State of the nation has 40 ratings and 6 reviews bizzy said a really great overview of british theatre by one of the uks best known critics i dipped i. State of the nation british theatre since 1945 looks at post war britain from a theatrical perspective it examines the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the attlee years to the satire boom of the sixties and the growth of political theatre under tony blair in the post iraq period. State of the nation british theatre since 1945 looks at post war britain from a theatrical perspective it examines the constant interplay between theatre and society from the resurgent optimism of the attlee years to the satire boom of the sixties and the growth of political theatre under tony blair in the post iraq period. Get this from a library state of the nation british theatre since 1945 michael billington michael billington looks at post war britain from a theatrical perspective. The guardians theatre critic since 1971 michael billington estimates hes spent 8000 nights in the theatre state of the nation is an unashamedly subjective and left leaning account of how dramatists