This course explores various approaches to the staging of national identity and history in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present day. Students will study a range of dramatic works and examine evolving ideas of what can constitute a national stage or theatre. Subjects to be explored include ceremonial royal pageantry from Elizabethan England to televised coronations and investitures; the history of television, radio, and the BBC as a communal playhouse; arts festivals, national exhibitions, and the amateur pageant play; revisionist stagings of Shakespeare’s history plays; challenges to ideas of Britishness in England, Scotland, and Wales. (Offered in alternate years.)