ dramatic flashpoints affords a critical sensing of the need for a collective uprising of all disenfranchised and ‘demonized’ factions in the interests of a more socially progressive future.