Books

Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left: A History of the Impossible. By Malik Gaines. New York: New York University Press, 2017; 248 pp.; illustrations. $89.00 cloth, $28.00 paper, e-book available.

In Black Performance on the Outskirts of the Left, Malik Gaines argues that black performers across 1960s music, theatre, cin- ema, and experimental art harnessed the decade’s energies of “excess” (3) to radically destabilize gendered, racialized, and cap- italist systems of dominance. These acts of disruption were as revolutionary as they were provisional. The performances of sonic affect, antistate critique, queer sexual dissent, and gen- dered spectacle that Gaines traces did not programmatically reorder social relations; they instead left ambivalent and ephem- eral imprints that Gaines limns with care. Constellating Nina Simone’s defiant performance personae, Ghanaian black fem- inist theatre by Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, the cine- matic collaborations of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Günther Kaufmann, and the queer communal life-world of the San Francisco Cockettes into a genealogy of possibility, Gaines contributes a rich archive and an original approach to black performance and its temporal, political, and representational dimensions. Gaines’s emphasis on the critical possibilities of black queer and feminist performance res- onates with paradigms of utopia, excess, and afro-alienation generated by scholars José Esteban Muñoz, Tavia Nyong’o, and Daphne Brooks, yet Gaines offers a unique location from which to theorize. While writing in conversation with this body of scholarship, he locates the outskirts of the Left as a particular site of black performative energy. For Gaines, the transgressive, rad- ical, and “excessive sixties” (3), the transnational routes of African diaspora, and blackness as a historical and representational sign form the “three complicit registers” (4) that together collate the subjects of his study. The US civil rights movement, the unfolding of West African inde- pendence, anticapitalist social movements of postwar Germany, and queer scenes of late-1960s California comprise the Left through which the subjects of Gaines’s study embody and ani- mate heterogeneous forms of dissent. While Gaines risks reifying the Left as putatively straight, white, and male in relation to its queer, female, and black margins, he deftly troubles this rela- tion by identifying the multidirectional circuits of power and multiple sites of articulation that comprised these networks of political affiliation; for Gaines, outskirts and margins do not wholly conflate. Gaines reads archives of live performance footage, scripts and lyrics, cinema, interviews, and memoirs to excavate these circuits. In chapter 1, “Nina Simone’s Quadruple Consciousness,” Gaines multiplies Du Boisian double consciousness to explore Simone’s virtuosic deploy- ment of genre, affect, and protest to marshal “multiple positionality [as] a source of provi- sional power” (22). Detailing how Simone drew jazz and blues traditions, Brechtian alienation effects, and Marxian analysis into her own affective alchemy, Gaines suggests that Simone pro- duced a potent ambivalence that “staged agency where it [was] a structural impossibility” (20). In chapter 2, “Efua Sutherland, Ama Ata Aidoo, the State, and the Stage,” Gaines analyzes

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162 Books explore intersectionsofraceandchilddevelopment asmeasures oftheHuman. [email protected] to performances blackprodigy American of19th-and20th-century Childhood,” tracesagenealogy University. Her “Blackness dissertation, andtheHuman andtheLogicof Prodigy, Child:Race, Camille S.Owens isaPhD Candidate inAfricanAmerican Studies andAmerican Studies at Yale tion fromwhichtocommunicate” (202). Gaines thoroughlyproveshiscontentionthat “blackness endures [...]asadeeplyenergeticposi- from whichsuchaninvestigationcanemerge. Taking blacknessasthecentralsiteofhisanalysis, ing blacknessandbrownnesstogether, Gainesneverthelesssuppliesrichtheoreticalground across intersectingcircuitsoftheglobalLeftduring1960s; yet, intheabsenceofengag- ries ofdifferencehadtheauthorincludednonblackpeople colorwhoperformedradicalacts and toblacknessitself. OnewondershowGaines’swork mighthavefurtherdestabilizedcatego- ies withanexpansiveandheterogeneousapproachtothehistory ofradicalism, toperformance, that defiesgeneric, national, andgenderedbounds, Gainessuppliesblackperformancestud- order andchartedenergeticpathsforfutureradicalactstofollow. Constructingagenealogy tics, affects, andexperimentsthatlaunchedprovisionalchallengestohegemonicsystemsof 1960s andpresentshare. cations regardingthefailures, excesses, andongoingpossibilitiesthatblackperformanceinthe mance tothehistoryhisworkrigorouslyconstructs, Gainesclosesthemonographwithprovo- audience memberandperformer. Tying hispersonalknowledge ofcontemporaryblackperfor sation, transportingthereaderto2015 Venice Bienniale, whereGainesparticipatedasan have plentytosayeachother” (x). The book’s “Afterword” stagesthisgenerativeconver collective MyBarbarian. As Gaineswrites, “While scholarshipandpracticearedifferent, they deriving insightfromhisownlongstandingrelationshiptoperformanceasamemberoftheart formance history, diasporicculturalstudies, feministfilmstudies, andqueertheory, whilealso the book’sfourchaptersmakemanifest, Gainesdemonstratesfluencyspeakingtoblackper across registersofperformancestudiesscholarshipandperformance-practitionerexpertise. As imprint attheintersectionofblackperformativestrategyandculturessexualdissent. tual campandtheirpracticeofliberationthrough “life asperformancedrag” (117)leftacritical queer Cocketteperformer, Sylvester, Gainesargues thatthecollective’sdeploymentofintertex- life-world oftheSanFranciscoCockettes, andcenteringtheperformativerepertoireofblack tured andvibrantreconstructionofqueersocialityperformance. Excavatingthespectacular ter, “The Cockettes, Sylvester, andPerformanceasLife,” whichcomprisesthebook’smosttex- filmic narratives. ConfoundingspectacularityformstheenergeticlocusofGaines’sfourthchap- rial controlandtheactor’sembodiedagency Kaufmann’s ambivalence rupted Germannationalidentityandsexualpoliticswhilewithholdingutopianalternatives. emblem ofdifference, asexualizedobject, andaninsurrectionistrevolutionary, Kaufmanndis- works suchasGodsofthePlague (1969)andPioneers inIngolstadt (1970), Gainesarguesthatasan black Bavarianactor’sroleasa “radical agent” (111)inFassbinder’sfilmicoeuvre. Considering dramatic dilemmas. Personality” (55)bypresentingtensionsofgenderanddiasporicalienationascentraltotheir Ghost the textsofSutherland’splays, Edufa (1962)andForiwa New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 Black Performance ontheOutskirtsofLeftprovidesanimpressiveaccountembodiedtac- Gaines notonlyworksacrossthe “three complicitregisters” thathenamesattheoutsetbut Chapter 3, “The Radical Ambivalence ofGüntherKaufmann,” explorestheeponymous (1964) astheychallengedtheGhanaianstate’simperativetocreateasynthetic “African — which GaineslocatessomewherebetweenFassbinder’sdirecto- — confounded ratherthanresolvedFassbinder’s

(1962), and Aidoo’s The ail S Owens S. —Camille Dilemma ofa - - - Books 163 - buttresses the need for — much of which remains untranslated — By Macarena Gómez-Barris. Gómez-Barris. By Macarena

offers a timely study of the proliferation of extractive capitalism and Zone offers a timely study of the proliferation The Extractive

