The inevitable need to speak in order to be: On the loss of voice in two plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker

Abstract

The contemporary playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker has shown a long-standing engagement with the themes of language and identity formation. Wertenbaker uses a range of mediumsto explore these subjects and, as one would expect, such concerns have also made frequent appearances in her playwriting. This article will explore and compare two such plays: the unpublished Case to Answer, first produced by the Soho Poly in 1980, and the more widely known, The Love of the Nightingale, first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Other Place, Stratford, in 1988.