You are warmly invited to attend a seminar led by Dr. Paola Prieto López which explores the intersection of ethics, contemporary theatre, and activism. Focusing on theatrical responses to the Black Lives Matter movement in Britain, the seminar will examine how theatre in contemporary Britain challenges social injustice, encourages spectators’ response-ability, and fosters solidarity.
The seminar is open to students, researchers, and anyone interested in contemporary theatre, ethics, race, political performance and community building. It is free of charge and will take place in person.
Paola Prieto López
University of Oviedo
Thursday 14 May 2026
11:00-13:00
Room H (ground floor, next to Amphitheatre B)
Abstract
In the last few years there has been a growing interest in the connection between ethics and theatre, which has been reflected in the publication of a number of monographs devoted to this topic (see, for example, Nicolas Ridout’s Theatre and Ethics, 2009; Helena Grehan’s Performance, Ethics and Spectatorship in a Global Age, 2009; Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre, 2010; Mireia Aragay’s and Enric Monforte’s Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British Theatre, 2014; Mireia Aragay’s and Martin Middeke’s Of Precariousness. Vulnerabilities, Responsibilities, Communities in 21st-Century British Drama and Theatre, 2019; or Marissia Fragkou’s Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre: Politics, Affect, Responsibility, 2019). These publications share an interest in “a model of performance as an ethical encounter” (Ridout 2009, 54), which can activate the spectator’s response-ability (Lehmnan 2006) and foster more solidary relations with others. This seminar focuses specifically on contemporary theatrical responses to the Black Lives Matter movement in Britain and how theatre can serve activist purposes. We will examine how performance aesthetics such as documentary or verbatim can be used to accomplish this goal. In the seminar, we will introduce the theatre project Black Lives, Black Words (2017) and analyze excerpts from Mojisola Adebayo’s The Interrogation of Sandra Bland and Rachel De-Lahay’s My White Best Friend.
Biographical Note
Paola Prieto López is Assistant Professor in the English, French and German Philology Department at the University of Oviedo. She has also taught at the University of Utah. She holds a PhD from the University of Oviedo (2021; cum laude), an MA in Language Pedagogy (University of Utah, 2015), an MA in Spanish Language and Linguistics (University of Oviedo, 2015) and a BA in English Philology. Between 2016-2019 she worked as a Marie-Curie early-stage researcher for the EU-funded “Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe” (UE-15-GRACE-675368). Her research interests include Black British theatre, diaspora and gender studies. She has published in indexed journals (Atlantis) and publishing houses (Routledge). In addition, she has participated in and organised numerous transfer and outreach activities and presented papers at several national and international conferences.
