Point Blank

Point Blank, one of Britain’s most provocative new theater companies, has received a deluge of critical acclaim for its darkly comic political satire and bleak metaphorical landscapes. Point Blank: Nothing to Declare, Operation Wonderland, Roses and Morphine, here reproduces three prominent examples of the company’s early work and contextualizes these plays in the wider tradition and recent history of British political theater. In addition to the full performance scripts, Point Blank offers comprehensive notes to enable a range of potential restagings of the plays, as well as critical essays suggesting bold interpretations of the interplay between contemporary theatrical performance and the prevailing political climate. Editor Liz Tomlin offers invaluable insight into the company’s dramaturgical processes that transform theoretical ideas into mythical, absurd scenarios and visually striking theatrical metaphor. Subversive and incendiary, Point Blank is forging a radical new vision of twenty-first-century theater.      

Praise for the Point Blank theatre company “One of the most exciting theatres around. . . . Political, witty, challenging and bold.”—Guardian “Quality theatre . . . totally compelling.”—Independent on Sunday “Explosive new political satire . . . living up to their tag as Britain’s hottest new theatre company. . . . This is incendiary stuff.”—Edinburgh Evening News

Liz Tomlin is co-artistic director of the Point Blank theater company, based in Sheffield, and a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.