Abstract:

Martin Crimp criticises the urban culture based on pleasure and temptation in real-life contexts. Crimp depicts moral ambiguity and corruption faced by society and individuals in dealing with the problems caused by the free-market economy and globalisation in a background of an urban consumer society. Martin Crimp criticises contemporary urban life, in which consumerism has become a way of life, in the context of the social and individual degeneration, decay, uncertainty, violence and insecurity he witnesses. In his plays, Crimp delineates the issues of loss of tradition and value, social collapse, loneliness, and self-repetitive life in a bleak reality with a desire for an alternative life. In this context, to frame the theoretical structure of this study, the British society and theatre, starting with The Margaret Thatcher era into the first decade of the 2000s, will be analysed in terms of economic, political, and cultural changes that affect and transform society and the individuals as reflected in the plays. This study will discuss Martin Crimp’s stage plays titled Dealing with Clair (1988), The Treatment (1993), and The City (2008) within a social, cultural, political, and economic context.