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Nordic Theatre Studies
Volume 27 Number 1 (2015)
Theatre and the Nomadic Subject
Edited by S. E. Wilmer
Contents
S. E. Wilmer:
Introduction: Theatre and the Nomadic Subject, p. 5
Audronė Žukauskaitė:
Nomadic Performativity and the Immanent Ethics of Life, p. 10
Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink:
Mobile Performance and Nomadic Theory: Staging Movement, Thinking Mobility, p. 22
Manilla Ernst, Willmar Sauter:
Antigone’s Diary – Young Audiences as Co-creators of GPS-guided Radio Drama, p. 32
Pirkko Koski:
Challenging the Centre: Asylum Seekers Encounter Native Citizens, p. 42
Martynas Petrikas:
Centripetal Force of locus: Dilemmas of Nomadism in Contemporary Lithuanian
Artistic Practices, p. 56
Rūta Mažeikienė:
From “rooted out” to “rootless”: Images of Emigration in Lithuanian Drama, p. 66
Ina Pukelytė:
Reconstructing a Nomadic Network: Itineraries of Jewish Actors during the First Lithuanian
Independence, p. 78
Anneli Saro:
Mobility and Theatre: Theatre Makers as Nomadic Subjects, p. 90
Maria Berlova:
The Transnationalism of Swedish and Russian National Theatres in the Second Half of the
Eighteenth Century: How Foreign Performative Art Sharpened the Aesthetics of National
Identity, p. 104
Book review, p. 116
Abstracts
Nomadic Performativity and the Immanent Ethics of Life
Audronė Žukauskaitė
This essay discusses Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion of nomadology, which can
be used as the basis for an ontological and aesthetic alternative to our understanding of
representational theatre. Referring to different meanings of nomadology, the essay argues for
the notion of nomadic performativity, which can be applied to recent non-representational
performative practices. For this purpose the essay makes an indirect comparison between
Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophical ideas and their sporadic insights into art, such as
Francis Bacon’s paintings and Antonin Artaud’s theatre. Deleuze discusses theatre in “One
Less Manifesto”, his only text directly dedicated to theatre and to Carmelo Bene’s
productions. Referring to the structural deformations in Bene’s work, Deleuze argues for
non-representational theatre, based not on representation and identity but on continuous
variation and differentiation. In other words, if theatre as a form of representation creates a
striated and hierarchized space that embodies and increases power, the non-representational
theatre creates a nomadic smooth space of continuous variation, which transposes everything
into a constant becoming. In this respect nomadic performativity covers these meanings:
first, it is a distribution of intensities, which come to replace forms, bonds, organized
hierarchies; second, it refers to fusional multiplicities rather than self-identical subjects; and
third, it opens up the potential for change and “becoming-minor” instead of representing
major figures of power.
Keywords: nomadism, nomadic performativity, the body without organs, Deleuze and
Guattari, Artaud, Bene, Castellucci.
E-mail: [email protected]
Mobile Performance and Nomadic Theory: Staging Movement, Thinking Mobility
Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink
This essay discusses the nomadic not so much in terms of mobile existence or physical
displacement, but primarily in connection with the concept as a type of movement that
disturbs the notion of territory, and that is intrinsically related to processes of
deterritorialization and reterritorialization. This particular reading of the nomadic is based on
how the concept has been theorized and conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze, partly in close
collaboration with Félix Guattari. Their nomadology serves as a lens through which to study
territories-in-motion, in connection to (urban) mobile performances and relationships
between theory and practice. The essay intends to demonstrate that the enquiry into dispersed
and mobilized territories is a productive tool for analysing movement and mobility in
contemporary performance. Firstly, nomadism is presented as a particular attitude, connected
to acts of de- and reterritorialization. Secondly, this perspective is employed to explore some
of the dispersed territories that form the basis of the ambulatory performance No Man’s Land
by Dutch director and scenographer Dries Verhoeven. Lastly, the discussion is extended
towards a mobile research symposium, Thinking Scenography, which takes scenography
itself as an (embodied) mode of thought. Here, a nomadic attitude materializes through non-
hierarchical, practice-based forms of knowledge production.
Keywords: nomadic, territory, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, (nomadic) attitude,
mobility.
