Poetry and Intensification in Howard Barker’s Theatre of Plethora

Howard Barker’s recent work BLOK/EKO (2011) and Hurts Given and Received (2010) explores the relationship between poetry and suffering in a style that may be described as plethoric. The work places increasing emphasis on notions of depth, intensity, excess and the emotional force of the singular dramatic moment. This article considers the trans-personal effects of the poetic theatrical gesture in Barker’s work and argues that in the theatre of plethora exaggeration, excess and intensification are dramaturgical principles that invite us to be ‘open to the event’.