Performance in the Twenty-First Century: Theatres of Engagement

249 Pages·2016·10.53 MB·English

by  Andy Lavender

Performance in the Twenty-First
Century
Performance in the Twenty-First Century: Theatres of Engagement addresses the
reshaping of theatre and performance after postmodernism. Andy Lavender
argues provocatively that after the ‘classic’ postmodern tropes of detachment,
irony, and contingency, performance in the twenty-first century engages more
overtly with meaning, politics and society. It involves a newly pronounced
form of personal experience, often implicating the body and/or one’s sense
of self.
This volume examines a range of performance events, including work by
both emergent and internationally significant companies and artists such as
Rimini Protokoll, Blast Theory, dreamthinkspeak, Zecora Ura, Punchdrunk,
Ontroerend Goed, Kris Verdonck, Dries Verhoeven, Rabih Mroué, Derren
Brown and David Blaine. It also considers a wider range of cultural phenomena
such as online social networking, sports events, installations, games-based work
and theme parks, where principles of performance are in play.
Performance in the Twenty-First Century is a compelling and provocative
resource for anybody interested in discovering how performance theory can
be applied to cutting-edge culture, and indeed the world around them.
Andy Lavender is Professor of Theatre and Performance and Head of the
School of Arts at the University of Surrey.
Cover image: ‘Feast of Dawn’, Hotel Medea, presented by Zecora Ura Theatre
Network. Persis-Jade Maravala (Medea) and Thelma Sharma (the Nurse) await
the audience for a communal breakfast. Photo: Ludovic des Cognets.
Author’s note: The scene that this image depicts is staged at dawn – Hotel
Medea is durational, and runs from midnight to daybreak (the production is
discussed in detail in Chapter 4). This is an invitation to eat together, for the
audience has breakfast with the company at the end of the show. So the image
awaits completion by its (immersed) spectators who have also been participants
in the drama, and will now engage in an extra-theatrical way. The Medea story
ends with the sharing of food, a different sort of ritual, from those that it
customarily presents. The photo features two actors who have been playing
the characters of Medea and her Nurse, although at breakfast they are (sort of)
out of character, post-show. This image is from the London run of the
production, by the River Thames – you can see the O2 Arena on the
Greenwich peninsula in the background. The dawn breakfast, in this iteration,
took place outside, further enhancing the sense of event and theatre-in-the-
world. I like the image’s frontality, which is not untypical of the performance
discussed in the book – people looking out, directly engaging you with their
gaze. The photo is more broadly appropriate as a cover image for Performance
in the Twenty-First Century. Everything about it is liminal, both actual and
pretending. It draws us in, and invites our involvement in its staging of an
encounter.
Performance in the
Twenty-First Century
Theatres of Engagement
Andy Lavender
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Andy Lavender
The right of Andy Lavender to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Lavender, Andy, author.
Title: Performance in the twenty-first century : theatres of engagement /
Andy Lavender.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015042640 | ISBN 9780415592338 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780415592352 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780203128176 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Performing arts –History –21st century.
Classification: LCC PN1584 .L38 2016 | DDC 790.209/05 –dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042640
ISBN: 978-0-415-59233-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-59235-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-12817-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Gill Sans
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
For Tricia, Grace and Tom
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
PART I
Scenes of engagement 1
Introduction 3
1 Theatres of engagement: performance after postmodernism 7
PART II
On mediating performance 33
2 The visible voice (or, the word made flesh): political
presence and performative utterance in the public sphere 35
3 In the mix: intermedial theatre and hybridity 59
4 Feeling the event: from mise en scène to mise en sensibilité 77
PART III
On (not) being an actor 103
5 Sincerely yours: from the actor to the persona 105
6 Me singing and dancing: YouTube’s performing
bodies 120
viii Contents
PART IV
On (not) being a spectator 133
7 Viewing and acting (and points in between): the trouble
with spectating after Rancière 135
8 Audiences and affects: theatres of engagement in the
experience economy 158
PART V
Theatre beyond theatre 193
9 Performance engagements across culture 195
Bibliography 214
Index 231
Figures
1.1 The spectator in action: iPad immersion in Rimini
Protokoll’s Situation Rooms 8
1.2 A performance lecture: Rabih Mroué in The Pixelated
Revolution, dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, 2012 9
2.1 Judith Butler speaks at an Occupy Washington Square Park
gathering 44
2.2 No Man’s Land: Awaiting the guides 47
2.3 No Man’s Land: walking (and listening) through the city 49
2.4 No Man’s Land: a singular destination 50
2.5 Yasser Mroué, with his audio cassettes and DVDs on the
table beside him. In Rabih Mroué, Riding on a Cloud, 2013.
Performed at The Museum of Modern Art, April 21, 2015,
in Projects 101: Rabih Mroué. © 2015 The Museum of
Modern Art, New York 52
2.6 Actors on the stage, spectators in the auditorium. Daimler’s
Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. Rimini Protokoll’s Annual
Shareholders Meeting 55
3.1 dreamthinkspeak’s Before I Sleep: taking tea (Ulrika Belogriva,
Mihai Arsene) 68
3.2 Model Chekhov: the manor house and orchard 69
3.3 The forest of candles 70
3.4 Millennium Retail: candles (and butler) on display 72
3.5 Firs (Michael Poole) adrift, with shop assistants (Ocean Isoaro
and Francesco Calabretta) 73
3.6 Firs (Michael Poole) in the woods: film as installation 73
3.7 The cherry tree 74
4.1 Jason (James Turpin) is prepared for marriage 90
4.2 The spectators celebrate the wedding 91
4.3 Medea (Persis-Jade Maravala) in her bedroom 92
4.4 A spectator in bed 93
4.5 Posing with Jason (James Turpin) 93
4.6 Spectators play Medea’s children in death 95