About Time: Temporality in Theatre and Drama
Special Section of Skenè. Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 12.2 (Dec 2026)
Edited by Alessandro Grilli - Università di Pisa - alessandro.grilli@unipi.it
In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant argues that space and time are mere forms of human perception, not things existing independently. However, despite space and time being inherent in any possible form of experience, the relationship between temporality and theatre/drama provides exceptionally important insights for reflection on time in general. Theatre is an event in time, yet it also presupposes and represents time (Limon 2010; Wiles 2014; Rabey 2016) – often depicting another time (Rokem 2000). In short, the theatrical experience is based on the relationship between multiple different temporalities, the gaps between which allow us to grasp aspects of time that would otherwise remain hidden.
As an event in time, theatre draws our attention to the uniqueness of the performance – but also to its paradoxical iterability: the staging occupies a specific location in space and time, yet it can be repeated like a ritual. Like a ritual it establishes complex and fascinating relationships between the present and the multiple layers of temporality involved in its performance. From a semio-narrative point of view, theatre is the place where the time of the performance and the time of the audience’s experience are the same (Elam 1980; Richardson 1987). It is no coincidence that Genette (1972) refers to the narrative in which the “temps de l’histoire” and the “temps du récit” have the same duration as “scène”. However, the relationships between stage time and theatre time (Ayckbourn 2002), represented time and the time of primary experience, performance time and preparation time (Wilson 2012) are much more nuanced. Theatre does not merely reflect the linearity of ‘objective’ time; it refracts and transforms it in creative and illuminating ways, highlighting and enhancing the most varied dimensions of subjective time (Arstila, Lloyd, eds, 2014). Theatre can select, combine, modify and distort different aspects of temporality – such as memory, anticipation, prophecy and dreams – and recombine them in forms of representation that defamiliarize and highlight the very perception of time outside the fictional frame (Wihstutz 2009). In theatre, we witness potential transforming into action, and action realising itself in utopia. If time is the measure of becoming, as conceived in ancient philosophy, and theatre is representation of an action, then the temporal dimension is the one that best allows us to grasp, on a symbolic level, the core of drama as transformation.
This special section of Skenè (12.2) aims to explore the various facets of temporality in theatre and drama, investigating general theoretical issues alongside specific case studies, and covering topics ranging from Greek tragedy (de Jong & Nünlis, 2007, pp. 255–274) and Shakespeare (Wagner, 2012; Shohet, 2018) to Romantic theatre (Burwick, 2022) and 20th- and 21st-century dramatic and performative practices (Bryant-Bertail, 2000).
We welcome submissions from scholars of all backgrounds and levels of experience that examine the multiple aspects of temporality thoughout theatre’s historical development, including its historical context (Wynants, 2019) and relationship with other media (Bushnell, 2016). We are interested in investigations of the formal, thematic, technical, and performative dimensions of time, regardless of chronological or cultural tradition. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary and transcultural contributions that engage with the philosophical and symbolic meanings of temporality embedded in specific dramatic codes and theatrical traditions.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• The dramatic organisation of temporality
• Linear vs. non-linear temporality
• The symbolic dimensions of time in drama
• Dramatic vs. theatrical time
• Stasis, ellipsis, acceleration in drama
• Rhythm, iteration, modular time
• Parachronies in theatre and drama
• Utopian/uchronic aspects of dramatic plots
• Perceived time vs. objective time
• Performer’s and observer’s embodied time
• Time and identity
• Age as performative and thematic feature
• The memorial aspects of representation
• Queer temporalities
• The relationship between events and backgrounds
• Chronological distancing
• Theatrical temporality and historical consciousness
• The defamiliarized staging of the past
• Temporality and transmediality
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Please submit a 7,000–9,000 word paper to Alessandro Grilli (alessandro.grilli@unipi.it) by 31 July 2026.
If you intend to submit a paper by this deadline, please provide a 300-word abstract and a short biography by 31 May 2026.
Manuscripts must adhere to the journal’s author guidelines, which can be accessed here:
All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.
This special section will be included in the December 2026 issue of Skenè.
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References
Arstila, Valtteri, and Dan Lloyd, eds. 2014. Subjective Time. The Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience of Temporality. Cambridge, MA / London: The MIT Press.
Ayckbourn, Alan. 2002. The Crafty Art of Playmaking. London: Faber and Faber.
Bryant-Bertail, Sarah. 2000. Space and Time in Epic Theater. The Brechtian Legacy. Rochester, NY: Camden House.
Burwick, Frederick. 2022. Time in Romantic Theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bushnell, Rebecca. 2016. Tragic Time in Drama, Film, and Videogames. The Future in the Instant. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
de Jong, Irene J. F., and René Nünlist, eds. 2007. Time in Ancient Greek Literature. Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative II. Leiden: Brill.
Elam, Keir. 1980. The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama. London: Methuen.
Genette, Gérard. 1972. Figures III. Discours du récit. Paris: Seuil.
Limon, Jerzy. 2010. The Chemistry of the Theatre. Performativity of Time. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rabey, David Ian. 2016. Theatre, Time and Temporality. Melting Clocks and Snapped Elastics. Bristol / Chicago: Intellect.
Richardson, Brian. 1987. “‘Time Is Out of Joint’. Narrative Models and the Temporality of the Drama.” Poetics Today 8 (2): 299–309.
Rokem, Freddie. 2000. Performing History. Theatrical Representations of the Past in Contemporary Theatre. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.
Shohet, Lauren, ed. 2018. Temporality, Genre and Experience in the Age of Shakespeare. Forms of Time. London: Bloomsbury (The Arden Shakespeare).
Wagner, Matthew D. 2012. Shakespeare, Theatre, and Time. London: Routledge.
Wihstutz, Benjamin. 2009. “Anticipating the End. Thoughts on the Spectator and the Temporality of Dasein.” Theatre Research International 34 (2): 109–115.
Wiles, David. 2014. Theatre & Time. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wilson, J. A. 2012. “When Is a Performance? Temporality in the Social Turn.” Performance Research 17 (5): 110–118.
Wynants, Nele, ed. 2019. Media Archaeology and Intermedial Performance. Deep Time of the Theatre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.