Irving Wardle, "The Birthday Party", Encore 5 (July–Aug. 1958): 39–40; rpt. in The Encore Reader: A Chronicle of the New Drama, ed. Charles Marowitz, Tom Milne, and Owen Hale (London: Methuen, 1965) 76–78 (reissued as: New Theatre Voices of the Fifties and Sixties [London: Eyre Methuen, 1981]); "Comedy of Menace", Encore 5 (Sept–Oct. 1958): 28–33; rpt. in The Encore Reader and New Theatre Voices 86–91.

Ruble, Blair A. (2011). Urals Pathfinder: Theatre in Post-soviet Yekaterinburg (PDF). Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. p.17. ISBN 978-1-933549-77-4. Funnily enough, in-yer-face theatre constitutes less of a rigid stylistic movement, and more of a cultural trend in 1990s Britain that saw the prevalence of similar works being produced at once. Some critics point to cultural events such as the AIDS epidemic or the aftermath of the Thatcher Era to explain the emergence of such anger in the art being made.

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STR Events: February 2010 Lecture". str.org.uk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016 . Retrieved 31 May 2017. Eyre, Hermione (18 September 2011). "Philip Ridley: The savage prophet". The Independent . Retrieved 3 March 2021. Sierz, Aleks (21 October 2015). Introduction. The Pitchfork Disney. By Ridley, Philip. Modern Classics (Reissueed.). Great Britain: Methuen Drama. pp.1–24. ISBN 978-1-4725-1400-4. Sierz included Martin Crimp's play Attempts on her Life as one of the "mighty moments" in the development of in-yer-face theatre. Performed in 1997 at the Royal Court, Sierz described the premiere production as "an event that secured [Crimp]'s reputation as the most innovative, most exciting and most exportable playwright of his generation." [29] Presented by Crimp as "seventeen scenarios for the theatre", the play has been cited as a pioneering work for its unconventional form and structure. Sierz has described the play as "a postmodernist extravaganza that could be read as a series of provocative suggestions for creating a new kind of theatre. The recipe was: subvert the idea of coherent character; turn scenes into flexible scenarios; substitute brief messages or poetic clusters for text; mix clever dialogue with brutal images; stage the show as an art installation. The playtext doesn't specify who says which lines, but Tim Albery's production brought out the acuity and humour of Crimp's writing, with its characteristic irony, and its pointed comments on the pointlessness of searching for a point." [30] Sierz has called Attempts on Her Life "one of the most influential pieces of contemporary theatre" [6] and has lauded the play as being "Crimp's masterpiece", "the best play of the [1990s]" [29] and stated in 2005 that the play "has a good claim to be considered one of the very best British plays of the past 25 years". [31] Decline of in-yer-face theatre [ edit ]

Sierz also states that the murder "resulted in calls for the censorship of films, of television and of art works" [18] because "in 1994 the judge in the boys' trial explained the murder by speculating that they had been exposed to a violent video, ' Child's Play 3', this created a media storm which, I would argue, is the cultural context for the media uproar over Blasted". [6] Stephen Daldry at The Royal Court Theatre [ edit ] a b Sierz, Aleks (2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.39–40. ISBN 978-0-571-20049-8 . Retrieved 12 November 2020.Quoting from an interview with Elaine Aston, in Caryl Churchill (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers, 1997) 5. Holden, Nicholas (17 October 2011). "Chapter 2: "In the Pursuit of New Writers": The Royal Court Young Peoples' Theatre and the Development of First-Time Playwrights in the 1990s". In Boles, William C. (ed.). After In-Yer-Face Theatre: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.27–29. ISBN 978-3-030-39426-4. a b c d " In-Yer-Face? British Drama in the 1990s", University of the West of England, Bristol, 6–7 September 2002, Writernet 2003. Retrieved 9 June 2008. (Conference report posted on writernet.co.uk, in both HTML and PDF versions).

Sierz, Aleks (2007). "Aleks Sierz". British Theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with Directors, Playwrights, Critics and Academics (Interview). Interviewed by Aragay, Mireia; Zozaya, Pilar. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.139–156. ISBN 978-0-230-00509-9. In the 1990s, a revolution took place in British theatre. Out went all those boring politically correct plays with tiny casts portraying self-pitying victims; overthrown were all those pale imitations of European directors’ theatre; brushed aside were all those shreds of self-regarding physical theatre and long-winded, baggy state-of-the-nation plays. Sierz, Aleks (March 2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.210–214. ISBN 0-571-20049-4. a b c d e f g h i j k l Audio recording of lecture given by Aleks Sierz entitled 'Blasted and After: New Writing in British Theatre Today' at a meeting of the Society for Theatre Research, at the Art Workers Guild, London on 16 February 2010This is why it’s easy to get wrapped up in the movement. The plays of in-yer-face theatre, even though they’re over a quarter century old, still feel fresh and brimming with energy. While the style might have gone out of vogue, there’s always joy to be found in the work of young, brilliant writers with anger on their minds (many of whom went on to enjoy amazing and varied careers). Plus, now that the critical hype/hate has died down, we’re able to more accurately appraise plays that may not have been given a proper go by audiences weary of all the eye-gouging. Conclusion In-yer-face drama has been staged by new writing theatres such as the Royal Court, Bush, Hampstead, Soho Theatre, Finborough, Tricycle, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and even the trendy Almeida, all of which are in London. But experiential theatre is not an exclusively metropolitan phenomenon. The Traverse in Edinburgh was really important - as were Manchester, Birmingham, Bolton, West Yorkshire, and so on. Especially Live theatre in Newcastle. Of course, this is not an exclusively English or Brit affair either. Americans such as Phyllis Nagy, Naomi Wallace and Tracy Letts made a vital contribution to new writing in English - as did Scottish writers such as David Greig and David Harrower. Sierz, Aleks (March 2001). In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today. London: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.215–219. ISBN 0-571-20049-4.