As Indigenous-led obstructions to the expansion of extractive capitalism increasingly gain As Indigenous-led obstructions to the expansion Acts series coedited by Diana Zone is the first book published in the Dissident The Extractive , Perspectives Ecologies and Decolonial Zone: Social The Extractive theory from sites in the Global South that are deemed marginal but are nevertheless central to theory from sites in the Global South that are deemed marginal but are nevertheless It is the Zone takes on the work of epistemic decolonization. The Extractive the global economy. geopolitics of result of substantive situated fieldwork attentive to embodied knowledge and the The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and and Social Ecologies Zone: Extractive The Perspectives. Decolonial Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2017; 208 pp.; 2017; 208 Press, NC: Duke University Durham, e-book available. paper, $23.95 $84.95 cloth, illustrations. In visits five resource-rich territories in Macarena Gómez-Barris by colonialism and extractive capi- America traversed South social ecologies submerged within these talism to observe the the petroleum industry in Eastern She documents geographies. of Valley tourism industry in the Sacred Ecuador; the spiritual Bolivia; pine in Potosí and La Paz, Peru; silver and tin mining Bío region of Chile; and hydroelectric- plantations in the Bío been While these regions have Colombia. ity projects in Cauca, by agents of colonial capitalism who “extractive zones” deemed - Américas to convert natu mined the since the 1500s, have, - sacri for capital accumulation, ral resources into commodities extractive capitalism has not ficing biodiversity in the process, Gómez-Barris uncov- through these worlds, Wading been totalizing in its destructive effects. that challenge the monocultural view of “submerged perspectives” ers local knowledges and the exploit- and represent material alternatives to developmentalism and colonial capitalism, Indigenous She takes her cues from capitalism. ative relations and destructive path of extractive interdependence of webs the see to her train who producers cultural and activists, artists, guides, new ways and she challenges us to find ecologies, between nature and culture in their natural invert the colo- and apprehending submerged perspectives that perceiving, hearing, of seeing, peril as a result While the natural ecologies that Gómez-Barris visits are in nial extractive view. these spaces the Indigenous communities that reside within of large-scale extractive projects, Gómez- they have survived the colonial encounter. remain vital sources of knowledge because and connection that have sur praxis, of thought, Barris lifts and amplifies powerful genealogies vived the violence of capitalist reduction and commodification of life. Doing so establishes the Doing so and commodification of life. vived the violence of capitalist reduction extractive and dismantling resisting, as the terrain of potential for critiquing, “extractive zone” social and ecological life based on Indigenous prin- and reorganizing capitalism and coloniality, world. ciples of coexistence with the nonhuman Anthropocene are more readily acknowl- and the deleterious effects of the global attention, edged, as newly pro- Gómez-Barris shows how even states. coloniality within neoliberal multicultural incorporate environmental protections into con- gressive states such as Ecuador and Bolivia logic that they often fall into a colonial rights, stitutional change and legalize Native people’s By enabling imagines resource extraction as the only means towards national development. they extractive projects that violently reorganize territories and disrupt complex ecosystems, perpetu- prolong social and economic inequalities that delimit Indigenous sovereignty and of female, ate anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism; fail to address the needs and perspectives possibility of and queer populations; diminish the working-class, gender-nonconforming, national autonomy from global markets; and curtail actual decolonization. a series that focuses on embodied politics and decolonial practices in and Gómez-Barris, Taylor Gómez-Barris’s engagement with the burgeoning literature on extractivism that Américas. the America has emerged in South Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

164 Books tributed toTheatre Journal, are staged,andtheatricaltacticsare deployed ofpetro-imperialism. toimpedetheexpansion She hascon­ practicesonoilfrontiers inwhichpetro-politics arerange ofperformance negotiated,extractive ideologies Her “Crude dissertation, Stages oftheCapitalocene: Performance and Petro-Imperialism,” a examines Kimberly Richards isaPhD Candidate inPerformance Studies at the University Berkeley. ofCalifornia, approaches toembodiedvernacularknowledgetoday. tion ofknowledge. There maybenogreatertestamenttothevalueandurgencyofdecolonial extractive zonesofLatin America (andtheGlobalSouth)appearascriticalsitesforproduc- for decolonizingrelationswithinthe Anthropocene. Indigenousepistemesfromwithinthe day scenarioscurrentlyrampantinpoliticalandartisticdiscoursepresentviablestrategies rial alternativestocolonialityandthereductionextinctionoflife. They refutethedooms- modes oflivingwithinIndigenousterritoriesthatGómez-Barrislocatesdemonstratemate- embedded withinextractivecapitalism. The submergedontologies, movements, artworks, and spective thatsheltersthemainculpritsofcolonialcapitalismandobscuresmatrix critics havepointedout, the Anthropocene discourseleadstoauniversalizingidiomandper porous practicesthatmovebeyondcolonialcapitalismanditsanthropogeniceffects. As various embodied knowledge. and modes ofcriticalliving, andpoliticalenactmentsarerootedinantiracistdecolonialpraxis, anarcho-feminisms ofMujeresCreando, whoseanticolonialandanticapitalistphilosophies, at once, andtheradicalpotentialofintellectualculturalproductionssuchasIndigenous trates thenecessityoffightingagainstpatriarchalrelations, coloniality, andextractivecapitalism ing tofullycomprehendthemyriadformsoflifeandpotentialityencountered(xvi). Sheillus- bound tothe “disciplinary drive” to “master” imagesortheformationsbeingstudied, norclaim- ysis shapedbytheperspectivesandcriticalgenealogiesthatemergewithinthesespaces,” not experience, perception, anddecolonizationmeet ening impassethatisextractivecapitalism” (xvi). Shedescribesthismethodasthenexuswhere tique, Gómez-Barrisdevelopsa “decolonial femmemethodology” toleadusoutofthe “dead- for electricity. as asiteofvibrantsocialandecologicalsustenanceratherthanmerelywatertobeharnessed water. This submergedperspectiveinvertsthecolonialextractivegazeapproachingriver surface counteractsthedrone/surveillancelogicthatcoincideswithcommodificationof spaces. Inchapter3, Gómez-Barrisshowshowa “fish-eye” epistemethatpeersfrombelowthe carefully thoughextractivezonesandperceivesanewallthatgrowsemergeswithinthese lations invisible. Gómez-Barriscentersherownembodiedexperienceasshemovesslowlyand gaze thatfacilitatesandperpetuatesaccumulationbydispossessionrenderingNativepopu- and reckonwiththeopacityofwhatliesbeneathsurface, invisibletotheverticalcolonial knowledge production. A submergedperspectiverequiresonetooccupyapositionfrombelow New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 The Extractive Zonemovesbeyondtherealmofcritiquetodevelopandpointqueer Through engagementwith Andean phenomenologyandIndigenousanarcho-feministcri- who findroutesofescapefromthereinscription Andeanpatriarchyandtheerasureof Room One Thousand,

and several [email protected] —

a modeof “porous andundisciplinedanal- ibry Richards —Kimberly - Books 165 makes at least four criti- - - - track — By Trinh T. By Trinh T. a Mother of the Plaza de Mayo, a climate justice activist, a water a climate justice activist, a Mother of the Plaza de Mayo, — rhythms (7). Trinh posits the figures of the walker and the writer as receptors of the posits Trinh rhythms (7).

As in Trinh’s other works, her striking methodology expands the possibilities of what schol- other works, Trinh’s As in Lovecidal “creative fragments,” Composed of 18 chapters or Minh-ha. Fordham University Press, 2016; 298 pp.; illustrations. pp.; illustrations. 2016; 298 Press, Fordham University Minh-ha. available. e-book $28.00 paper, $100.00 cloth, ing the ways in which war wounds reverberate, resound, and resound, war wounds reverberate, ing the ways in which materially affecting our tremble across time and geographies, quotidian , is critical theory, creative offering, and philosoph creative offering, is critical theory, , Disappeared 1989) char (Trinh “dis-ease” essential ical reflection on the global victory-hungry regimes of acterizing contemporary possibilities of loving forms of dissent and the militarism, Iraq, Congo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, conflicts in Following within. shows Trinh and elsewhere, Vietnam, Tibet, Rwanda, Palestine, war what is relevant is for of events,” “screen that on today’s As (47). “pending ending” of ever- itself to remain in a state with the Walking Lovecidal: the war story, a radical retelling of (4) event” “resonance presents itself as a Disappeared Filmmaker, theorist, and composer Trinh T. Minh-ha’s most T. Trinh and composer theorist, Filmmaker, with the Walking Lovecidal: book, recent genre-defying Lovecidal: Walking with the Disappeared. Walking Lovecidal: cal moves. First, the reader encounters Trinh’s carefully researched critique of contemporary carefully researched Trinh’s the reader encounters First, cal moves. “anything with a focus on the flawed logics of a US regime that will never accept war forms, is exposed as an enduring and infelicitous speech “Victory” (72). else than complete victory” In scene after (35). Vietnam raising the specter of with each new US war act in these pages, indicates how each such proclamation is exceedingly Trinh scene of apparent military victory, continues (126). war “revived for replay” Afghanistan being a case in point where a short-lived, the war mouthpiece to sustain the Manichean logics of the current US dispensation, Further, Trinh notes that the line separating victory and loss is strategi- redefines victory at each turn. (91). “victor and victor” war unfolding between so that we witness cally blurred or rearranged, when a moment of broadcast tele- War, An especially acute example of this was in the first Gulf Bush claiming victory for their side at vision showed both Saddam Hussein and George H.W. “Screen Replay,” Won,” “Enhanced Security: He In fragments titled the time of the ceasefire. maps the landscape of affect (alongside material violence) that Trinh “Deep in the Red,” and both domestically and and security measures, surveillance, is activated by counterinsurgency, if the staging of victory privileges spec- Finally, in the name of victory over the enemy. abroad, For instance, of war (31). “nocturnal gestures” draws our attention to the Trinh tacular visuality, pulsations of war events. Therefore, she urges bodily-kinesthetic attention to the “propulsive the she urges bodily-kinesthetic attention to Therefore, pulsations of war events. of the walker generosity” “call of the answer to the in Walking Lives protestor (118). a Movement for Black protector, sug- Trinh Relatedly, opens up an alternate spatio-temporality for political action. Disappeared” these world with her sensory apparatus reawakened, gests that when a writer moves through the unsettling and create new assemblages of words, same rhythms may disrupt mental categories evacuate meaning from language (63). the war propaganda machine’s attempts to feminist the- Bringing together voices from critical and arship in the humanities may look like. and aphorisms, oral tradition, mythology, Zen Buddhist practice, poetry, mainstream media, ory, praxis that readers familiar with her body of presents a form of multivocal decolonial Lovecidal Multiple art photography by Jean Paul Bourdier. The book also features work will recognize. and against varied natural land- near, in, with, black-and-white images capture human bodies so as to shadow, light and camouflage and mimicry, playing with illusion and actuality, scapes, in which “between states” a zone of “inter-possibility,” conceptual offering of Trinh’s perform both aesthetically and politically (80). liberatory praxis may be located, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