E-mail: [email protected]
Antigone’s diary – Young Audiences as Co-creators of GPS-guided Radio
Drama
Manilla Ernst, Willmar Sauter
The play, Antigone’s Diary, is a re-written version of Sophocles’ classical play, developed
with teenage schoolchildren in the riot-ridden suburb Husby, a 30-minute subway ride away
from the centre of Stockholm. Rebecca Forsberg of RATS Theatre adapted the plot into an
interactive radio performance with a mobile audience, walking through the suburb and
responding via text messages to Antigone’s questions after each of the twelve scenes. Young
audiences were of especial interest for this project. Therefore, school performances for
teenagers are the focus of this survey. The responses of pupils were studied during and after
performances by means of observations, qualitative interviews and quantitative analysis of the
text messages that the participants sent in response to Antigone’s questions. The seriousness
and enthusiasm of young audiences were one of the stunning outcomes of this survey and a
number of quotations illustrate the immersive power of this production. Furthermore, this
experiment also served as a text bed for the Department of Computer and System Science, to
which Rats Theatre is closely tied. The multimedia performance, combining radio drama,
mobile audiences in a local environment and the options of interactive participation,
demonstrated the potential of participatory experiences to engage audiences in democratic
processes that can be applied to issues of political interest and decision making in the public
sphere.
Keywords: multimedia performance, mobile radio drama, moving audiences, immersion,
participation, democratic involvement.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Challenging the Centre: Asylum Seekers Encounter Native Citizens
Pirkko Koski
In Paper Anchor (Paperiankkuri) at the Small Stage of the Finnish National Theatre in 2011 a
group of actors, dancers, asylum seekers and eventually also stage technicians (re-)enacted the
asylum seekers’ stories: how they had fled their home countries, feared for their lives and
faced problems in their country of destination, Finland. It brought the spotlight on asylum
seekers, who occupy a marginal position in society and made them visible on many levels:
they were present in the stories that were told on stage, in the encounter between performers
and spectators and in an art institution that has great national significance. The periphery and
the centre, in this case the asylum seekers and the native Finns, met in shifting circumstances
and also in a way that is characteristic of the theatre: the performers and spectators were
simultaneously physically present, whereas the public debate on refugee issues usually takes
place in written texts. In Paper Anchor, the asylum seekers also assumed the role of a witness,
whereas in official processes they are obligated to defend themselves and search for evidence.
The impact of Paper Anchor was largely based on the aesthetic form of the performance.
Although the dominant power structures between the centre and the periphery remained
untouched, theatre testified to its ability to affect the spectator through the presence of
individual subjects and consequently their subject positions. The debate was shifted to
differences within a culture instead of between cultures, as Rosi Braidotti writes: “It is the
syntax of social relations, as well as their symbolic representation, that is in upheaval.”
Keywords: asylum seekers, centre / periphery, national theatre, reception, community theatre.
E-mail: [email protected]
Centripetal Force of locus: Dilemmas of Nomadism in Contemporary Lithuanian
Artistic Practices
Martynas Petrikas
By using two cases – a production, called The Heart in Vilnius (2012) and a social-artistic
project Give Yourself to Vilnius (2014), the article aims to discuss the issue of a “liquid”
mind-set (Bauman) as it is perceived, reflected and formulated in contemporary Lithuanian
artistic practices. These examples were intentionally chosen because both seem to address the
issue of “roots” in one’s native land in opposition to physical or intellectual mobility. By
establishing Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, as the spiritual locus of emotional fulfillment,
both cases dwell on a social anxiety that Zygmunt Bauman terms “a meaninglessness”, typical
for a transitional society, where modernization progresses at a different pace in different
strata. Moreover, whether it is a political statement or a popular attraction, both examples
portray a nomad and nomadism of late modernity as an “Other”, drawing a divisional and
alienating line between a “liquid” mind-set and a “stable” one.
Keywords: theatre, popular culture, liquid mind-set, anxiety, contemporary Lithuania.
E-mail: [email protected]
From “rooted out” to “rootless”: Images of Emigration in Lithuanian Drama
Rūta Mažeikienė
Since the early 1990s, when the Iron Curtain was lifted after over fifty years of Soviet
occupation, approximately 800 000 citizens of Lithuania have emigrated, leaving a population
of less than three million. This article addresses the phenomenon of emigration from
Lithuania and analyzes how the issue of emigration and the experiences of the emigrants are
reflected in Lithuanian drama. In the first part of the article, two plays – Without Conscience
(Be sumnenės arba kaip ant svieto einasi) by Antanas Turskis and America in the Bathhouse
(Amerika pirtyje) by Keturakis – will be analysed focusing on how the late nineteenth century
plays shaped a critical attitude towards emigration, deconstructed the myth of the foreign land
of gold and proposed a romantic image of the motherland as one’s native soil where one needs
to return. The second part of the article analyses the plays Goodbye, My Love (Antoškos
Kartoškos) by Marius Macevičius and Expulsion (Išvarymas) by Marius Ivaškevičius and
points out how reflection on the contemporary experience of emigration helps to explore
deeper problems of post-Soviet society and the individual such as a sense of placelessness and
fragmented identity. A comparative analysis of these texts makes it possible to analyse the
dynamics of the different conceptions of emigration, emigrant’s identity and self-perception
as well as their artistic representations.
