Theatres of Contagion: Transmitting Early Modern to Contemporary Performance

Description

To what extent is theatre a contagious practice, capable of undoing and enlivening people and cultures? Theatres of Contagion responds to some of the anxieties of our current political and cultural climate by exploring theatre’s status as a contagious cultural force, questioning its role in the spread or control of medical, psychological and emotional conditions and phenomena. Observing a diverse range of practices from the early modern to contemporary period, the volume considers how this contagion is understood to happen and operate, its real and imagined effects, and how these have been a source of pleasure and fear for theatre makers, audiences and authorities. Drawing on perspectives from medicine, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, philosophy, law and affect theory, essays investigate some of the ways in which theatre can be viewed as a powerful agent of containment and transmission. Among the works analysed include a musical adaptation and an intercultural variation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; a contemporary queer take on Hamlet; Grand¬ Guignol and theatres of horror; the writings and influence of Artaud; immersive theatre and the work of Punchdrunk, and computer gaming and smartphone apps Cover Contents List of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Contagious Performance: Between Illness and Ambience Fintan Walsh Part One Infectious Bodies and Behaviours 2 Viral Hamlet: History, Memory, Kinship Fintan Walsh 3 ‘A plague o’ both your houses’: Auditory Contagion and Affective Frequencies in Musical and Intercultural Theatres Marcus Cheng Chye Tan 4 ‘Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding’: Infectious Sights in Shakespeare’s Theatre of Contagion Shani Bans 5 Catching a Feeling: A Practice-based Inquiry into Affective Contagion in Elizabeth Inchbald’s The Massacre Rebecca McCutcheon Part Two Sites of Contamination and Containment 6 Plague Inc.: Theatre’s Engagement with Mechanisms of Contagion and Containment Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr 7 ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’: The Myth and Reality of Audience Psychogenic and Neurological Responses to the Theatre of Horror Julius Green 8 ‘I don’t know why she’s crying’: Contagion and Criminality in Clean Break’s Dream Pill and Little on the inside Molly McPhee 9 Nomadic Contagion and the Performance of Infrastructure in Dale Farm’s Post-eviction Scene Lynne McCarthy Part Three Conducting Emotions, Moods and Minds 10 The Paradox of Immersion: Mechanisms of Contagion and Separation in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More Ana Pais 11 Outer and Inner Contagions Mark Pizzato 12 Theatre, Appification and VR Apps: Disability Simulations as an Intervention in ‘Affective Realism’ Liam Jarvis Index