166 Books they bearwitnesstoourtimes. as wellforartists, writers, and activists, whoseekanexpansive, embodiedcritical languageas ality studies, mediastudies, globalizationstudies, culturalstudies, andpeaceconflictstudies, praxis. This textisaformidableresourceforscholarsof performancestudies, genderandsexu- Ultimately, through thebook, suchthatthereaderisinvitedtomake herownroutethroughthework. (123). Sectionssuchas “she, thewayfarer,” “twilight walk,” and “walk forrain” interweave Walking ispresentedasasimultaneousmovementonan outwardpathandonan “inner road” ([1994] 2006). aspects ofcorporeality(2015);aswellbellhooks’swritings onloveasa “practice offreedom” biopolitical concept(2017);JudithButler’stheorizationsofprecarity andassemblyaspaired ative conversationwithJasbirPuar’sTheRighttoMaim, whichintroduces “debility” asathird of currentdebatesonbiopoliticsandfeministpraxis, andtheworkmaybeconsideredingener and trivialorgan(3). Lovecidal: Walking withtheDisappeared thusproposeswerevisittheterms love” havebeensilenced, andcorporatemedia’s “bleeding heart” ispresentedasafeminized for thisprofoundlydestabilizingnatureoflovingactsandaffectsthatvoices “from theseatof ries onwhichboththegoverningpoweranditsresistancethrive” (79). Trinh infersthatitis when loveispushedtosuicideitshowsitselfbe “profoundly indifferenttotheclashofbina- politics, inwhichtheStatecan “make live” or “let die” (Foucault[1997]2003:241). That is, an eventenablesnewmodesofthinkingandactionbeyondtheframesaFoucauldianbio- “thousands ofcandlestobelitwithoutbodiesbeingsacrificed” (250). Here, loveasaforceand ing” (250–51). Trinh writesthatthroughtheir “one torch-body” theself-crematorsdesirefor ognition of Tibetan culturalidentity, theseradicallynonconformingsacrificesare “lifeaffirm- to hollowliberalappealsforpeace. Further, intheircallforsolidarity, freedom, andtherec- love suicided. In Tibet, theseextraordinarygesturesofrefusalsay “no” totyrannyasmuch Thích QuảngĐức, the Tunisian fruitsellerMohamedBouazizi, and Tibetan Lamasasonesof Ultimate Protest,” thereaderisledtoconsideractsofself-immolationby Vietnamese monk fleetingly invariousinstancesofthetext, offeringathirdintervention. Inthefragment “The surface acrossherexpansiveoeuvre(Trinh 1991;1999;2005;2011). zant ofthe “equanimity ofavoid” (64)andthe “multiform ofthebetween” (261), themesthat leader (227). Trinh concludesthissectionwithareminderthattheoppressor remainsincogni- paper, oravacantchairstandinatoncefortheChinesestatecensorandexiled spiritual turn totheplenitudeofvoid. An emptyspaceonthewall, agapinthealtar, ablanksheetof to theChinesestatedecreecallingforabanonimagesofDalaiLama, ordinary Tibetans and numerousotherdissidentsofthenonviolent Tibetan resistancemovement. Inresponse the singerandnightclubownerDrolmakyi, thedocumentaryfilmmakerDhondup Wangchen, names thetacticsofmonasticdanceteacherGendun, Tibet’s singingnuns(theDrapchi14), in adhocandunofficialdetentioncenters, “blackhouses” and “blackjails” (163). Here Trinh two separatebutrelateddiscoursesofimperialism. Tibetan “black hand” detaineesarekept parallels betweenUSimperialismandChineseoppressionin Tibet arecriticallypresentedas appearing Tibetans (apolicythathasintensifiedsincethespring2008 Tibetan protests). The much-blazoned departure. of darkness, suchthattheworldcouldnotdiscernactuallimitedandmessynatureofthis she describeshowtheUSwithdrawaloftroopsfromIraqin2010wascarriedoutundercover Butler, Judith. 2015. NotesTowardof Assembly.Performative Cambridge, Theory a MA:HarvardUniversity References A finalsectionofthebookofferstwinrhythmswriting andwalkingascreativeforces. The titularneologism, “lovecidal,” isarichconceptualandperformativeterm, appearing A secondsectionofthebookshedslightonChina’sownspecific “darknightpolicy” ofdis- Press. Lovecidal: Walking withtheDisappeared offerstoolsandmethodsformultiplefieldsof ai Shankar —Karin - Books 167 as “less an object as - - Trans. David Macey. New York: Picador. York: New Macey. David Trans.

(or, “Moving as some thing (or, (2004) in the gallery specially made for her (2004) in the gallery specially made for her Untitled

Routledge. Unversity Press. Routledge. Taking us through the event with the patience, humility, and wit of a great storyteller, and wit of a great storyteller, humility, us through the event with the patience, Taking “Society Must Be Defended.” “Society Must (1997) 2003. Michel. Foucault, London: Routledge. . Resisting Representations Outlaw Culture: (1994) 2006. bell. hooks, Press. NC: Duke University Durham, . Disability Capacity, Maim: Debility, The Right to 2017. Jasbir K. Puar, London: . Politics and Cultural Gender Red: Representation, Waxes When the Moon 1991. Minh-ha. T. Trinh, Bloomington: Indiana . and Feminism Postcoloniality Writing Other: Native, Woman, 1989. Minh-ha. T. Trinh, Routledge. London: . Cinema Interval 1999. Minh-ha. T. Trinh, Routledge. London: . Event The Digital Film 2005. Minh-ha. T. Trinh, London: . and the Boundary Event Refugeesim Immigration, Here: Within Elsewhere, 2011. Minh-ha. T. Trinh, mance artist Maria José Arjona is warming up for her durational mance artist Maria José performance She is blowing bub- Welt. inside Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der bubbles (28), “liquid soap laced with vermillion pigment” bles of the building’s that begin to rise from the gallery and threaten to arrive at the space, who has yet Lepecki, protected spaces. “The bub- who shouts, receives a call from the technical director Arjona’s fugitive bubbles send the house ” everywhere! bles are them with butter technicians on a frenetic mission to capture as that which wants to run despite (36), than a mode of actioning the absolutely unforeseen” (175), “audience as witness” human efforts to run things; and 2) he performs the figure of the by giving of caring for a performance’s afterlives, “the responsibility an audience tasked with his performance something all of The anecdote does something else as well, (172). testimony” taking them on a kinesthetic-affective descriptions do: it stimulates the reader’s nervous system, ride straight into the materiality of theory. Singularities: Dance in the Age of Performance. Age of Performance. Singularities: Dance in the $125.00 2016; 194 pp. London: Routledge, André Lepecki. By e-book available. $39.95 paper, cloth, In the first chapter of Singularities, TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New Lepecki describes a scene that André some things want to run),” Colombian visual and perfor sent me pealing with laughter. and Lepecki finds himself gingerly walking alongside fly nets, attempting to ask if who has entered a trance-like state, Arjona, There is so much rushing, it is okay that this mayhem is taking place during her performance. so much activity erupting beyond the con- and breathing, splatting, chasing, blurting, dashing, the Keystone Cops! it’s like a scene from and the technicians, the curator, trol of the artist, Lepecki accomplishes two tasks with this anecdote: 1) he demonstrates a thing Karin Shankar is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Humanities in the Department of Humanities Studies of Performance is Assistant Professor Karin Shankar Global Mellon W. position, she was the Andrew to her current Prior Institute. at Pratt and Media [email protected] City. York a public arts in New organization Time, at Creative fellow Postdoctoral Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

