Synopses & Reviews
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, in war-ravaged villages, in towns under curfew, and in 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, Sudan, and others. The authors combine critical commentary, overviews of the conflicts and first-hand 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.
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 performances 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
Synopsis
As the world is challenged by a state of constant conflict and by disasters natural and manmade, support communities endeavor through humanitarianism to overcome human suffering and help to build more peaceful and safe futures.
Humanitarian Performance argues that the humanitarian project—from its history and rationale to its contemporary practice—can be productively explored through the critical lens of performance studies. Using the outpouring of international support for projects to benefit survivors of the Asian tsunami, the War in Kosovo, and the crisis in Darfur as case studies, this timely volume explores humanitarian attention to these narratives and the stories of tragedy and survival that emerge. With the peculiar focus and international audiences that the media brings to local tragedies, these contemporary disasters—and the humanitarianism that they elicit— become performance on the world stage.
About the Author
James Thompson is professor of applied and social theater at the University of Manchester and director of the Centre for Applied Theater Research. He is the author of Digging Up Stories, among other books. Jenny Hughes is a lecturer in Applied Theater at the University of Manchester and director of the Centre for Applied Theater Research. Michael Balfour is professor of applied theater at Griffith University in Australia. His books include Theater and War: Performance in Extremis 1933-1945 and The Use of Drama in the Rehabilitation of Violent Male Offenders.
Table of Contents
Preface: Looking for Libeskind
Part 1: Humanitarian Performance
Introduction
1. The Shape of the Show
2. From Consequentialism to the Theatre of Bare Life
Part 2: Humanitarian Performance Events
3. Kosovo: Simultaneous Truths and the Stages of War
4. Darfur and the Unhappy Performative
5. The Asian Tsunami: Photogenic Aid and the Pressure to Be There
Afterword: Haiti
Works Cited
Index