Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre

Description

Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre responds to a rising tide of experimentation in theatre practice that eliminates or obscures light. It brings together leading and emerging practitioners and researchers in a volume dedicated to exploring the phenomenon and showcasing a range of possible critical and theoretical approaches. This book considers the aesthetics and phenomenology of dark, gloomy and shadow-strewn theatre performances, as well as the historical and cultural significances of darkness, shadow and the night in theatre and performance contexts. It is concerned as much with the experiences elicited by darkness and obscured or diminished lighting as it is with the conditions that define, frame and at times re-shape what each might 'mean' and 'do'. Contributors provide surveys of relevant practice, interviews with practitioners, theoretical reflections and close critical analyses of work by key innovators in the aesthetics of light, shadow and darkness. The book has a particular focus on the work of contemporary theatre makers - including Sound&Fury, David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, Lundahl & Seitl, Extant, and Analogue - and seeks to deepen the engagement of theatre and performance studies with what might be called 'the sensory turn'. Theatre in the Dark explores ground-breaking areas that will appeal to researchers, practitioners and audiences alike Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction: The Dark Draws In Theatre in the dark: 1993 to the present Symbolic, diegetic and metaphysical darkness Dark histories and the sensory turn Darkness and identity: Blindness, blackness and lightlessness Reaching into the dark References Part 1 Dark Aesthetics Chapter 1 Harnessing Shadows: A Historical Perspective on the Role of Darkness in the Theatre ‘Going to black’ Darkness and the auditorium Light and darkness in Renaissance Italy Active light and darkness A dramaturgy of darkness References Chapter 2 Melting into Air: Dining in the Dark, Reification and the Aesthetics of Darkness Dining in the dark since the 1990s: Scholarly preoccupations and the retrieval of theatre Reification in the commercial sector: Towards a critical theory of darkness The electrical illumination of Italy and the Tactile Dinner Party Darkness that dances: Between food art and theatre Conclusion References Chapter 3 Creating in the Dark: Conceptualizing Different Darknesses in Contemporary Theatre Practice Dark aesthetics Plays in the dark Darkness: An intervention in the spectacle of displaying bodies Darkness as quantum superposition Conclusion References Part 2 Dark Phenomena Chapter 4 Aural Visions: Sonic Spectatorship in the Dark Sounding Fiction Seeing in the dark Aural visions Sound functions Critical listening and coerced looking Conclusion References Chapter 5 Darkness, Perceptual Ambiguity and the Abyss References Chapter 6 Missing Rooms and Unknown Clouds: Darkness and Illumination in the Work of Lundahl & Seitl On being blindfolded … on being and blindfoldedness Unknown Cloud … the space(s) between Conclusion: Acts of illumination References Chapter 7 Staring at Blindness: Pitch Black Theatre and Disability-led Performance The Effing and Blinding Cabarets (2007–9) Sheer (2012) Flatland (2015) Conclusion References Part 3 Shadow, Night and Gloom Chapter 8 Playing with Shadows in the Dark: Shadow Theatre and Performance in Flux In two rooms, divided by a screen Self and others Shadows without dividing screens: The historic avant-garde Shadow puppetry unmoored: Contemporary performances References Chapter 9 Under the Starry Night: Darkness, Community and Theatricality in Iannis Xenakis’s Mycenae Polytopon1 Xenakis and darkness Darkness, questioning and transcendence A performance in the making Audiences Conclusion References Chapter 10 In Praise of Gloom: The Theatre Defaced Houselights out Snap back to black Reverberating faces Dark enough yet? Facing out References Notes Index