Exploded History: Queer Temporalities and Chronobiopolitics in Contemporary Playwriting

Abstract This article addresses the recent rapid growth in contemporary history plays in anglophone theatre that are set across multiple times and places and which suggest patterns and connections across these disparate eras and contexts. The name exploded history plays is proposed for such dramas, and the three examples investigated in detail are Shed: Exploded View by Phoebe Eclair-Powell (2024), The Flea by James Fritz (2023), and Family Tree by Mojisola Adebayo (2023). The essay contends that such a history play may have a queer temporality as part of its dramaturgical form, even when its direct subject matter is not queer history. In separating form from content in this way, it proposes that plays on heteronormative and chrononormative subjects can use history to queer our perspective on the past, present, and future.