This is the first book to offer a sustained examination of theatrical stagings of the fantastic. Embracing science fiction, horror, fantasy, the gothic, magical realism and more, it focuses on the affective and embodied qualities of a wide array of dramatic works which step beyond reality and realism to offer not just spectacle but an interrogation of complex sociopolitical issues.

This first volume – Stages and Scripts – explores the work of numerous playwrights including Alistair McDowall, Katori Hall, Rabindranath Tagore, Migdalia Cruz, Edward Bond and Jordan Harrison, while considering how their work is interpreted through specific performance strategies such as casting, direction and design. Throughout, contributors draw critical connections to a rich range of concepts including gender-based violence, old age, artificial intelligence, colonialism, hauntology, queerness, nationalism and the uncanny.

From time travel in Katori Hall's The Mountaintop (2009), Chinese sci-fi in Li Jianjun's World on a Wire (2021), fantasy voyaging in Rabindranath Tagore's The Land of Cards (1933), to gendered androids in Joël Pommerat's Contes et légendes (2019) and more, this ground-breaking international study is essential for anyone interested in the intersection between theatre and the fantastic.