Nonhuman Futures

Abstract:

As a contribution to Theatre Journal’s 75th anniversary issue, this article poses questions and reflections about the inclusion of the more-than-human in theatre and performance studies. Surveying shifts in the field across the past few decades, the essay engages with the complex valences of the terms “human,” “nonhuman,” and “animal” to argue for greater intersectional, interdisciplinary, and intercultural thinking through performance. The essay argues that as climate and environmental concerns have become a matter of global urgency, nonhuman futures might be a way forward by weighing different and “multi-optic”— to use Claire Jean Kim’s term—approaches to both human and nonhuman problems. Examining how the emergence of the more-than-human in theatre studies continues to intersect with feminist, critical race, eco-, and cultural scholarship, the essay also draws upon the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the concept of “infection” might also problematize binaristic thinking about these complex terms. The essay leaves readers with images of Deke Weaver and company’s performance work, The Unreliable Bestiary, in which many nonhuman futures coalesce.