Description
‘On Politics’ is concerned dramaturgically and existentially with relations of power in all spheres of life. We propose that life itself and all forms of economic, environmental, social and cultural production are inherently political. To say otherwise is, as Bertolt Brecht noted, to merely align oneself with the ruling group. Dramaturgically, the forms and actions of performance themselves communicate, critique and express the desire for conversations with a range of interlocutors, antagonists, audiences and others. This issue is informed by our current context of rapid and continuous transformations in environmental, technological and social life — transformations that pose both existential and practical challenges for theatre and performance. The essays in this issue respond to this proposition through three distinct, yet interrelated themes: Diagnosis, Activism and Futures.
Contents:
On Politics
Helena Grehan, Peter Eckersall
Theatricalizing Protest : The chorus of the commons
Andy Lavender
Our Town : Local politics, community theatre and power
Asher Warren
Theatre of the Real with Resettled Refugees : Old problems and new solutions in The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe
Caroline Wake
Compost and Air-conditioning : Beyond biospherical performance and towards the shimmer
Eddie Paterson
Bombshells and Balaclavas : Ironies of inclusion in the work of young Islamic artists in Australia
Edward Scheer
The Politics of (In)Decision : A hauntological reading of Dickie Beau’s Re-Member Me
Glenn D’Cruz
Slow Listening : The ethics and politics of paying attention, or shut up and listen
Helena Grehan
Politics Populism Performance
Janelle Reinelt
Shipwreck, Without Label
Josephine Wilson
From Despair to Friendship : Michiel Vandevelde’s Paradise Now (1986–2018)
Kristof Van Baarle
Anthroposcenic Performance and the Need For ‘Deep Dramaturgy’
Lara Stevens
Inside the Fishtrap : A conversation with Paloma McGregor on the intersection of art and activism
Nina Angela Mercer
Masculinity after #MeToo in Mainstream Theatre : Watching Miller, rehearsing Kane, reading Rush v Nationwide News Pty Ltd
Eloïse Mignon, Paul Rae
Slow Making in Five Short Blasts
Renée Newman
Problems of Stasis in My Country : The National Theatre and the crisis of general enculturation in post-referendum Britain
Tony Fisher