168 Books the “forensic expert” (theneutral, objective, scientific, detached conveyorofinformation)and tions ofviolence” (174). This otherkindoflanguagetakesshape, resounds, andspeaksbackto another kindoflanguagereveals theenfleshedalliancebetweenpoweranditsnon-verbalinflic - liberal dis-experience,” worksofMetteIngvartsenandJérômeBelappear as “moments when and theoristsform “an expression ofrelations,” impersonalyetintimate(18). the houseallday andnotgo anywhere? (2010)asdothoseofMotenand Deleuze. Together, artists sonal emailssenttoLepecki)playasmuchofaroleinLepecki’s analysisofHowcanyou stay in conversation. Forexample, RalphLemon’swords(quotedfrom films, publishedtexts, andper between academicandartistthatisnotoneofscholarlydistance, butratheranonhierarchical ent relationtoauthorialintentionandthepurposeofperforming” (149), andarelationship Lepecki isequallyinterestedinapracticeofchoreographythat requires “an altogetherdiffer parate” (7);a “choreosomatics ofresistance” (12);the “performance ofnonperformance” (14). monadic-juridical formoftheperson” (6);a “bearer of strangeness” (6);a “gathering ofthedis- wild bifurcationorswerveofapath” (148); “modes of collective individuation as livingarchive human animalassemblages, theenduranceofencounter, darkness/blackness, andthebody in theworld” (7). Lepecki’stypologyofsingularitiesincludes thinglypotential, nonhumanand pens” (22)inthework, when (5). Inthemostgeneralterms, Lepeckiclaimsadanceassingularitywhen “something hap- against “the (irrational)rationalitysustainingourageofneoliberal, neocolonialistcapitalism” physics oftheunpredictable” (155)? niques ofmodernityfunctionasarepetitionthatcreatestheskilleddancercapable “the dark impose otherkindsoflimitationsandhierarchieswhatdancesmatter?Canthedancetech- seeks toforgeconnectionsacrosstimeandspace, andbetweenperformeraudiencemember, choreography freedfromthelimitationsofwhatitmeanstomakeadance” (64), evenonethat osity incapableoftransforming “spaces ofcirculationintospacesfreedom” (18)?Does “a ance thegloriousperformanceoftheirvirtuosity” (155). Are performancesofflowandvirtu- “where individualsmoveaboutincessantlyonlytoavoideachotherandmakeofthis- that traditionaltechniqueclassesarenecessarilycomplicitinconstructinganidealcommunity, a dancerstillinlovewiththeorganizingprincipleof “5-6-7-8!” Ibristledatthethought “the laminarthatimposesupontheturbulentatranscendentprincipleofidealorder” (154). As and historicallyconscious, skilledand the silent, spotlitdancer, the “angelologic” servantofthechoreographicmaster, asself-reflexive art today” (7). thrill toabookthatclaimsdanceas “one ofthemostrelevantcritical-aestheticpracticesinlive ruption” (59). Butevenwithoutthisbackground, anydancer, dance-maker, ordanceloverwill Edvardsen’s dancesinthedark, worksthatexposeblacknessas “an onto-politicalforceofdis- undercommons, whichisindispensibletoLepecki’sreadingofMarceloEvelin’sandMette what versedinblackstudies, particularlyFredMotenandStefanoHarney’stheorizingofthe so thoroughlydigestedhisphilosophyofimmanence. And itdoesn’thurttobeatleastsome- italism,” embracing “choreopolitical actions” (5). ments thatdefinethe(irrational)rationalitysustainingourageofneoliberal, neocolonialistcap- Romania, Argentina, France, andGermany the nameofdance” (5)byartistsfromColombia, theUS, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Brazil, by neoliberalrationality. The casestudies and politicaltheorytoask “what itmeanstobeadancerintoday’sworld” (2), aworldgoverned to action. Itcombinesperformancestudies, dancestudies, blackstudies, continentalphilosophy, In thelastchapter, “Afterthought: Fournotesonwitnessingperformance intheageofneo- Lepecki mobilizestheconceptof “singularity” todescribedancesthatmovewithinand The bookisalsoa(tough)lovelettertodance. Lepeckireimaginesmodernity’sfigureof Readers newtoLepeckiwillneedbrushupontheirGillesDeleuzesincehas Singularities is asparklingworkofdancetheorythatreadslikeanurgentandprescientcall — all ofwhichcoexistinboththeoryandpractice. A singularity is “an oddand he detectsan “actualization ofadifferencethatmatters stumbling inthedark, resistanttothephysicsofflow, — — performances that “gather andtakeplaceunder “both expressandcritiquethefundamentalele- away fromthe - - Books 169 - - - does not and The

Sima — Sima Belmar , Magazine Dance She currently writes the “In writes the “In currently She is not merely the enactment of differ is not merely the enactment —

is itself full of flesh, muscle, tremors, spasms, gestures, gestures, spasms, tremors, muscle, is itself full of flesh, , Guardian Bay Francisco San whether in a Julie Tolentino reenactment, a limotro- reenactment, Tolentino a Julie whether in — By Jeffrey C. Alexander. Malden: Polity Press, 2017; 180 pp. 2017; 180 pp. Malden: Polity Press, Alexander. By Jeffrey C. , a hard (difficult, solid) thing. Singularities solid) thing. a hard (difficult, it’s something, ” (Didi-Huberman 2002:320; translation Lepecki’s [157]). Lepecki’s translation 2002:320; (Didi-Huberman ” works it 1 though it plays down the hollowness of political contrivance that Shakespeare , Matters Performance —

“time does not just flow: flow: just not does “time Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit. in Lepecki’s account Repetition To give testimony (of the past, for the future), “[t]he task of the dancer is to open up the “[t]he task of the dancer for the future), give testimony (of the past, To 1. $69.95 cloth, $24.95 paper, e-book available. $24.95 paper, $69.95 cloth, gathers cit- Vienna the Duke of , for Measure In the penultimate scene of Shakespeare’s Measure of law izens to witness a carefully staged public display that he hopes will restore the authority Alexander’s recent Jeffrey while safeguarding his own reputation against accusations of tyranny. perfor collection of essays on the cultural pragmatics of social performance echoes the Duke’s mative designs Alexander exhorts us to note well this kind of political For better or for worse, envisions.

New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New The Drama of Social Life. of Social Life. Drama The TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: Sima Belmar is Lecturer in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the Studies at the Performance Dance, and in the Department of Theater, Belmar is Lecturer Sima & of Dance in the Journal on dance has appeared writing Her of California, Berkeley. University , Practices Somatic Reference Warburg. Aby selon des fantômes de l’art et temps Histoire survivante. L’image 2002. Georges. Didi-Huberman, phic border crossing between human and nonhuman animals in the work of Antonia Baehr, a Antonia Baehr, in the work of between human and nonhuman animals phic border crossing Lucía or in Marcela Levi and Carter, Walter between Ralph Lemon and durational encounter (94) stories human love makes” “those Russo’s telling the “accomplice” (the silent, complicit, modern subject), figures drawn from Eyal Weizman and Weizman from Eyal figures drawn modern subject), complicit, (the silent, “accomplice” the “historical- “fictive-affective,” the witness (the It is the language of respectively. Peter Sloterdijk, of the political-aesthetic “aware who is storyteller) “performative-narrative-aesthetic” political,” in [...] is an imperative of experience and that the transmissibility experience, power of sharing (175). experience is diminished” our age when , among other publications. Studies of Screendance Handbook Oxford [email protected] Dance. publication In Group column for the Dancers’ Practice” ence over time, but is a mode of obstruction and survival. Repetition is about turning back and is a mode of obstruction and survival. but ence over time, “the clunky move- Embracing command to move forward in forgetting. resisting the neoliberal matter whose other name is history” “cracked or torn plane of the (89), ments of broken things” micro- (and macro-) fascisms. is about resisting (90), gestures and actions, and spasms, tremors events gain flesh and muscle, present so that these Singularities (174). words” and indeed, of the reviewer is not to review but And it appears that the task words. of course, and, actions, if not necessarily nimbly or with vir “decisively, to tell a story to witness the event of reading, Citing Ralph Lemon’s embrace of our (151). neutrally” certainly neither in servility nor tuosity, At Lepecki calls for action in the time-space of not knowing. (157), “universal doubt” shared But I do know “I don’t know what this is.” I found myself thinking, many points in the book, one thing about Singularities: . just flow: it works Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

