Anthony Neilson

Anthony Neilson (born 1967, Edinburgh) is a Scottish playwright and director. He is known for his collaborative way of writing and workshopping his plays. Much of his work is characterised by the exploration of sex and violence.

Anthony Neilson
Born1967 (age 55–56)
Edinburgh, Scotland
OccupationPlaywright, theatre director, screenwriter
 Literature portal

Neilson has been cited as a key figure of In-yer-face theatre, a term used to characterise new plays with a confrontational style and sensibility that emerged in British theatre during the 1990s.[1] He has been credited with coining the phrase "in-your-face theatre"[2] but has rejected the label and instead describes his work in this style as “'experiential' theatre”.[3]

Experimenting with various other forms of theatre, Neilson is also recognised for creating non-naturalistic plays that utilise elements of absurdist and expressionist storytelling to depict the interior landscape of their characters.[3] He has described such theatre as "psycho-absurdism".[4]

Career

Writing

Neilson studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama but expelled for "insubordination", now unoccupied he entered a BBC young writers' competition and won which started him on the path of becoming a writer.[5]

He also participated in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six Books, writing a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible.[6] He has also written for the television series Spooks.

Directing

Neilson has more recently moved into directing with his first feature film The Debt Collector in 1999 which won the Fipresci (International Critics) Award at the Troia International Film Festival. As his writing work involves collaborations he has a massive directorial role in the creation of his plays but in 2007 he was credited as director of his play God in Ruins at the Soho Theatre. At the RSC[7] he directed the world premiere of The Drunks by the Durnenkov Brothers in 2009. In 2010 he directed Caledonia by Alistair Beaton at the Edinburgh Festival.

Association with in-yer-face theatre

In-yer-face theatre is a label used to characterise a confrontational style and sensibility of drama that emerged in new plays (primarily written by young writers) that were performed in Great Britain during the 1990s. This label was popularised by critic Aleks Sierz in his 2001 book In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, where he analysed and celebrated this style of drama.[1] In the book Sierz wrote an entire chapter examining Neilson's work and three of his plays: Normal, Penetrator and The Censor.

Reputation

Sierz has dubbed Neilson as one of "the big three" playwrights (along with Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill) associated with In-yer-face theatre,[8] whom Sierz has referred to as "the most provocative new writers of the [nineties]" who also "had an influence that far outweighed the number of plays they wrote at the time... What they did was transform the language of theatre, making it more direct, raw and explicit. They not only introduced a new dramatic vocabulary, they also pushed theatre into being more experiential, more aggressively aimed at making audiences feel and respond."[9]

Sierz has highlighted Neilson as "one of the first to exploit the new freedoms of nineties drama"[10] and "one of the first writers of the decade to create an experiential theatre of extreme sensations", adding that "Although often underrated, Neilson's significance lies less in his skill as a writer than in his pioneering of a form of confrontational theatre that became central to the new aesthetic of British drama in the nineties."[11]

Coining "In-your-face theatre"

Sierz has been mistakenly cited as coining the phrase “In-yer-face theatre”, writing that “Although I certainly was the first to describe, celebrate and theorise this kind of new writing, which emerged decisively in the mid-1990s, I certainly did not invent the phrase.” In his piece “A brief history of in-yer-face theatre” Sierz cites an interview with The Financial Times's critic Sraha Hemming in November 1995, where Neilson remarked “I think that in-your-face theatre is coming back — and that is good.” Sierz has stated that “As far as I know, this seems to be the very first coinage of the term “in-your-face theatre”.”[2]

'Experiential Theatre' and rejection of the 'In-yer-face' label

Although Sierz credits Neilson for coining the term "In-your-face theatre", Neilson has rejected the label to describe his own work and instead prefers to describe it as "experiential" theatre:

I will presume that you know about the "In-yer-face" school of theatre, of which I am allegedly a proponent... I've never really liked the term because it implies an attempt to repel an audience, which was never my aim. In fact, the use of morally contentious elements was always intended to do the very opposite. Given that one's genuine morality (as distinctive from the morality that we choose for ourselves) tends to be instinctive rather than cerebral, engaging a receptive audience with such issues is a useful way of scrambling the intellectual response that inhibit/protect us from full involvement with what we're watching. Engage the morality of an audience and they are driven into themselves. They become, in some small way, participants rather than voyeurs. That's why I prefer the term "experiential" theatre. If I make anything, let it be that.[3]

