{"title":"The House of Hecuba: Tragic/Queer Disidentifications of Colour and the Siege of AIDS","authors":"OLIVER BALDWIN","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000415","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the 2017 performance of Harrison David Rivers's play, <span>And She Would Stand Like This</span>, and its dramatization of the intersectional marginalization and discrimination endured by a queer family of colour facing AIDS, through the framework of Euripides’ <span>Trojan Women</span>. It does so via three main perspectives: chosen family, normative discriminations and tragic disidentifications. In its changes to the tragic plot, the play reflects on AIDS, exploring criminal infection; hetero-/homosexual, genetic and communitarian HIV transmission; and bereavement. It critiques the offstage intersectional systems of oppression and shifts the status of the community from victimhood to survival, and from the representational periphery to the cultural centre. <span>And She Would Stand Like This</span> appears as a queer communal ritual of poetic empowerment with/through which to pay homage to queer forebears of colour, to celebrate queer lives of colour now and to galvanize those who are to walk a queer futurity of power and liberation.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Athenian Male Gayze: Desire and Spectatorship in Ancient Greek Tragedy","authors":"WILL SHÜLER","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000403","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article argues that an understanding of male same-sex practices in ancient Greece point towards a queer desirous spectatorship – a male ‘ga<span>y</span>ze’. Ancient tragic scholarship has often omitted discussion of male same-sex practices, despite using marriage and heterosexual social norms to elucidate meaning in text and performance. This article seeks to redress the exclusion of queer histories and perspectives from understanding tragedy in its social context. The article outlines evidence of male same-sex practices, including pederasty; relates ancient understandings of desire to the gaze; and evidences how and where young men, like those who danced in the tragic chorus, were courted and coveted. The article concludes with a case study of the chorus of young huntsmen from Euripides’ <span>Hippolytus</span>, read through the lens of a desirous ga<span>y</span>ze.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608081","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Actionism's Afterlife: Christoph Schlingensief Revisited","authors":"EVELYN ANNUẞ","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000373","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The provocative work of German artist Christoph Schlingensief may seem to be not possible today. However, it developed an afterlife of its own. Against the backdrop of current discourse shifts and political developments my article historicizes this work from the early stage productions at the Berlin Volksbühne after the fall of the Wall to taking to the streets of Vienna at the turn of the millennium, when right-wing populism entered government politics in Europe. Determining the politicality of its fabrication of public tensions, the article calls for a closer consideration of concepts of affect studies in theatre and performance analysis and confronts the memory of Schlingensief's work with a more recent production and their reception in the context of current discussions on race and gender. Turning to Claudia Bosse's <span>IDEAL PARADISE</span> (2016), a street procession in Vienna, it suggests to locate Schlingensief's afterlife in new performative formats re-negotiating contemporary affective politics.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"92 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Imaginaries and a Culture of Circulation: Sanna kvinnor in Late Nineteenth-Century Nordic Theatre","authors":"BIRGITTA LINDH ESTELLE","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000397","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Anne Charlotte Leffler's play <span>Sanna kvinnor</span> (True Women) (1883), together with other late nineteenth-century plays by women playwrights, is considered a significant historical event in Swedish theatre histories, regarded as a successful feminist intervention. This study examines the cultural-specific conditions and agendas that governed the interpretations of <span>Sanna kvinnor</span> at the theatres. Theoretically, it is based on the idea of plays as the initiators of circulation, which in turn is performative. The focus is on the social imaginaries that are reinstated by the stagings and their interpretations, and how these imaginaries reciprocally shape the interpretations of the play's central theme, protagonist and audience address. The article provides an overview of the various social imaginaries at play and identifies the cultural and social abstractions that form a specific culture of circulation. The encounters between the play and various Nordic theatre environments are examined by closely analyzing and contextualizing theatrical reviews.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Playification of Theatre: Game Play, Ludic Activities and Being Playful in The Great Gatsby: An Immersive Theatrical Experience","authors":"JIHAY PARK","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000385","url":null,"abstract":"<p>My examination of game play, ludic activity and being playful in immersive <span>Gatsby</span> shows that <span>Gatsby</span> is a typical example of the playification of theatre in the contemporary art scene. In using the term ‘playification’, I refer to the method of incorporating diverse play categories in theatre to motivate audience activity. While much critical attention has been devoted to the controversial nature of active spectating as a practice of audience emancipation, there has been relatively less focus on its play aspect. To develop an understanding of the idea of play in immersive theatre, I refer to the works of Johan Huizinga and Richard Schechner, and apply Schechner's language, which distinguishes play and game in immersive theatre. Moreover, in developing Schechner's vocabulary in the context of immersive theatre, I expand my scope of reference to include the insights of game theorists.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Freak Onstage: Transformation of Life into Spectacle in Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes's El Gallo","authors":"ANALOLA SANTANA","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000233","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mexican theatre company Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes are world-renowned for their intensive laboratory processes leading up to unique, interdisciplinary performances that defy expected theatrical conventions. Their piece <span>El Gallo</span> (2009) is a poignant example of this company's capacity for innovation and social action. Here, actors are transformed into opera singers in a piece that is sung – in an entirely invented language – while inciting audiences to consider the anxieties that fuel the act of exposing one's body onstage, as fears over our own perceived differences prevent us from feeling ‘normal’ in a society that constantly judges us as we recognize the discriminatory power of social normativity.