Spectacles against The Spectacle: Is a new politics of paradox emerging in British experimental theatre of the 2010's?

奇观对抗奇观：2010 年代的英国实验戏剧是否正在出现一种新的悖论政治？

• 批准号: 2100941
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Royal Holloway University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2100941
• 关键词: Spectacles; against; Spectacle; new; politics

This practice-based PhD will identify and further a distinctively paradoxical vein of British theatre. It will do so in order to explore the political potential of this theatre, including performances by theatre-makers such as Tim Crouch, Lucy McCormick, Nigel & Louise and myself. Research will mobilise Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (2014 [1967]), which conceives advanced capitalism as an overarching and trance-inducing Spectacle, as a lens through which to view performances. Experimenting within mainstream theatres, seeking popularity for political ends, and creating spectacles against The Spectacle in a theatre industry that epitomises both cultural margins and elite, these performances engage with myriad paradoxes of form and context. These may both seed and inhibit their political efficacy. To what extent might this theatre's political potency reside in its ability to deviously utilise the very paradoxical or even compromised nature it stands accused of in this self-critical project?By placing form at the heart of a cultural-materialist enquiry into political theatre, my project will address a significant gap in the current debate. Scholarly research will reassess received understandings of politicised theatre practices from the nineteen sixties to the present. It will then explore 'the political' in the work of salient contemporary theatre-makers, always asking how context (who is making and receiving performances, in what spaces governed by what social rules, and in what ways) impacts on form (close analysis of performances). My professional standing as an acclaimed experimental playwright operating at the borders of UK theatre's centre-ground, offers an ideal vantage point from which to practically address these questions. In close dialogue with scholarly research, I will create three professional performances that experiment with new forms and mainstream contexts through which to subversively enact spectacles. These include collaborations with communities (young people in Cambridge and Leeds, industrial workers in Teeside) and my first collaboration with a composer (Tom Parkinson).

这一以实践为基础的博士学位将确定并进一步发展英国戏剧的一个独特的矛盾脉络。它这样做是为了探索这个剧院的政治潜力，包括蒂姆·克劳奇、露西·麦考密克、奈杰尔和路易丝以及我自己等戏剧制作人的表演。研究将动员盖伊·德博德的《奇观社会》(2014[1967])，该书将先进资本主义视为一种最重要的、令人昏昏欲睡的奇观，作为观看表演的镜头。这些表演在主流剧院内进行试验，为政治目的寻求人气，并在一个既代表文化边缘又代表精英的戏剧业中创造奇观，涉及形式和背景的无数悖论。这些可能既会播下种子，也会抑制它们的政治效力。这种戏剧的政治效力在多大程度上可能在于它能够曲折地利用它在这个自我批评的项目中被指责的非常自相矛盾甚至妥协的性质？通过将形式置于对政治戏剧的文化唯物主义调查的核心，我的项目将解决当前辩论中的一个重大缺口。学术研究将重新评估人们对20世纪60年代至今的政治化戏剧实践的理解。然后，它将探索当代著名戏剧制作人作品中的“政治性”，总是在问背景(谁在表演和接受表演，在什么空间里受什么社会规则支配，以什么方式)如何影响形式(对表演的密切分析)。作为一名在英国剧院中心地带工作的备受赞誉的实验剧作家，我的专业地位为实际解决这些问题提供了一个理想的有利切入点。在与学术研究的密切对话中，我将创造三个专业表演，尝试新的形式和主流背景，通过它们颠覆性地创造奇观。其中包括与社区的合作(剑桥和利兹的年轻人，蒂赛德的产业工人)，以及我与作曲家(汤姆·帕金森)的第一次合作。