What theatre can do ecologically: thoughts on the empathic ecocritical dimension of playtexts

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51427/cet.sdc.2025.3.4.3

Keywords:

ecocriticism, ecophilosophy, ecodramaturgy, canonical theatre, landscape theory

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.

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Author Biography

Graça P. Corrêa, CFCUL- Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa / CET- Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa

Theatre director/dramaturg, researcher at FCUL & CET, where she investigates Empathy in art-science-philosophy. PhD in Theatre-Graduate Center CUNY, MA in Directing-Emerson College as Fulbright Scholar, degrees in Architecture-UL and Theatre-ESTC. Select publications: book Gothic Theory and Aesthetics (2021); “Empathy in Art and Science”, Global Philosophy Journal, 2025; “On the Necropolitics of Contemporary Human Uprootedness” (Palgrave, 2022); “White people all over: Refugee Performance, Fictional Aesthetics and Dramaturgies of Alterity-Empathy” (CTR, 2020). 

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Published

2025-06-22

How to Cite

P. Corrêa, G. (2025). What theatre can do ecologically: thoughts on the empathic ecocritical dimension of playtexts. Sinais De Cena, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.51427/cet.sdc.2025.3.4.3

Issue

3rd series, nº 4 (2025)

Section

Thematic dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Graça P. Corrêa

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