This book examines a series of contemporary plays where writers put theatre itself on stage. The texts examined variously dramatize how theatre falls short in response to the demands of violence, expose its implication in structures of violenceincluding racism and gender-based violenceand illustrate how it might effectively resist violence through reconfiguring representation. Case studies, which include Jackie Sibblies Drurys We Are Proud to Present and Fairview, Ella Hicksons The Writer and Tim Crouchs The Author, provide a range of practice-based perspectives on the question of whether theatre is capable of accounting for and expressing the complexities of structural and interpersonal violence as both lived in the body and borne out in society. The book will appeal to scholars and artists working in the areas of violence, theatre and ethics, witnessing, memory and trauma, spectatorship and contemporary dramaturgy, as well as to those interested in both the doubts and dreams we have about the role of theatre in the twenty-first century.
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1 Introduction: Staging the Role of Theatre |
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1 | (44) |
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1 | (2) |
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3 | (5) |
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8 | (5) |
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13 | (4) |
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Problems of Staging Violence |
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17 | (12) |
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Metatheatricality and Violence |
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29 | (6) |
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35 | (4) |
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39 | (1) |
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39 | (6) |
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2 Performative Violence and Self-Reflexive Dramaturgy: A Study of Guillermo Calderon's Kiss and Other Works |
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45 | (30) |
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45 | (3) |
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"Shut-In, but Hearing the Gunshots" |
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48 | (8) |
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"Bombs Are Falling from the Sky. What Else Do Tou Need to Know?" |
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56 | (9) |
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Staging Performative Violence |
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65 | (6) |
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71 | (1) |
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72 | (3) |
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3 "Touching Something Real": The Critique of Historical and Theatrical Methodology in Jackie Sibblies Drury's We Are Proud to Present |
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75 | (30) |
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75 | (3) |
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"Doing Anything Other Than What's Real": Illuminating Historical Injustice |
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78 | (8) |
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"Where Are All the Africans?": Exposing Theatrical Bias |
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86 | (7) |
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93 | (7) |
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100 | (1) |
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101 | (4) |
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4 The Ethics of Imagining Others: The Limits of "Performative Witness" in Michael Redhill's Goodness and Erik Ehn's Thistle |
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105 | (32) |
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105 | (3) |
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Theatrical Witness and Authorship |
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108 | (4) |
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The Unhappy Performativity of Goodness in Rwanda |
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112 | (8) |
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Staring Down Genocide: "A Wonderful Feeling" |
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120 | (5) |
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Thistle: "All This I Saw" |
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125 | (7) |
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132 | (2) |
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134 | (3) |
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5 Staging Rage: A Feminist Perspective on Theatrical Self-Reflexivity in Ella Hickson's The Writer and Tim Crouch's The Author |
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137 | (30) |
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137 | (6) |
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The Author: Enraging the Spectator |
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143 | (5) |
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Dramaturging "Insufferable" Female Rage: Hickson's Metatheatrical Counterfeit |
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148 | (2) |
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150 | (4) |
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154 | (7) |
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Conclusion: Changing the Subject Position |
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161 | (2) |
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163 | (4) |
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6 Metatheatrical Dramaturgies of Reception: Mirroring the Audience in Ontroerend Goed's Audience and Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview |
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167 | (30) |
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167 | (6) |
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Staging the Power of the Spectator |
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173 | (10) |
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183 | (9) |
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192 | (1) |
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193 | (4) |
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197 | (12) |
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Beyond the Death of Theatre |
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197 | (5) |
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Bringing It Home Racists Anonymous |
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202 | (4) |
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206 | (1) |
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206 | (3) |
References |
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209 | (10) |
Index |
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219 | |
Emma Willis is a senior lecturer in Drama at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research lies at the intersection of contemporary performance and dramaturgy, spectatorship and ethics and investigates the roles that theatre and theatricality play in our negotiations of subjectivity, community and responsibility in contemporary life. Recent publications include Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent Others (2014), and journal articles and chapters variously exploring metatheatricality, acting pedagogy, kindness and shopping malls.