Abstract
This article proposes that explorations of recent history in contemporary performance increasingly look to reject staged images of represented history or any recourse to visual spectacle. Instead they seek to foreground the inevitable absence of the historical event and its players. Through auditory stimuli this absence then becomes populated by the imaginary, enabling a much more significant connection between past and present than conventional theatrical representation can offer. After Dubrovka, which I shall use as my example, was produced by Neil MacKenzie, Mole Wetherell and Spencer Marsden and was based on the hostage taking by Chechen rebels at the Moscow Theatre in 2002.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Critical Stages |
Volume | 2 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2010 |