Neilson has also stated "As far as I can tell, In-Yer-Face was all about being horrid and writing about shit and buggery. I thought I was writing love stories."[12]
Sierz has defined 'experiential theatre' as describing:

the kind of drama, usually put on in studio spaces, that aims to give audiences the experience of actually having lived through the actions depicted on stage. (But not literally!) Instead of allowing spectators to just sit back and contemplate the play, experiential theatre grabs its audiences and forces them to confront the reality of the feelings shown to them. Yes, it's in-yer-face.[13]

Censorship of Stitching in Malta

In 2009 Neilson's play Stitching was planned to be staged in Malta by Unifaun Theatre but was banned by the Maltese Board of Film and Stage Classification. Initially no reason for the ban was given to the Unifaun Theatre. After chasing up for an explanation for the board's decision Unifaun Theatre received a letter from the police commissioner outlining the reason for the ban:

“1. Blasphemy against the State Religion – pages 10 and 17

2. Obscene contempt for the victims of Auschwitz – page 29

3. An encyclopaedic review of dangerous sexual perversions leading to sexual servitude – pages 33, 34 and several others

4. Abby’s eulogy to the child murderers Fred and Rosemary West – page 3

5. Reference to the abduction, sexual assault and murder of children – page 36

In conclusion, the play is a sinister tapestry of violence and perversion where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. The Board feels that in this case the envelope has been pushed beyond the limits of public decency.”[14]

Responding to the board's decision the play's producers stated that they planned to stage the play in defiance of the ban. At a press conference the production's director, Chris Gatt, explained that the creative team were looking for a suitable venue to stage the play but that the Maltese police could take action against them by "present[ing] the charges under the Film and Stage Classification legislation, then we would risk a fine of €11.65 for a first-time offence. However, if they prosecute us under the Criminal Code for violating obscenity and public decency, we risk a prison term of between 1 to 6 months." In response Friggiri issued a statement saying that “The play cannot be staged. The producers know they are breaking the law, but that’s their business. ... The play is an insult against human dignity from beginning to end ... The board’s remit is not to defend the law. Our obligation is to follow it.”[15]

In response to the ban the British theatre critics Andrew Hayden[16] and Aleks Sierz condemned the board's decision.[17]

It took a Court Case 9 years to finally reverse the decision. In May 2018, the ECHR ruled that the ban was unlawful. However, the outcry following the case led to the dismantling of Censorship Laws in Malta and to the new Labour Government proposing to remove Obscenity and Blasphemy laws for works of Art

Work

Plays

Radio Plays
  • The Colours of the King's Rose (radio play)
  • A Fluttering of Wings (radio play)
  • Twisted (radio play)

Filmography
  • Deeper Still (short film)
  • The Debt Collector (1999) - writer and director
  • Normal the Düsseldorf Ripper (from the play "Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper") (2009)
  • Spooks (writer - 1 episode) (2010)
  • De Komedie Compagnie (writer - 1 episode) (2011)

References
  1. Sierz, Aleks (2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  2. Blog post: A brief history of in-yer-face theatre on Alek Sierz's website
  3. Neilson, Anthony (28 February 2007). "Foreword". The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780713687156.
  4. Logan, Brian (31 March 2007). "Damn, those critics adore me". The Times. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  5. Portrait of an Artist, The Guardian; accessed 22 July 2020.
  6. "Bush Theatre". Archived from the original on 4 July 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  7. "Anthony Neilson, Literary Associate - Who's Who | RSC". January 27, 2011. Archived from the original on January 27, 2011.
  8. "WHO?" section of the "What is In-yer-face theatre?" page on Aleks Sierz's In-yer-face theatre website
  9. Sierz, Aleks (2001). "Introduction". In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  10. Sierz, Aleks (2001). "Introduction". In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8.
  11. Sierz, Aleks (2001). "3. Anthony Neilson". In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  12. Neilson, Anthony (March 21, 2007). "Don't be so boring". The Guardian – via www.theguardian.com.
  13. 'New Writing A - Z' page on Alek Sierz's In-yer-face theatre website
  14. Weenink, Steffie (18 September 2018). "Stitching It Together: A Look At The Return Of A Play That's Been Banned For A Decade". Lovin Malta. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  15. Zahra, Charlot (15 February 2009). "Stitching to be staged 'no matter what'". Malta Today. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  16. Haydon, Andrew (20 February 2009). "Anthony Neilson's Stitching: don't ban this sick play". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  17. Sierz, Aleks (5 April 2009). "Trust the people, not the censors". Malta Today. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  18. Malvern, Jack (23 October 2018). "Edgar Allen Poe's horror classic The Tell‑Tale Heart back from the dead after attic clear‑out". The Times.
  19. The Guardian Jul 24, 2008 - I had the opposite experience to Lyn Gardner of Anthony Neilson's zombie play The Big Lie at Latitude. This was one of my theatrical highlights ...
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