Performance in Place of War (Enactments) - Hardcover

James Thompson; Jenny Hughes And Michael Balfour

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1906497141 ISBN 13: 9781906497149

Publisher: SEAGULL, 2009

Synopsis

From the Greeks and Shakespeare to the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata", war has often been a major theme of dramatic performances. However, many of the most extraordinary theater projects in recent years not only have been about war but also have originated in actual conflict zones themselves. "Performance in Place of War" is concerned with these initiatives, including theater in refugee camps, war-ravaged villages, towns under curfew, and cities under occupation. It looks at theater and performances that often occur quite literally as bombs are falling, as well as during times of ceasefire and in the aftermath of hostilities. "Performance in Place of War" draws on extensive original material and includes interviews with artists, short play extracts, and photographs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Israel, Lebanon, the Sudan, and others. The authors combine critical commentary, overviews of the conflicts, and firsthand accounts in order to consider such questions as: Why in times of disruption have people turned to performance? And what aesthetic, ethical, and political choices are made in these different contexts? "Performance in Place of War" is a fascinating perspective on the role of theater in unpredictable, war-torn times.

About this title

Review:

"The book brilliantly situates war-related performance in a complex web which includes, for example, politics, ethics, trauma, geography, and intercultural perspectives, all needed to grasp such performance's potential and limitations. In so doing, the authors accomplish the Herculean task of both asserting how fundamental art is to human life and how interdependent it is with everything else going on."

--Jan Cohen-Cruz "New Theatre Quarterly "

Synopsis:

From the Greeks and Shakespeare to the "Ramayana" and the "Mahabharata", war has always been a major theme for theatre and performance makers. However, the most extraordinary performance projects in recent years have not only been about war but have also come from conflict zones themselves. "Performance in Place of War" is concerned with these initiatives - theatre in refugee camps, in war-affected villages, in towns under curfew, in cities under occupation. The book presents theatre and performance that occurs literally at the moment bombs are falling, as well as during times of ceasefire and in the aftermaths of war."Performance in Place of War" draws on extensive original material and includes descriptions of practice, interviews with artists, short play extracts, and photographs from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kosovo, Israel, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan, the UK and US. The authors combine critical commentary, overviews of the conflicts and first hand accounts. They ask: Why in times of disruption has there been a turn to performance? What aesthetic, ethical and political choices are made in these different contexts?

What can these examples tell us about the role of performance in our unpredictable times?

About this edition

• Publisher: SEAGULL
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1906497141
• ISBN 13: 9781906497149
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 282