Search

In 2017, the Kika’ige Historical Society, an Indigenous women’s performance troupe based in Guelph, Ontario, created Tabling 150 in response to the mainstream celebrations of Canada’s sesquicentennial. In Tabling 150, a group of twelve Indigenous women imagined how their grandmothers might have wanted to present themselves, had they been invited to Confederation balls, and to consider what their ancestors might have “brought to the table.” In this article, the members of the Kika’ige, a settler ally performance scholar and research assistant highlight the discomfort this performance created for its settler audience and the ways that such moments of unsettling through performance can prompt settlers to reflect on the roles they need to play in conciliation. The authors consider the importance of the role of space-making in performance specifically and in reconciliation efforts more generally and conclude that challenging colonialism requires creators to offer spaces in which audience members confront their past and process the discomfort associated with inverting nationalist narratives.

In an episode of his satirical television show Nathan for You, comedian Nathan Fielder creates an original theatre production in order to exploit a legal loophole that allows smoking in bars if it is part of a performance. The project begins as a one-off invisible theatre performance but quickly morphs into an experiment in the possibilities and limits of theatre of the real when Fielder re-stages the initial event with actors so the production can be repeatable, and thus marketable as a consistent product. In the “Smokers Allowed” episode, Fielder’s comedic attempts to painstakingly recreate events highlight the inherent ridiculousness of reality-based performances. This Nathan for You episode brings together two related approaches to performance—reality television and reality theatre—that are linked through their focus on reality, but which tend to diverge in content and reception. In doing so, he reveals a double standard in the cultural valuation of reality television and theatre of the real—one that ironically relies on an anti-theatrical bias towards televisual forms. At a time when there is heightened anxiety about what constitutes reality and an increasing concern that all realities are constructed, Fielder’s satire raises a number of pressing questions related to performance and the real, including: How might a satirical, comedic approach to theatre of the real help us understand omissions and biases within this form? How might acknowledging that all reality-based art forms are fundamentally absurd open up this field to new possibilities?, Dans un épisode de son émission télé satirique Nathan for You, l’humoriste Nathan Fielder monte une production théâtrale inédite pour exploiter une clause qui permet de fumer dans les bars en toute légalité dans le cadre d’une performance. Au début, le spectacle ne doit avoir lieu qu’une seule fois et passer inaperçue, mais la chose a vite fait de se transformer en exploration des possibilités et des limites du théâtre du réel quand Fielder décide de mettre en scène le spectacle initial avec des comédiens de manière à ce qu’il puisse être reproduit et donc commercialisé en tant que produit homogène. Dans l’épisode « Smokers Allowed », les tentatives humoristiques par Fielder de reproduire les événements dans leurs moindres détails soulignent le ridicule inhérent aux performances axées sur la réalité. Cet épisode de Nathan for You regroupe deux approches à la performance—celle de la télé-réalité et du théâtre de la réalité—qui partagent un même souci de la réalité, mais dont le contenu et la réception tendent à diverger. Ce faisant, Fielder fait ressortir un double standard quant à la valorisation de la télé-réalité et du théâtre du réel qui, de manière ironique, s’appuie sur un discours anti-théâtral favorable aux formes télévisuelles. À une époque où l’on se soucie de plus en plus de ce qui compose la réalité et de la manière dont celle-ci est construite, la satire de Fielder soulève un certain nombre de questions urgentes relatives à la performance et à la réalité. Par exemple, comment une approche satirique et humoristique au théâtre du réel peut-elle nous aider à comprendre les omissions et les préjugés présents dans ce genre? Et comment le fait de reconnaître que toutes les formes d’art basées sur la réalité sont fondamentalement absurdes peut-il ouvrir ce champ à de nouvelles possibilités?

