I recall in our last class we were having a very energized discussion about "The Couple in the Cage". For the most part it seemed like all of us had very strong opinions about this piece of performance art. Some of us thought it was done the right way and some thought it was all wrong. Some of us thought it was theatre and some of us thought otherwise. Regardless of how we felt about the piece there is no denying the statement it made about truth, lies, and performance politics. This being said, how then does the piece relate to our understanding of global theatre?
The first reason this piece is important is because it forced us to ask ourselves, what do we consider theatre and how is that difference form perfomace art? My definition of theatre is a performance venue where the audience has come with the full understanding that they are about to see a performance. In performance art this is not always the case. In the Couple in the Cage only the performers and the most observant audience members understood that it was a performance. This in my opinion makes it strictly performance art and not theatre. However someone could easily disagree and make the opposite argument. This piece floats on the fine line between theatre, art and performance. I was able to better understand global theatre because it forced me to identify what exactly it is that I look for in a performance to consider it theatre.
I also think this piece made social commentary on how easily we exoticize cultures and people other than ourselves. furthermore, it highlights the responsibility of theatre practitioners. If all the observers watching the performance had been more concerned about the cruelty of caging people up and putting them on display and less about the spectacle of the piece they would have been able to see the meaning of it. Moreover, if the performers would have allowed the audience understand what was going on better the impact of the piece could have been greater. A piece like this to some people may not be theatre however, it opens up a discussion about the responsibility and role the audience and performers play in understanding global identity and performance politics.
1 comment:
You brought up a lot of good points, but I thought the most important point was the responsibility of theatre practitioners. I am always for a strong, politically based, no-holding-back piece. However, these pieces lose all power with the audience is not safe. In this case, I think the audience wasn't safe because they weren't aware they were an audience. Therefore, people were able to walk away (specific concern for children) with the assumption that a museum had people in a cage---and that this was regarded as a normal thing. I absolutely loved the concept of "Couple in a Cage." But in my opinion, they failed as theatre artists. They were not accountable for the message they sent out. At least not until the documentary was made.
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