Performance in an Age of Precarity: 40 Reflections

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“This magical book is a love letter to the artists whose imagination and cleverness transport us and unite us, and to the beauty and fragility of their performance. When I read it I feel like I am constantly on the joyful edge of falling in love, trying so hard to keep hold of the feelings evoked. A very precious book in our precarious times.” Vicky Featherstone An anthology of critical essays that draw on a decade of the authors thinking, writing about and working within contemporary performance as critics, producers, dramaturgs, makers, archivists and more. Together, the 40 essays sketch a map of the contemporary performance landscape from avant-garde dance to live art to independent theatre, tracing the contours of its themes, aims, desires and relationship to the wider worlds of mainstream theatre, art and politics. Each essay focuses on a particular artist and these include Bryony Kimmings, Dickie Beau, Forced Entertainment, rashdash, Scottee, Selina Thompson, Tania El Khoury and Uninvited Guests. Reflecting the radical nature of the work considered, the authors attempt to find a new vocabulary and a non-conventional way of considering live performance in these essays. As both a fresh survey of contemporary performance and an exploration of how to think and write about upstream and avant-garde work, this book should be an essential resource for students, artists and audiences, as well as an accessible entry point for anyone curious to know about the beautiful and strange things happening beyond the UK’s theatrical mainstream. Cover page Halftitle page Biography Title page Copyright page CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS About this book PART 1 Reckoning with history Rachael Young moving black / feeling black seeing black / speaking black / seeing through black eyes reclaiming black / claiming space black moving through space and time black black that stops the clocks and leaves time suspended dreaming black Further reading Dickie Beau 1 2 3 4 Further reading Now, years later, I try to recall this event, reconstruct it from uncertain memory Breach Theatre Further reading Tania El Khoury 1 2 3 4 5 Further reading Uninvited Guests Past Present Future Time ruptures, time loops Further reading PART 2 In search of new languages Verity Standen Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari 1 2 Further reading The theatre felt suddenly like a space. A space for uncertainty, for longing and curiosity Ellie Dubois Alexandrina Hemsley and Jamila Johnson-Small Further reading PART 3 The company you keep Deer Park National Student Drama Festival Dartington See You Swoon Traces remain The little brown book Further reading Made In China 1 2 3 4 Further reading Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas Further reading A space in which to rage, yes, argue, yes, confront, yes, but also care, speculate, listen, think Neil Callaghan and Simone Kenyon April 2008 December 2016 Further reading Action Hero Further reading PART 4 Fractures and how to mend them Dan Canham Further reading Sue MacLaine Further reading A theatrical world as endless and repetitive, as vast and comic and occasionally unbearable as life itself Amy Sharrocks Further reading Rachel Mars Wrath Envy (and a dash of pride) Lust Gluttony, or greed Further reading Selina Thompson Three conversations that led to friendship with Selina Thompson Six books I have read because of Selina Three concepts introduced to me by Selina Two songs that remind me of Selina Something that might not be clear already and might be worth spelling out Further reading PART 5 Close encounters Abigail Conway 1 2 3 Sheila Ghelani 1. The field 2. The book 3. The hedgerow 4. The camouflage 5. The field, revisited Further reading Brian Lobel 1 2 3 4 5 Further reading Artists who lack manners in the best possible way Ria Hartley Stephanie Albert Further reading PART 6 Acts of resistance Nic Green 1 2 3 4 Scottee Further reading Precarious, uncertain, ecstatic, stood close together, trying to be heard over the sound of somebody else’s party Leo Skilbeck and Milk Presents Christopher Brett Bailey Further reading Adrian Howells PART 7 Other lives are possible Hunt and Darton 1 2 3 Further reading Rajni Shah Further reading And this book is where we stand beside them, surveying a landscape that is at once wreckage, nostalgia and constantly unfolding, rainmisted dream Bryony Kimmings Further reading Emma Frankland Further reading Figs in Wigs 1 2 3 Further reading PART 8 Ways of remembering Jemima Yong Further reading Deborah Pearson 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Further reading Greg Wohead Further reading These memories are incidental. What I remember is the leap Forced Entertainment 1. I have seen some Forced Entertainment shows 2. All the Forced Entertainment shows I haven’t seen Further reading Tim Crouch and Andy Smith Further reading