170 Books than Alexander’s implicitpreferenceforconcepts over metaphors. Are wereallybacktotheold voice, movement, andgesture, toanidealmodelimaginedbythepoet” (134)? whom Alexander sympathetically quotesassaying: “It istheconformityofaction, diction, face, ficult toseewhypoeticsremains theapparentbaneofsocialtheory. IsitnotDenis Diderot motivating thecollectiveimagination throughnewformsofsharedemotionalintensity, itisdif- theory” (129). The lattercaution, however, givesareaderpause. Havingadvocatedinfavorof their “moralistic” writingand “metaphorical concepts [...]moresuggestiveofpoeticsthansocial mance studiesgetoffscot-free. Alexander takesaimat someperformancestudiesscholarsfor ter of “romantic sentimentality” (127). Ofcourse, thatisnot tosaythatadvocatesofperfor dramatically re-inflated” (126). Inthisview, thevitalityofperformancestudiesishardlyamat- face ofnewformsmythandsocialritual. As Alexander putsit, “deflationary symbolscanbe Debord, orthesocietyofendlesssimulacra, suchasJeanBaudrillard, needstogivewayinthe notion ofa “de-dramatized reality” bruitedbytheorists ofthesocietyspectacle, suchasGuy of thepostdramatic, suchasHans-ThiesLehmann. In asimilarvein, Alexander arguesthatthe remains possible. believe thecauseisrightandpowertodogreatthingsathand, successfulcollectiveaction in agrandsharedaction. Ifthejurors them? Cochrangraspedwhat Alexander advises racists themselvesanunmistakablemessage:thattheircorruptpracticeswillreboundagainst important, solvingaforensicallyflawedmurdermystery, setupbyracistcops, orsendingthe police thepolice!” Cochranurgedthejury(seeSherwin2000:45–47) in hisdefenseofOJSimpsonwhenstoodchargedwithdoublehomicide. “Only you matter ofactivatingresentmenttowardendemicpoliceracism, asJohnnyCochranangledfor What centralimageswillrivettheattentionanddistillissuesatstake?Perhapsit’llbea moves beliefintoaction. What charactersaretheyplaying? What storygenreisbeingenacted? always remainsripeforcasting ter ofstagecraft. The professionalpersuader, alongwithhisorherclients(orconstituents), ful rhetors, includinglawyers, havealwaysunderstood. Persuasioninlawandpoliticsisamat- the wordsandactionsthatarrestcollectiveimagination. sporting histrademarkbrightbluePatagoniavest. It’sthesymbolsandgesturestogetherwith or BlackLivesMatterleaderDeRayMcKessonmakingthedailyroundson TV newsshows role Perhaps itislessthemetaphorical natureofperformancestudies’conceptsthatisatissue Not surprisingly, Alexander’s brandofsocialperformance theorytakesissuewithadvocates The theoryofsocialperformancethat Alexander propoundssquareswellwithwhatsuccess- — whether itisMaotradinginhisscholars’phrasesandrobesformoreearthysubstitutes — tion. Largerthanlifeleadersneedtospeakanddressfortheir junction withlivingsymbolsthatinspirethepopularimagina- social leadersfarebestwhentheyconstructnarrativesincon- alone thatmakeforsuccessfulsocialperformances. Politicaland his point:itisn’torganizationaltacticsorcompellingideas of unarmedblackcitizensin2015–16, Alexander presseshome Matter movementintheUSfollowingaspateofpolicekillings uprising in Tahrir Square, Cairo, in2011, totheBlackLives ership ofDr. MartinLutherKingJr., tothepro-democracy movement intheUSduring1950s–’60sunderlead- requires: namely, thefusionofactors, audience, andscript. erally, Alexander describeswhatasuccessfulsocialperformance broadening ofritualtoincludesocialperformancesmoregen- Émile Durkheim’sconceptofritualandRichardSchechner’s movements succeed. Drawingupontheemotionalintensityof ­staging ifwearetoproperlyunderstandwhatmakessocial along witheveryoneelseinpublicassemblieswherepower With examplesthatsweepreadersfromthecivilrights — or anysocialactorforthatmatter — you havetofuseactors, audience, andscript — as iftosay, whatismore — can bemadeto - Books 171 facilitated — Richard — Richard K. Sherwin

W.B. Yeats’s The Yeats’s W.B. — By Susan Cannon Harris. Edinburgh: By Susan Cannon Harris. and their failure is precisely the point in Susan Cannon

—

University of Chicago Press. Alexander may be correct when he writes: “democratic movements to control power can- “democratic movements when he writes: Alexander may be correct Edinburgh University Press, 2017; 280 pp.; illustrations. pp.; illustrations. 2017; 280 Edinburgh University Press, $125.00 cloth. two Irish play- Theatre, Avenue In March 1894 at London’s wrights altered the course of leftist theatre by staging a fairy Both failed play and a drawing-room comedy. was misunderstood by audiences and crit- Land of Heart’s Desire of Sighs proved career- A Comedy Todhunter’s while John ics, ending Harris’s new monograph. By broaching the then-volatile phe- By broaching Harris’s new monograph. precipitated a reac- the plays nomenon of queer female desire, tionary heterosexism in late-19th-century English drama and socialist politics that would persist for decades to come. Irish Drama and the Other Revolutions: and the Other Revolutions: Irish Drama International and the Sexual Politics Playwrights, 1892–1964. Left, TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New Richard K. Sherwin is the Wallace Stevens Professor of Law at New York Law School. He is currently a a is currently Law School. He York at New of Law Professor Stevens Wallace K. Sherwin is the Richard in the Arts, for Research at the Centre Fellow Research and Senior College at Fitzwilliam Fellow Visiting books include: Visualizing Law in the Recent University. at Cambridge Science and Humanities Social History 2011) and A Cultural (Routledge, Arabesques and Entanglements Baroque: Age of the Digital [email protected] 2018). Celermajer; Bloomsbury, Age (with Danielle of Law in the Modern . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. NY: Ithaca, . Explanation and Understanding 2004. G.H. Wright, von References Chicago: . Culture Law and Popular Line between Vanishing The When Law Goes Pop: 2000. Richard K. Sherwin, by a carefully orchestrated fusion of scripts, actors, and audience on digital social media digital social media and audience on actors, of scripts, orchestrated fusion by a carefully platforms everywhere. is hardly an isolated phenomenon. But democratic fascism (141). not afford to be postdramatic” But myth is not tantamount (141). “the invigorating experience of myth” Alexander advocates well be what cultural resources pressing question we face today might The most to justice. On the heels of that differ. when myth and justice jibe and when they remain to help us tell that empowers belief operates on Does it matter when the effervescence query comes another: instead of a more organi- spectacle (as Shakespeare has envisioned) the basis of Machiavellian and presence authenticity, justice, social drama? Could it be that cally constituted (“authentic”) fails to address challenges such as A theory of social performance that are somehow entangled? to shake off the ancient stigma of sophistry. these may find it hard scientific/rational knowledge versus interpretive/poetic understanding binary (see von Wright binary (see von understanding versus interpretive/poetic knowledge scientific/rational as he claims, inspires social performance, better what wants to understand Alexander 2004)? If that remains cen- and authenticity the sense of presence It’s the aura, he’s after. it’s not concepts politi- of contemporary The decline stage. the room takes center here the elephant in But tral. mass illusion it is a Or if it is, hardly an illusion. into mass spectacle is cal reality Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

