TRANSPLANTATION AND EXPLOITATION IN TIM CROUCH’S ENGLAND

ENGLAND is a play performed in an art gallery by two performers, Tim Crouch and Hannah Ringham. The play, which discusses the social position of contemporary art, has a design that can only be performed in a white walled art gallery where Crouch and Ringham alternate in the narration of an intense monologue. In the first act, the protagonist, whose boyfriend is a wealthy art dealer and participates in art auctions as part of his work, is portrayed as a very serious heart patient who despairingly awaits for an organ transplantation. In the second act, the protagonist, now named as English, goes to an unknown city in the Middle East to thank a Muslim widow (the wife of the donor, Hassam) who believes that her husband was killed and his heart was stolen to save a Western person's life. The play contextualizes a different kind of exploitation within the context of transmigration and transplantation. It represents the invasion of a heart for a wealthy Westerner's body and another country's culture. In addition to analysing the text, this study aims to provide an overview of Tim Crouch's work and to show the themes of transformation and exploitation in ENGLAND.