In September 2012, a satirical video declaring Canada as a candidate for the American presidential election went viral. Created by Brian Calvert and Chris Cannon, the “The Canada Party—Meet the Canada Party” video was part of a prank in which the two proposed that Canada would be a better presidential option than either Barack Obama or a Republican Party candidate. The prank is part of a recent performance trend that scholar L. M. Bogad names “electoral guerrilla theatre.” This type of performance responds to the limitations of democratic electoral systems via the appropriation of signs and parodying of electoral norms. Responses to this prank revealed some of the challenges activist performers face when dealing with mass media, which can shift the message of tactical interventions and misread irony. Major international news outlets assumed the prank was primarily about stereotypical, nationalistic differences between Canada and the US. Though this particular video did feature some national stereotypes, the artists developed a scathing critique of Canadian policies with the Canada Party campaign. Their work revealed how freely news media, political culture, and satire now circulate across borders.

Abstract: This article investigates how Theatre Replacement’s WeeTube 5400 (2010) and Les Petites Cellules Chaudes’ The iShow (2012) re-frame social media in a performance context. Through re-mediation, these productions explore the kinds of social relations participatory media catalyze. WeeTube 5400 and The iShow—using YouTube and Chatroulette respectively—ask audiences to consider the productive and unproductive conversations taking place via social media. In doing so, these companies go beyond simply critiquing the social web and use performance to imagine new modes of connection possible in digital spaces. While the theatre space transforms the possibilities for social media use, in both productions the interactive potential of the social web is limited as the audience remains separated from direct digital engagement.

Alan Filewod argues that in contemporary performance, “Digital media is both the means and the form of the reconstitution of activist theatre: it disrupts and relocates cultural genealogies, reterritorializes artistic traditions, produces new structures. Digitalization is the enabling condition, then, of new theatricalities.” In November 2011, Quebec playwright Oliver Choinière created a digital performance that, in line with Filewod’s claim, challenged existing theatre conventions and explored new possibilities for activist performance interventions. His performance, Project blanc, used pre-recorded audio on MP3 players, which participants clandestinely listened to while watching a production of L’École des femmes at Montreal’s Théâtre du Nouveau Monde. The audio was critical of both the production and the theatre’s role as a commercial institution. This article investigates the relationship between this production’s oppositional stance and use of digital tools. Choinière’s protest performance creates affinity and proximity within his audience, thus working against what Jason Farman refers to as the “distancing-through-proximic” that usually occurs when individuals are connected to mobile devices in public. However, the production’s own exclusivity and antagonistic tone undermines Choinière’s critical stance. Another digital site-specific performance, Jonathan Goldsbie’s Route 501 Revisited, provides a counterpoint to Choinière’s approach. This example, which had participants ride on a Toronto streetcar and communicate through a Twitter hashtag, illustrates the potential for mobile technologies to politicize spaces and users via performance. While Goldsbie’s work is less overtly political in its aims, his encouragement of collaboration contrasts with Choinière’s more traditional narrative approach and oppositionality.

In Theatre of the Unimpressed director and playwright Jordan Tannahill argues that audience members have become bored with and are not challenged by contemporary English-language theatre. In his search for ways to reinvigorate the form, Tannahill contends that an aesthetics of failure can keep theatre vital in our present age.

A previous randomized clinical trial compared selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) plus postoperative intensified physiotherapy (group 1) with intensified physiotherapy alone (group 2) for children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. At the end of this trial, all patients in group 2 had an SDR, followed by further intensified physiotherapy. This study was performed to determine if the additional intensified physiotherapy before SDR, as occurred in group 2, improved long-term motor outcome. Outcomes were compared in the two groups, i.e. group 1 without intensified physiotherapy before SDR and group 2 with intensified physiotherapy before SDR. The primary outcome measure was the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). Lower-limb spasticity, range and strength were secondary outcome measures. Baseline assessments had been done for the prior clinical trial. For this study, patients were reassessed by physiotherapists blinded to the treatment group. Thirteen children in each group were studied at a mean follow-up of 53 months. The mean improvement in GMFM was 10.0 in group 1 and 10.4 in group 2 (p = 0.9). Improvements in spasticity and range were similar in the two groups. There was no significant change in muscle strength in either group. It was concluded that in this relatively small series of patients, additional intensified physiotherapy before SDR did not improve motor outcomes.