1st Edition

Performance and the Politics of Space Theatre and Topology

Edited By Erika Fischer-Lichte, Benjamin Wihstutz Copyright 2013
    312 Pages 34 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    340 Pages 34 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    From its very beginnings, theatre has been both an art and a public space, shared by actors and spectators. As a result, its entity and history is intimately tied to politics: a politics of inclusion and exclusion, of distributions and placements, of spatial appropriation and utopian concepts. This collection examines what is at stake when a theatrical space is created and when a performance takes place; it asks under what circumstances the topology of theatre becomes political.

    The book approaches this issue from various angles, taking theatre as a cultural paradigm for political dimensions of space in its respective historical context. Visiting the political dimensions of theatrical space in both theatre history and contemporary performance, the volume responds to the so-called spatial turn in cultural and historical studies, and questions a politics of aesthetics that is discussed in continental philosophy. The book visits different levels and linkages between aesthetic theory and geography, art and sociology, architecture and political theory, and geometry and history, shedding new light on theatre, politics, and space, thereby transforming this historically intertwined triad into a transdisciplinary theme.

    Part 1: Placements and Boundaries  1. The Theatre ici Marvin Carlson  2. Monarchs on Trial at the Early Modern Court Janette Dillon  3. What time is this place? Continuity, Conflict and the Right to the City: Lessons from Haymarket Square Loren Kruger  4. Performing Like a City: London's South Bank and the Cultural Politics of Urban Governance Michael McKinnie  5. What is Sydney about Sydney theatre?: Performance Space and the Creation of a ‘Matrix of Sensibility’ Gay McAuley  6. Thresholds of Tolerance: Censorship, Artistic Freedom and the Theatrical Public Sphere Christopher Balme  7. "Set in Poland, that is to say Nowhere": Alfred Jarry and the Politics of Topological Space Nicolas Salazar-Sutil  Part 2: Utopia and Heterotopia  8. Equality and Theatre Architecture: Voltaire’s Private Theatre Ludger Schwarte  9. Rousseau's Heterotopology of Theatre Juliane Rebentisch  10. Heterotopias of the Public Sphere: Theatre and Festival around 1800 Patrick Primavesi  11. Other Space or Space of Others?: Reflections on Contemporary Political Theatre Benjamin Wihstutz  12. Opéra Pagaï’s Entreprise de Détournement: Collages of Geographic, Imaginary and Discursive Spaces Susan Haedicke  Part 3: Strategies of Spatial Appropriation  13. Policies of Spatial Appropriation Erika Fischer-Lichte  14. "Moment to Moment—Space": The Architecture Performances of Gordon Matta-Clark Philip Ursprung  15. Uncanny Connections: William Forsythe’s Choreographic Installations Kirsten Maar  16. Change through Rapprochement: Spatial Practices in Contemporary Performances Jens Roselt  17. Life Politics/Life Aesthetics: Environmental Performance in red, black, GREEN: a blues Shannon Jackson

    Biography

    Erika Fischer-Lichte is Professor of Theatre Studies at Free University Berlin.

    Benjamin Wihstutz is a Research Associate at the Institute for Theatre Studies at Free University Berlin