The Undecidable and the Event: Ethics of Unrest in Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life and debbie tucker green’s truth and reconciliation

Abstract

Contemporary ethics no longer follows metaphysical presumptions of origins, priorities, standards, subordination, hierarchies and dualisms. It does not prioritize presence or purity to contingency or complexity (see Derrida, 1998, p. 236 and also 1982, p. 195). We no longer look upon human beings as either congenitally good or bad. However, even though we live in a world of competing, contradictory and often even mutually exclusive opinions, we still have to be capable of judging singular situations, of providing arguments and, ultimately, of making decisions, for better or worse. What effects do such antagonisms have on the judgement of the ethical potential of contemporary drama? In order to find systematic answers to this question it seems worthwhile to recall four pivotal theoretical/philosophical positions on contemporary ethics first: Zygmunt Bauman, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Alain Badiou. In my discussion of two of the most experimental contemporary British playwrights, Martin Crimp and debbie tucker green, and two of their plays, Attempts on Her Life (1997) and truth and reconciliation (2011), I then elaborate on three major ethical concepts — Otherness, undecidability, and the Event — and their concomitants which, as is shown, are crucial ethical concerns of these two plays. I conclude on the ethical appeal function emanating from the contents and the structure of both plays.