172 Books ogy. Inherintroduction, Harriscontemplates aseriesofpointed rhetoricalquestionsaboutthe Modernists” (171). ings thathaveearnedhimarightful place, Harrisquips, in “the HallofGrievouslyMistaken in thecaseofpostwar American critics whochampionedO’CaseyinspiteoftheStalinistlean- ited conventionslikethewell-made play. Meanwhile, criticalpraisealsowarrants scrutiny, as tic taste. What lookssimply like “bad” formturnsouttobethepurposefulrejection ofinher succeeds inlargepartbecauseofHarris’sconsiderableskepticism aboutthecapricesofartis- atre tothemoreaccessibleconventionsofrealism. The book’scross-sectionalmethodology botched earlycollaborationswithworkers’theatres, learned to adaptthemethodsofepic- of moderndrama(6). Forinstance, thefourthchapter recountshowtheexiledBrecht, having [and] nationalliberationmovements,” Harris affordsthemanimportantplaceinthehistory dist. Though theirconstituencieswere “cobbled together fromlabourunions, politicalparties, often malignedbytheircontemporariesandinscholarshipas amateurishorcrudelypropagan- scholars inavarietyofareas. the nationalspecificityoftheatreallwhilechartingitsglobal itineraries, anditwillappealto Mayakovsky, and the ghost of Percy Bysshe Shelley. reformer EbenezerHoward, actressandartisticdirectorHelene Weigel, Russianpoet Vladimir ist intellectuals William MorrisandEdwardCarpenter, IrishlaborleaderJimLarkin, utopian the Abbey Theatre butbyadisparatecastincludingtheEnglishactressFlorenceFarr, social- forgotten playwrightswithinapoliticalandartisticnetworkheldtogethernotby W.B. Yeats or She takesadeliberatelydecenteredapproachtoIrishdrama, positioningbothfamiliarandlong- tional socialism, HarrisbreathesnewlifeintotheoftenhermeticnarrativeofIrishmodernism. knowledge ofthischapterindramatichistory. clippings, correspondence, journalism, andtheatrerecords archival coveragealone shape LorraineHansberry’sstagingofpoliticalself-reckoninginthepost-McCarthyera. Inits turns tothepostwarUSLeft, showinghowthedramaofO’CaseyandSamuelBecketthelped with SovietCommunismduringhisexperimentalphaseinthe1930sand’40s. The epilogue reappearance intheSpanishCivil War dramaofBertoltBrechtandSeanO’Casey’sflirtation Wilson, andDanielCorkery, whilechapters4and5movefurtherafield, exploring J.M. Synge’s ist movementinIreland, focusingonstrikeplaysofthe1910sbySt. JohnErvine, A. Patrick texts offin-de-siècleEnglishtheatreandtheriseFabianism. Chapter3tracesthesyndical- 1 and2examinethedevelopmentofGeorgeBernardShaw’ssocialistdramawithincon- always likethis” (133). cautions, “then allwecando, whenpresentedwithpost-revolutionarydespair, isassumeitwas dramatic revival. “If weloseourmemoryof[queersocialism’s]visionand[its]obstacles,” she combat thesenseofinevitabilityetchedintohistoriessocialism, queerpolitics, andtheIrish rity,” Harris’sbookdwellsontheluminouspotentialityofthesethwartedmomentsinorderto Jack Halberstam’sTheQueer Art ofFailure andJoséEstebanMuñoz’sconceptof “queer futu- vibrancy ofwhatsheterms “queer socialism” aswellthemagnitudeofitsloss. Drawingon torical archivesofthelate19thand20thcenturies, Harrisinsists, thatwecanappreciatethe ­principle andethicalimperativeofthestudy. Itisonlybyreturningtothetheatricalandhis- and failurearesuspendedindialecticaltension. That dialecticservesasboththeorganizing Each ofHarris’sfivechaptersdwellsatthecuspaturningpointinthishistory, wherehope “web ofinfluenceandinspiration” soughttoremaphumansocietyalongutopianlines(1). the Europeanstage. Connectedbyabeliefintherevolutionarypotentialofradicaleros, this Irish drama, progressivegenderandsexualpolitics, andtheinternationalLeftconvergedupon One ofthebook’sdistinctivevirtues isitswillingnesstointerrogateownmethodol- Harris alsoaccountsfortherangeofsocialistdrama, including theworkers’theatresso The book’smethodologyisequallynoteworthy. BysituatingIrishdramatistswithininterna- Harris focusesonIrishplaywrights, butherapproachisnotablyinternational. Chapters Irish Drama andtheOtherRevolutions exploresaseriesofshort-livedmomentswherein — Harris consultsunpublishedplays, abandoneddrafts, programs, press Irish Drama and the Other Revolutions affirms — the bookaddsconsiderablytoour - Books 173 - Journal of Modern of Modern Journal Sarah — Sarah L. Townsend -

, Literature of Commonwealth Journal By Giulia Palladini. Evanston, IL: Evanston, By Giulia Palladini.

extend her influence to scholarly revolutions still in the making. extend her influence to scholarly revolutions

The study’s peripatetic investigations are held in check by fine organization. The chapters organization. investigations are held in check by fine The study’s peripatetic Northwestern University Press, 2017; 248 pp.; illustrations. 2017; 248 pp.; illustrations. Northwestern University Press, e-book available. $34.95 paper, $99.95 cloth, The introduction to Giulia Palladini’s provocatively titled bits of description that monograph opens with scatter-shot call forth a collection of (initially unnamed) 1960s-era per formers, places, and venues. These arresting “snapshots” cen- “snapshots” These arresting and venues. places, formers, ter on important theatre and performance makers such as Tom Jackie Penny Arcade, Curtis, Andy Warhol, Ellen Stewart, and others who become the subjects Reyner, Ruby Lynn Eyen, of Palladini’s critical investigations of performance-making, Her unusual study is based on and leisure in the 1960s. labor, “fore-play.” a theoretical framework she conceives as and calls Palladini defines this paradigm along parallel lines with the sex- part of perform- “a labor of pleasure on the ual practice as to a climax” [...] not organized according ers and spectators, The Scene of Foreplay: Theater, Labor and Leisure Labor and Leisure Theater, Scene of Foreplay: The York. in 1960s New Sarah L. Townsend is Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Mexico, where she she where Mexico, of New at the University of English is Assistant Professor Townsend L. Sarah of on globalization, migration, and the evolution research Her specializes fiction and drama. in Irish Literary History, in New has appeared genre of edited collections. [email protected] , and a variety Literature ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New center on interlinked readings of plays, and here Harris’s formal dexterity and theatrical exper and here Harris’s formal readings of plays, center on interlinked and a works cited, and photos, apparatus is minimal (several sketches The scholarly tise shine. The fourth chapter presents one it is a well-made book. In all, effective. an excellent index) but than focus on an Irish play- Rather the otherwise consistent structure. puzzling departure from to the Sea. Riders Synge’s 1904 play Brecht’s 1937 adaptation of J.M. Harris examines wright, but in decontextualizing the in foregrounding a non-Irish playwright The problem rests not Synge that Brecht had little interest in the Irish Left, Although Harris claims source material. merely fortuitous. is to make the two plays’ synergy appear and to omit the politics of Riders did, first monograph, Harris’s it is a minor oversight in an otherwise impeccable study. Nonetheless, The new placed her at the vanguard of Irish studies. (2002), Gender and Modern Irish Drama monograph is sure to value of the archival research she has conducted; in the epilogue she acknowledges the risks the epilogue she acknowledges has conducted; in archival research she value of the the and to renounc[ing] carefully, “document[ing] commits to she and throughout, that remain; able to Harris is achieve, scholarship cannot By admitting what (240). of discovery” arrogance Reading Irish Drama lead us to imagine. it might nonetheless convincingly on what dwell more author treats her sub- with which the struck by the fairness one is also , Revolutions and the Other - human agents responsi forces and is to name the institutional her imperative Although jects. blame without judging motive. Harris manages to assign foreclosure, ble for queer socialism’s and vulnerable body just like ours,” “Shaw had a reminds her readers that she Early in the book, Fear, (28). say and how not to say it” “decisions about what not to his that vulnerability affected for without censure. these are human failings that Harris allows pride: grief, shame, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

174 Books Scene ofForeplay. Those ofCurtis are particularlymovingandpoignant:bothofhisself-­ and publicityphotographsthat illustratemanyofthecastcharactersfeaturedinThe Palladini describesit), whichis thefocusofherfinalchapter. cially wellinherincisiveanalysis of Warhol’s Screen Shotseries, afilmproject “yet tocome” (as ing atheoryof1960s-eraqueer spectatorship. Palladinideploysthefore-playparadigmespe- of Vaccaro’s PlayhouseoftheRidiculousandSmith’smidnightperformancesinconstruct - 1970s insider/outsideraccounts. Palladinimakesgooduseof Brecht’s “participatory” critiques her argument. That said, whatworksverywell is Palladini’scloseattentiontoStefanBrecht’s mances anddensetheoreticalexcursionstakesawayfrom, ratherthansupports, thestrengthof forms (vaudeville, magiclanterns)intoheralreadybroad-based explorationof1960sperfor Palladini’s decisiontopulldiscussionsof19th-centuryandearly-20th-century popularcultural a usefulcasestudytosupportPalladini’sargumentforfore-play performancemode. theatre(s), andbecauseofhersuccess-orientedmanagement andoperationsstyle, Stewartisnot as examplesoffore-playinaction). Becauseofthemultitude andvarietyofproductionsather and Vaccaro (whowerealsoproducedatLaMaMaandserveproductivelyinPalladini’sbook methodologies andoutcomeswereindirectcontrasttothe “amateur”-centered workofCurtis Andrei Serban/TheGreatJonesCompany, and Tadeusz Kantor/Cricot2, tonameafew) whose JosephChaikin/TheOpen Theater, path-breaking workshopsandtraining-basedtheatrework( 2017). StewartwastheadvocateforandhometoUSinternationalcollectives’directors’ nies (seeCrespy2003;Bottoms2004;Rosenthal2006;Hardingand2017; produced; shefinanciallysupportedtrainingandworkshopsforperformersinLaMaMacompa- ested inthesuccessofworkathertheatresandactivelysoughtcritics’attentiontoshowsshe Stewart didnotseeherparticipationinmakingtheatrehappenas “playful”; shewasveryinter tional theatreempire-buildingareincontradictionwithPalladini’sfore-playconceptionofher: and forward-thinkingfundraising, heraccumulationofrealestateandEast Village andinterna- argument. Stewart’ssteadfastcommitmenttospecificartistsandtheirtraining, herstrategic portraits, theworkendswithsceneofforeplay;thereisnofinalproduction. performer’s abilitytodotheactualworkonarole(166). Inthecaseof Warhol’s evocativefilm her readingof “Marx’s schemeofthecreationvalue” these “auditions” areonly “tests” ofthe Warhol. Palladinireviews Warhol’s Screen Tests (1964 of thetimeperiod fore-play paradigm, Palladinialsobringsafreshlensandenergytoheranalysesoftwostars and comprehensivelycritiquedwiththesupportofPalladini’stheoreticalframework. Usingthe and incombinationwithdirectorJohn Vaccaro’s PlayhouseoftheRidiculous)arecompellingly (she illuminatesperformer/playwright/directorJackieCurtis’slifeandworkinjuxtaposition sionally interruptedbytheauthor’sself-reflections. Severalofthebook’s1960s-erasubjects ings andperformancecritiques, meshedwithwide-rangingtheoreticalanalysesthatareocca- book initsentirety Freeman’s workonqueerkinshipandcommunityarefoundationaltoPalladini’sthinking. Esteban Muñoz’sevocationoftheutopianpotentialinpre-StonewallgaycultureandElizabeth formulations thatmeldMarxisttheory(via Walter Benjaminandothers)withqueertheory. José nect themandsupportviahertheoreticalconstruct, whichshebuildsthroughlengthy tions) thatfollow, Palladiniinterrogateseachoftheopeningimage-bitsandworkshardtocon- nor atrainingtowardfuturecraft” (4). Inthefourchaptersandtwo “interludes” (shortersec- set of1960sperformancesthatPalladinibasesherargumentonare “not aformofpreparation, ties” areengagedinanda “productive outcome” isavoidedorpostponed. Additionally, the sub- (4). Shewritesthatthereisan “extended intervalofleisurelyenjoyment,” that “playful activi- At thecenterofherbook, Palladini includes14black-and-whiteproductionshots Mirroring thescatter-shot feeloftheopening, thestructureofbooklackscohesion. Palladini’s analysesofEllenStewart’smissionandpracticesworklesswellinsupporther My encounterwithandexperienceofthebook’sfirstpagesreflectmytakeawayfrom — — the filmmakerandperformerJackSmithlegendaryartist Andy a sometimesstartlingandrefreshingcollage-workofdetailedcloseread- –1966) as “a pureformoffore-play”:in - - Books 175 (Bloomsbury/ Cindy — Cindy Rosenthal - - By directly confront the camera; in his three the camera; in directly confront Listengarten coedited with Julia

