Gerrard McArthur as Blok in Howard Barker’s production of his BLOK/EKO.

For the past several years, Howard Barker has been continuing his sojourn into the uncharted waters of theatre through a project he has identified as “Plethora and bare sufficiency,” exploring the extremes of expansion and contraction in drama and theatre through a variety of new plays such as BLOK/EKO (which featured a cast of 70) and Charles V (in which spoken language consists of a single word). In the November 2012 issue of Studies in Theatre and Performance, editors Sarah Goldingay and Mick Mangan bring together a variety of texts and essays regarding Barker’s new direction. Among them there are essays by Adrian Curtin about Barker’s sound designs; Alex Mangold on reading Barker from a Lacanian perspective; and, from Barker himself, “Identifying some platitudes with regard to the plethoric text.”

The word “plethora” itself sounds like the name of a female character in one of Barker’s recent plays. Studies in Theatre and Performance is a publication of Intellect Ltd. The issue is available for purchase here.