Performance and Real Relationships: Family, Intimacy and Domesticity in Contemporary European Theatre

This study extends existing debates of theatre and the real and presents the first systematic exploration of the theory, history and practice of the ‘non-performer’ in contemporary theatre, particularly exploring what might be considered a niche field of non-performer family members in performance. During the Covid-19 pandemic online performances increased out of necessity, and theatre makers progressively created work with family members in their own homes. Performing with real people is a notable phenomenon of late 20th and early 21st century theatre, and the lockdown years saw a rise of familial performance. In this book, Ildikó Rippel investigates the phenomenon of performing with real family members co-opted into contemporary practice. Dissecting the dramaturgies in familial performances, the book applies a feminist perspective to investigate the sense of intimacy and authenticity that emanates from performing with family. The first section of the book discusses philosophical perspectives such as the Lacanian concept of the real and theories on metamodernism, foregrounding ideas of authenticity, to offer a central critical framework and a springboard for the investigations to follow. The book then focuses on the discussion of case studies, analysing familial theatre with parents, children and lovers. The chapters on case studies continue to apply the theoretical framework presented in the introduction chapter, with a focus on the affect on audiences. The chapters are intersected with interviews with theatre practitioners, offering an in-depth investigation of devising methodologies of family theatre, exploring the bodily experience of the artists. The book finally focuses on the emergence of familial performances on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic, and analyses examples of theatre practitioners performing with family members online. Ildikó situates her own practice alongside the performance examples, discussing Zoo Indigo theatre company’s projects with the performers’ children, mothers and lovers. This book explores the authenticity effect caused by performing with real family members and concludes that the presentations of such familial micro-narratives are ultimately universally relevant and instrumental in feminist theatre practices. The monograph distinctly offers a two-fold lens for the analysis of family theatre: the introspective bodily experiences of the practitioners interviewed, and the objective discussion of affect on the audience and spectatorship and the real.