— and glamour-girl glamour-boy She is a director and a founding member of the Bread Loaf Acting Ensemble in in Ensemble Loaf Acting and a founding member of the Bread is a director She — ­

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Arbor: Ann Back Stage Books. York: New American Theater. Press. Arbor: University of Michigan Ann . Decade Turbulent in a Performances University of Michigan Press. Vermont. [email protected] Vermont. Afrikaners in the Postcolony: Whitely Performing Life. and Public Theatrical African in South Methuen, 2018). Methuen, ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New Cindy Rosenthal is Professor of Drama and Codirector of Women’s Studies at Hofstra University. Her Her University. at Hofstra Studies Women’s of of Drama and Codirector is Professor Rosenthal Cindy of (University Theatre Experimental of La MaMa Years Fifty Presents: Stewart books include Ellen and Harding); 2017, coedited with James Stage (Michigan, Sixties, Center 2017); The Michigan, 2000–2009, Playwriting Drama: American Modern References . Movement A Critical History 1960s Off-Off-Broadway of the Underground: Playing 2004. Stephen J. Bottoms, of the 1960s Ignited a New Playwrights Explosion: How Provocative Off-Off-Broadway 2003. A. David Crespy, and Popular Mainstream Center Stage: The Sixties, 2017. eds. and Cindy Rosenthal, M., James Harding, 2 (T190):12–51. TDR 50, All.” “Ellen Stewart: La Mama of Us 2006. Cindy. Rosenthal, Ann Arbor: . Theatre Experimental of La MaMa Years Fifty Presents: Ellen Stewart 2017. Cindy. Rosenthal, faux wedding pictures he plays the beautiful bride. Curtis died of AIDS soon after the last bride soon after the last AIDS Curtis died of the beautiful bride. pictures he plays faux wedding - descriptions and the bits of Palladini’s what the sharpest striking visuals capture These shot. re-view vibrant labor, under-valued do for readers: illuminate of the 1960s oretical reflections the labor of love Indeed, connections. queer community productively unpack and art-work, investment in in the author’s scholarly labor that is reflected a in this book, is often revealed her subjects. constructions formances, playwrights, and performance artists in order to playwrights, formances, protects itself. Afrikaner whiteness mark and make visible how her intent is to examine performances cre- Methodologically, ated by white artists in ways that do not patriotically defy how South Lewis interrogates nor glibly demonize them (5). African performances have reified and critiqued shifting man- ifestations of whiteness from the nation’s inception to the contemporary moment. Megan Lewis. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2016; 272 Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, Megan Lewis. e-book available. $55.00 paper, pp.; illustrations. Afrikaners Whitely in the Postcolony: Megan Lewis’s Performing Theatrical and Public Life is an urgent and over African in South due analysis of 20th- and 21st-century performances that are Lewis exam- strategically tethered to ideologies of whiteness. staged per media, African performance tactics and ines South Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

176 Books fueled theapartheideconomy(103). Uysusessatire, alternativemasculinity, anddragtotrou Evita Bezuidenhoutisstrategicallycoveredwithdiamonds Afrikaner cross-dressingsatiristandperformanceartistPieter-Dirk Uys, whosecharacter envision afutureSouth Africa (68–69). Inanothercasestudy, Lewisexaminestheworkof themselves andtheculturetheycre body, hedoesnotintendtorecenterpowerwhiteness, buttoaskSouth Africans toexamine “enable theformulationofanewnon-racialisedpractice” (137). Byexamininghisownwhite underneath. Heexplainsthathiswhitemasculinitymust berituallysacrificedinorderto suspended upsidedownfromanoxyoke, heviolently moveshisheadthroughtheearth sketches acrosshisnakedbodywordssuchas “volk” (people), “skyt” own body(137). Forinstance, inhispieceSois’nosgemaak (ThusIsanOxMade ) (2004), he who commentsonhowwhitenessand Afrikanerness are tangledbyrituallysacrificinghis One ofthemostprovocativesubjectsLewisexaminesis Anglo-Afrikaner Peter Van Heerden ble binariesandcategorizationtoresistwhitenesstraditional genderconstructions. prising 64 wagons (43–44). Afrikaner nation, similarlypresentstheinsider-outsider narrativewithitsconstructioncom ment (59). The Voortrekker MonumentinPretoria, amonumentthatcommemoratesthe and performtheirvolk identityinordertofindprotectionfromthe “outsider” blackgovern de laRey. The songwasseenbymanyasacallfor “insider” Afrikaners tocirclethe­ song “De LaRey” in2006, asummoningofthe19th-centuryBoerwarheroGeneralKoos jects. Forinstance, inreactiontoescalatingcrime, BokvanBlerkwrotethecontroversialwar this “insider-outsider” constructionasastrategytounmaskandunderstandthebook’ssub mother, andwith Afrikaner rootsconcealedbyher Anglicized name(4). Sheforegrounds identifies herownpositionasawhite, naturalizedUScitizenwithanEnglishfather, Afrikaner universal narrativesandassumptionsofobjectivitybymakingtheirownvoicesheard. She unifying conceptforunderstandingthewhitesubjectsofthisstudy(3). “laager mentality” continuestoshape Western media’snarrativesof Afrikaners andservesasa being penetratedasbothliteralandideologicalbordersareporousnotsealed. This invisible borderofwhitenessdesignedtokeepouttheunwanted, whichisinfactvulnerableto black Africa” inordertoestablishinsidersandoutsiders(28). Metaphorically, it­ French Huguenotsettlersusedtoprotectthemselvesfrom “wild animals, enemyforces, [and] of theword “laager,” orcircleofwagons. This representstheliteralfortressearlyDutchand it”The starkestexampleoftheperformancewhitenessisfoundinstudy’suse (46–47). boundaries andseparates “those whobenefitfromitsprivilegeandthoseareexcluded ness asafictitiousconcept, butonethatbelievesitselftobeinfallible. Whitenessdemarcates attention onhersubject’s “doing ofactions” (10). orthe Shedefineswhite- “performing ofself” gates whitea ity status” togarnersympathyforthe Afrikaner position. Inhiswork, Oppermaninvesti- shows thewaysinwhichplaysofDeanOppermanuse “nostalgia, memory, andminor ody historicalwhitenessandthecontemporaryanxietyitproduces. Inchapterthree, Lewis defined themselvesinoppositiontoothers, tocontemporaryartistsworkingqueerandpar interrogated throughperformance. Lewistrackswhiteanxietyfromthesettlerswho notions oftraditional, binary, andthewell-definedcontinuetobeembraced, challenged, and tions fromrecenteringthefocus ontotheirwhitebodies, therebyunderminingtheir­ urges whitepractitionersandscholars toremainvigilantsoaspreventtheirprivilegedposi - thoroughly explain Afrikaner-specific terminologyandconceptsintheendnotes. Thisbook familiar withhersubjects, she is carefultoincludearepresentativesampleofimagesandmore Lewis framesherscholarshiparoundtheterm “whitely,” whichservestofocusthe­ Broadly, thebookexamineshowwhitenessisconstructedandprotected, aswellhow Lewis followsalineageofintersectionalfeministscholarswhohaveattemptedto­ Lewis isdiligenttocreateamonograph forthetransnationalreader. As manywillnotbe nxiety, andaskshisaudiencestoremembertheworldwhitenesscreated, andto ated inordertobringforth change. — a jabattheminingindustrythat (shit),and “bitch.” While represents the origi wagons reader’s unsettle - nal - - - - - Books 177 - (2005) director — Christopher Martin

