The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling Drama and the Unexpected

WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT BIRNAM WOOD COMES TO DUNSINANE HILL. The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy presents a profoundly original theory of drama that speaks to modern audiences living in an increasingly volatile world driven by artificial intelligence gene editing globalization and mutual assured destruction ideologies. Tragedy according to risk theatre puts us face to face with the unexpected implications of our actions by simulating the profound impact of highly improbable events.. In this book classicist Edwin Wong shows how tragedy imitates reality: heroes by taking inordinate risks trigger devastating low-probability high-consequence outcomes. Such a theatre forces audiences to ask themselves a most timely question---what happens when the perfect bet goes wrong?. Not only does Wong reinterpret classic tragedies from Aeschylus to ONeill through the risk theatre lens he also invites dramatists to create tomorrows theatre. As the world becomes increasingly unpredictable the most compelling dramas will be high-stakes tragedies that dramatize the unintended consequences of todays risk takers who are taking us past the point of no return.