Plays

Hancock’s work radically challenges formal and narrative conventions. His theatrical landscapes are democratizing in their dramaturgy. In his work, no singular character, no singular object, no singular audience experience is prioritized over another. His genre-bending plays, often mixing visual arts, site-specific installations and solo performance, collapses the distinction between artifice and reality.

Some of Hancock’s most famous works are centered on objects and artwork, lending a thingness, a tactility, to his performances. His plays are sensitively attuned to the power of what playwright Sherry Kramer calls the magical object – theatrical metaphors that hold the hopes and dreams of characters and audience alike. He employs non-theatrical performances, such as eulogies and speeches, to create events that feel both organic and self-consciously observed. Characters experience their most private revelations in glaringly public performances. The artificiality of theatre is embraced yet rendered invisible. As the critic Elinor Fuchs writes, in Hancock’s work, “…we encounter mystery and authenticity at another level entirely.”

See W. David' Hancock’s full CV for a complete list of works