The research questions underpinning the Poor theatres research project are:

1) How have theatre-makers engaged with the poor, and what aesthetic, economic and political concepts and practices underpin these engagements?

2) How have the poor been represented in the theatre, and what aesthetic, political and ethical arguments arise from an analysis of these representations?

3) What critical and practical contributions can a research methodology that privileges a trans-historical and place-responsive perspective make to understanding cultural practice as a response to poverty today?

4) How can concepts from theatre and performance theory – presence, mimesis, theatricality, performativity, voice – be used to analyse the cultural dimensions of poverty, and to interrogate the regulatory discourses which have called the poor into appearance at distinct historical moments?

5) How can concepts from theatre and performance theory be used to understand the cultural dimensions of economic systems that produce poverty (the role of mimesis in creating networks of desire, value, exchange, production and consumption, for example)?

6) What can be learnt about the challenges of representing poverty from a creative exploration led by a solo female performer? What new understandings emerge from a performance project exploring techniques of self-presentation developed by poor women in the workhouse which reproduced, tricked, exploited and exposed the regulatory discourses that called them into appearance?