GOING STRAIGHT: THE POLITICS OF TIME AND SPACE IN DAVID ELDRIDGE'S INCOMPLETE AND RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

First published by Journal for Contemporary Drama in English (2014)

This article explores the politics of the spatio-temporal structures that underlie dramatic structure and argues that the organisation of space and time in dramatic structure can expose productive gaps between representations of time and space in society and our lived experience of it.

Drawing on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s concept of “moral unity”, it examine the ways in which the spatio-temporal structures of drama mirror normative representations of spatio-temporal structures in everyday life. It argue, following David Harvey, that our lived experience of time and space in contemporary society is significantly different from its representation in drama and in wider societyand that this is potentially politically disabling.

Through an analysis of David Eldridge’s Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness (Royal Court 2005), this article explores how dramatic structure can be utilised to expose this gap between the representation of time and space and our lived experience of it. 

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This article was originally published in: Journal of Contemporary Drama in English. Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages 145–158, ISSN (Online) 2195-0164, ISSN (Print) 2195-0156, DOI: 10.1515/jcde-2014-0011, April 2014.

The final publication is available at www.degruyter.com.