The Loss of Small White Clouds: Dementia in Contemporary Performance

ISBN-13: 9781032252018 / Angielski

Morgan Batch

Opis

This volume seeks to instigate a discussion about dementia in theatre.

The discussions in this book borrow from the literature on dementia’s representation in other artforms, while reflecting on theatre’s unique capacity to incorporate multiple artforms in a live context (hypermediacy). The author examines constructions of diegesis and the use of various performance tools, including physical theatre, puppetry, and postdramatic performance. She discusses stage representations of interior experiences of dementia; selfhood in dementia; the demarcation of those with dementia from those without; endings, erasure, and the pursuit of catharsis; placelessness and disruptions of traditional dramatic constructions of time; and ultimately, performances creatively led by people with dementia. The book traces patterns of narrativization on the stage—including common dramaturgical forms, settings, and character relationships—as well as examples that transcend mainstream representation.

This book is important reading for theatre and performance students, scholars, and practitioners, as well as cultural studies writers engaged in research about narratives of dementia.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: "We’re all in our own little world": Inside Dementia Experiences

Chapter 1: Dementia from the Inside: The Father and Autobiographer

Chapter 2: Research-based Performance: Inside Out of Mind

Chapter 3: Social Narratives and the Family as Microcosm: Really Old, Like Forty-Five

Part I summary

Part II: Active and Passive Embodiment

Chapter 4: Transforming the domestic space: Sundowner and 1 Beach Road

Chapter 5: Puppetry and Dementia: It’s Dark Outside and D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks

Part II summary

Part III: Postdramatic Theatre: Radical alternatives for staging dementia

Chapter 6: Experiential performance: Memory Point(s)

Chapter 7: Problematising dementia: Sul Concetto di Volto nel Figlio di Dio

Chapter 8: Dementia and Creative Agency: RUFF

Part III summary

Conclusion

End Matter

Index

O autorze

Morgan Batch is a Sessional Academic with the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.