Keywords: Lithuanian drama, migration, emigration, post-Soviet identity, fragmented
identity, images of emigration.
E-mail: [email protected]
Reconstructing a Nomadic Network: Itineraries of Jewish Actors during the First
Lithuanian Independence
Ina Pukelytė
This article discusses the phenomenon of openness and its nomadic nature in the activities of
Jewish actors performing in Kaunas during the first Lithuanian independence. Jewish theatre
between the two world wars had an active and intense life in Kaunas. Two to four
independent theatres existed at one time during the first Lithuanian independence and
international stars were often touring in Lithuania. Nevertheless, Lithuanian Jewish theatre
life was never regarded by Lithuanian or European theatre society as significant since Jewish
theatre never had sufficient ambition and resources to become such. On the one hand, Jewish
theatre organized itself in a nomadic way, that is, Jewish actors and directors were constantly
on the road, touring from one country to another. On the other hand, there was a tense
competition between the local Jewish theatres both for subsidies and for audiences. This
competition did not allow the Jewish community to create a theatre that could represent
Jewish culture convincingly. Being a theatre of an ethnic minority, Jewish theatre did not
enjoy the same attention from the state that was given to the Lithuanian National Theatre. The
nomadic nature of the Jewish theatre is shown through the perspective of the concept of
nomadic as developed by Deleuze and Guattari.
Keywords: Jewish theatre, Kaunas, nomadic, first Lithuanian independence, Yiddish culture.
E-mail: [email protected]
Mobility and Theatre: Theatre Makers as Nomadic Subjects
Anneli Saro
This article discusses the pros and cons of theatrical mobility, investigating situations where
theatre is breaking its traditional practices of being local and urban by becoming mobile,
international and rural. The main features in this context are guest performances at home and
abroad, the importation of guest directors, performers, designers et cetera, and finally, sitespecific and open-air productions. The structure of the analysis is based on these features,
partly derived from the historical development of theatre but partly also from the aim of
contrary thinking, insisting that contrary to the widespread assumption of nomadism as
something indigenous or postmodern, nomadic attitudes can also be detected in quite
traditional forms of theatre making and living. While touring at home and abroad provides
opportunities for theatre makers to practice nomadic life style, summer theatre creates an
opportunity for spectators to experience nomadism in more local spaces.
The above mentioned features are analysed in the context of Estonian theatre, drawing
occasional parallels with the neighbouring country of Finland. Each section goes through
three periods of Estonian theatre history: 1) the period before the Second World War when
theatres belonged to societies: 2) the period between 1940 and 1991 when Estonia was a part
of the Soviet Union and all theatrical activities were subject to state control: 3) the period of
independence and globalization. Since each period had a different imprint on theatrical
mobility, the phenomenon will be investigated in relation to the political, social and cultural
contexts, using Bruno Latour’s concept of actor-network-theory as a methodological tool.
Keywords: Estonian theatre, mobility, touring, internationalisation, summer theatre,
nomadism, actor-network-theory.
E-mail: [email protected]
The Transnationalism of Swedish and Russian National Theatres in the Second Half of
the Eighteenth Century: How Foreign Performative Art Sharpened the Aesthetics of
National Identity
Maria Berlova
In this article, I consider the formation of national theatres in Sweden and Russia under the
guidance of King Gustav III and Empress Catherine II. Both Swedish and Russian theatres in
the second half of the eighteenth century consolidated their nationalism by appealing to
various national cultures and absorbing them. One of the achievements of the Enlightenment
was the rise in popularity of theatre and its transnationalism. Several European countries, like
Russia, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and others, decided to follow France and Italy’s example
with their older traditions, and participate in the revival of the theatrical arts, while aiming at
the same time to preserve their national identities. The general tendency in all European
countries of “second theatre culture” was toward transnationalism, i.e. the acceptance of the
inter-penetration between the various European cultures with the unavoidable impact of
French and Italian theatres. The historical plays of the two royal dramatists – Gustav III and
Catherine II – were based on national history and formulated following models of mainly
French and English drama. The monarchs resorted to the help of French, Italian and German
composers, stage designers, architects, choreographers and actors to produce their plays.
However, such cooperation only emphasized Swedish as well as Russian nationalism. Despite
many similarities, Gustav III and Catherine II differed somewhat in how each positioned their
own brand of nationalism. By delving deeper into the details of the formation of the national
theatres by these monarchs, I will explore similarities and differences between their two
theatres.
Keywords: Gustav III, Catherine II, Swedish 18th-century theatre, Russian 18th-century
theatre, national theatre, transnationalism, mobile artists.
E-mail: [email protected]