Theatre, Intimacy & Engagement The Last Human Venue

by Read, Alan; Reinelt, Janelle; Singleton, Brian

• ISBN13: 9780230572614
• ISBN10: 0230572618
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Theatre, Intimacy and Engagement unravels politics from theatre in order to propose a new means to politicize performance. The last human venue is the location where the sense of one's aliveness, ethical associations, and collective potential is kickstarted through the shock of theatrical affects. Performance analyses ranging from child actors, animals and objects to reflections on the innovative theatre work of Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Forced Entertainment and Goat Island combine to offer a radical critique of performance studies: the first social science of appearance.

Author Biography

Alan Read is Professor of Theatre, King's College, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Author's Preface	p. xi
Series Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Introduction	p. 1
Self-evident: intimacy and engagement	p. 1
The human laboratory: parable of a recent past	p. 2
Nature, theatre politics: the present project	p. 5
A second naivete: the future constitution	p. 14
On The Social Life of Theatre: Towards a Science of Appearance
Introduction	p. 15
The Ends of Politics	p. 25
A Singular Art	p. 30
The Social Conditional	p. 40
Begin Again	p. 44
Sufficient Goods	p. 46
The Present Imperfect	p. 53
Discipline in Distress	p. 58
A Life in Theatre	p. 68
Theatre Returns	p. 70
On Performance as Such & On Human Performance in Particular
The Anthropological Machine	p. 81
Nature Table	p. 102
Play ground	p. 105
Swimming pool	p. 111
Class room	p. 113
Stage Play	p. 120
Acknowledging	p. 123
The imperative of performance	p. 124
In the infancy of theatre	p. 126
Ring-Side	p. 132
Redeemed Night	p. 145
Fear	p. 146
Fauna	p. 149
Fur	p. 152
Infant Enthusiasm	p. 157
Infant	p. 158
Infant animal	p. 161
Interval	p. 164
Infant, animal, automata	p. 165
Infant 'inhuman' Auschwitz	p. 171
On The Part of Those Who Have No Part
The Distribution of the Sensible	p. 175
Recalling the Collective	p. 187
Forensic Display	p. 207
Arrested Life	p. 218
The Democracy Machine	p. 229
Memoir: Civil Service	p. 231
Memorial: Military Service	p. 238
Memory: Secret Service	p. 244
In the Event of Extinction: Natural History & Its Ends
Introduction	p. 249
Destination Nature	p. 252
Natural History	p. 263
In the Event of Extinction	p. 268
The Last Human Venue	p. 271
The Franciscan Model	p. 274
Postscript	p. 277
The paradox of the actor	p. 277
The parallax of the performer	p. 278
The Lazarus affect	p. 279
Notes	p. 280
Select Bibliography	p. 299
Index	p. 308
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.