This module explores how theatre practitioners have attempted to understand and reimagine the present. It allows students to consider contemporary drama as text and, where possible, as performance, in relation to the political, cultural and social changes of the 21st century. Through a diverse range of case studies from roughly the year 2000 to the present, students will develop an understanding of key trends in contemporary theatre and performance, including documentary theatre, devised theatre, postdramatic theatre and digital theatre, as well as more traditional scripted works. In addition to studying the work of specific playwrights, we will also consider the creative input of a range of theatre practitioners, from directors to actors, designers to dramaturgs. Students will respond to the particular challenges of studying drama’s many emergent forms and themes, developing their advanced skills in performance analysis through engaging with archival traces of performance, such as recordings, scripts, reviews and production photographs. Performances will be studied in relation to theoretical concepts, such as neoliberalism, the environmental crisis, and the body, that shed light upon drama’s engagement with the contemporary world.