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142986070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Okinawan Absence: Ma in Kumiodori","authors":"SYLWIA DOBKOWSKA","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000191","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article considers the Okinawan aesthetic of Kumiodori and the role of absence in making a performance. There are two case studies of Kumiodori performances selected for this article, both written by the maker of this theatre style – Tamagusuku Chōkun. I watched both performances of <span>Kōkō no Maki</span> and <span>Nidō Tekiuchi</span> in the National Theatre in Okinawa. I discuss the concept of absence, described as <span>ma</span> (<span>間</span>), through the theory and the interpretation of those performances. The article begins with a brief outline of Kumiodori and the cultural context of the Ryukyu Kingdom, followed by description of the concept of <span>ma</span> in literature, live performance and the culture in general. Finally, two case studies are introduced. The article aims to present an example of the Okinawan version of <span>ma</span> in theatre.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142986074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Flying in the Cage: Iranian Theatre Directors’ Creativity in the Face of Censorship","authors":"MEHDI TAJEDDIN","doi":"10.1017/s0307883324000208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0307883324000208","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Censorship in Iranian theatre sometimes prevents artists from staging some of the scenes in their plays. Among these are scenes involving embracing, kissing, raping and so on, or scenes containing ideological or political themes. Occasionally, after omitting such scenes, theatre directors try to find suitable alternatives and create a similar effect. The present research, with an analytical–descriptive approach, seeks to focus on alternative solutions, as well as creative models, developed by Iranian directors to circumvent social-regulatory censorship and identify alternatives in performances. In this research, I conduct a comparative analysis of five selected theatre recordings. Using the available theatre recordings, this paper examines the original text of the plays, identifies the omissions resulting from censorship, and analyses directors’ alternative solutions. This research demonstrates that artists use their creativity to express themes, analyses and aesthetic points in the face of censorship and obstacles. The paper focuses on eight creative-performance models that are executed using symbols and auditory elements instead of visual elements, and the function of narrative, stage design, stage direction, costume design, props and cross-dressing as devices to circumvent censorship.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142986076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Making Sense: Reading the Production Notes of Dark Things","authors":"ANURADHA KAPUR","doi":"10.1017/s030788332400018x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s030788332400018x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This essay seeks to lay out the process that went into the making of <span>Dark Things</span>, which I co-directed with Deepan Sivaraman based on Ari Sitas's oratorio on the Silk Road, by repurposing the production notes of the performance, which opened in Delhi on 18 April 2018 at the Ambedkar University Delhi and later played at the International Festival of Kerala in January 2019. Both the method and the form of <span>Dark Things</span>, I suggest, were a collaboration. Collaboration as a method intimates collective creation, usually by means of improvisation, where authorship is distributed between theatre-makers (actors, scenographers, musicians) and materials (objects, site, landscape). Collaboration as form intimates that the performance's explicit grammar has been shaped by a sensuous give-and-take between the practitioner and the material. In this essay, I ask, from my perspective as a theatre-maker, how handling actual objects and tools obviously leaves an imprint on the performance, scenography, dramaturgy and <span>mise en scène</span>. In writing this article, I have retained the stylistic features of production notes – their provisionality and incompleteness; their sliding timescale; their looking forward to work that is to be done and backwards at work already done, marking failures, solutions and openings.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142986077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Honour and Reputation as Gender Politics in Ali Abdel-Nabi Al Zaidi's Rubbish (1995) and Amir Al-Azraki's The Widow (2014)","authors":"ALYAA A. NASER, MAJEED MOHAMMED MIDHIN","doi":"10.1017/s030788332400021x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s030788332400021x","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The two related notions of honour and reputation are closely associated with the social status of individuals (male or female), particularly in a society governed by traditional, patriarchal moral values. However, writing about honour and reputation in Iraq (and in the Middle East in general) means talking about women's chastity and their sexual morality specifically. Eclipsing honour and societal reputation to women's bodies are deep-rooted patriarchal norms that stigmatize women's involvement in sexual relations (mainly outside marriage codes) and exclude men from this adultery framework. The current paper investigates the concepts of honour, chastity and reputation in relation to gender norms in Iraq through two contemporary Iraqi plays. First, the article introduces the two concepts through the social, traditional and religious context in the Middle East, focusing on Iraq. The discussion in the second section moves to tackle Ali Al Zaidi's play <span>Rubbish</span> (1995), while the third section deals with Amir Al-Azraki's <span>The Widow</span> (2014). In these two sections the study looks critically at how the two plays dramatize the concepts of honour and chastity through their characters. Being written respectively during and after wars, the two plays are seen as reactions to such issues. Hence they represent the new complex visions of two male perspectives challenging dramatically and shaking the settlement of such notions of morals and their impact on women as well as on society.</p>","PeriodicalId":55955,"journal":{"name":"THEATRE RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142986075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}