­ written by an Egyptian playwright-actor- Edited by Sirkku —

Staging Blackness and Performing Whiteness in Eighteenth Century German and Performing Blackness Staging

(2016). This scholarship works to reverse the gaze in order to discover the paradoxes, to discover the paradoxes, works to reverse the gaze in order This scholarship (2016). abject, queer, and refashion whiteness” (191). Although Lewis agrees that this study pres Lewis agrees that Although (191). refashion whiteness” and queer, abject,

Aaltonen and Ibrahim’s volume consists of 13 chapters divided into 4 sections. In addi- Aaltonen and Ibrahim’s volume consists of 13 chapters divided into 4 sections. Edited by Mohammed Albakry and Rebekah Maggor. Kolkata: Albakry and Rebekah Maggor. Edited by Mohammed $45.00 paper. 2016; 346 pp. Seagull Books, Routledge and Seagull Books each released titles In 2016, Rewriting translation. addressing Egyptian theatre and drama in Politics Performance, Translation, Theatre: in Egyptian Narratives practitioners working gathers a formidable cast of scholars and attempts to assemble both on and in the Egyptian theatre and aspects of Egyptian them as a cohesive volume that addresses theatrical translation from the 19th century up to the pres- collates from the Egyptian Revolution Plays Tales: Tahrir ent day. The 10 original translations of contemporary Egyptian plays. Arabic theatre stud- publication of both volumes is proof of the considerable development of This is important as scholars within this specialization often articulate anxiety ies in English. international theatre and performance scholarship. Arabic theatre in about the invisibility of the subfield The two texts offer divergent experiences for the reader and different directions for Arabic theatre studies. of each section contains two or three scholarly tion to an introductory preface from the editors, “testimonial” pieces and one practitioner’s or documentary theatre critic (Nehad Selaiha), translator (Mohamed Enani), (Dalia Basiouny), Tahrir Tales: Plays from the Egyptian Revolution. Tales: Tahrir Rewriting Narratives in Egyptian Theatre: Theatre: in Egyptian Rewriting Narratives Politics. Performance, Translation, 288 pp.; 2016, Routledge, London: Areeg Ibrahim. Aaltonen and e-book available. $52.16 paper, $150.00 cloth, illustrations. TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 2018. Winter (T240) 62:4 Review Drama The TDR: New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Institute Massachusetts the and University York New Drama Drama of whiteness (61). suffering created as a result of an ideology and imagined loss, ents more questions than answers and expresses her doubts that irony alone is capable of helping is capable of helping doubts that irony alone and expresses her questions than answers ents more to the growing body this book is a welcome contribution past, whiteness escape its hegemonic Whiteness Brewer’s Staging which includes Mary scholarship, of transnational whiteness and Wendy Sutherland’s and Wendy at the candidate and playwright in the Department of Theatre Christopher Martin a PhD is include critical race theory, studies, transnational whiteness interests research of Kansas. His University and Power Whiteness: Marking of dissertation, history. “Stages His theatre performance,and revisionist of whiteness in the strategic protection explores Performance,” Popular in US and German Privilege contemporary and television performance. [email protected] theatre pursuit to disavow white privilege. In the wake of the Brexit referendum and the election of and the election of the Brexit referendum In the wake of disavow white privilege. pursuit to and consolidate continues to protect whiteness in 2016, the US presidency to Trump Donald a Lewis presents visible across the globe. becomes more right-wing nationalism its power as chal- “resist, to developments in order for marking these can be used as a strategy study that lenge, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

178 Books the 25January–11February2011 events. Rather, attentivetocritiquesofthefetishization tion doesnotconsistexclusively ofdocumentarypiecesorperformancesputonduring a rangeofperformancehistories andpoliticalquestions. ume isthusavaluableresource forstudentsandteachersinterestedinintroducingaudiences to Anglophone universitystudentswillbeabletoreadandembody withlittledifficulty. Thevol- source texts. The playsaredeftlyandelegantlyrendered inEnglish, producingtextsthat belaboring agulfbetweentheUSreadersandaudiencesthey claimtoseekandtheirEgyptian Revolution succeedinilluminatingparticularitiesofthepoliticalevents recentyearswithout Sayidati al-Gamila[MyBeautifulLady] asuccessfuladaptationofShaw’splay. cal translation. Elmeligisuccessfullybringstolifethecontext thatmadeSamirKhafagy’s1961 arship thatdoessucceedinbeingattentivetobothlocalandintercultural aspectsoftheatri- entry ontheadaptationofGeorgeBernardShaw’sPygmalion isanexemplarypieceofschol- includes. InadditiontothetestimonialswhichIhave alreadyalluded, Wessam Elmeligi’s outside ofEgypt. mance concerningdivergenthistoriesofdialect, vernacular, class, andpowerboth withinand audiences as aprocessofaccessingEnglishspeakersormakingcontentaccessibletoEgyptian through “Western” eyes. Translation andadaptationarealmostexclusivelyconceived ofhere namely theproductionofknowledgethatvaluesEgyptanditstheatrewhenitisassessed risks reifyingthepreciselinesoforientalistexpectationitidentifiesandclaimstoworkagainst, into Englishwhile4considertranslationsofplays Arabic. The volumeultimately French secondarily, and Arabic. Nineofthe13entriesdealwithtranslations Arabic content obviously inthedecisiontoframe “translation” asaprocessconcernedwithEnglishprimarily, century. (Thisisso, despiteBassiouny’sentry, whichclearlyperformstheopposite.) speakers, whose “encounter” withEgypthasbeensteadyandmateriallyconstantsincethe18th with littleelaborationandismeanttoevokebothplaceshistoriesseeminglyfreeof Arabic tion towhichEgypt’stheatreshouldbeunderstood. The phrase “the West” isusedthroughout text. There isanuncriticalrecirculationof “the West” asifitwereasovereignentityinrela- there hasbeennoelaborationoforientalismoritseffectssinceEdwardSaid’s1978landmark for thebook. Mostglaringly, severalentries, includingtheeditorialframework, proceedasif ical scholarshiponculturalproductioninthe Arab worldproducesaquestionableframework While thesubtitleofvolume reads “plays fromtheEgyptianrevolution,” thecollec- On theotherhand, theeditorsofSeagullBooks’Tahrir Tales: Plays fromthe Egyptian This frameworkisanunfortunatepackagefortheseveralstandout essaysthevolume The problematicweightandauthorityof “the West” reproducedinthevolumeisfeltmost — as opposedtoawidearrayofquestionsaboutrepresentation, politics, andperfor debate. There areseveralwaysthefailuretoengagerecentcrit- periphery encountersoverinterdisciplinarycollaborationand the drawbackofapproachesthatprivilegeEast-West orcore- a subfieldinblitheintellectualisolation. Thevolumeillustrates crossing borders. formation, reconstruction, representation, performance, and in theintroductionalongsidetranslation, including:trans- intersect withseveralotherthemestheeditorsgesturetowards textual rewriting, andintermedialrewriting. These fourqueries queries: interculturalrewriting, interlingualrewriting, intercon- address currentstheeditorstakeupasfourofbook’scentral juxtaposition ofpracticeandscholarship. The subsectionseach strongest contributionsinthevolumeandensurearefreshing filmmaker (MonaMikhail). Thefirstthreeofthesearethe With afewexceptions, Aaltonen andIbrahim’svolumeshows - Books 179 - — Rayya El Zein such as has been taken — should be self-evident. These are only a few exam- should be self-evident. and many in the years after it. A number of plays A number of plays in the years after it. and many —

indeed, a goal highlighted by the coeditors. The exploration of police violence against The exploration of police violence a goal highlighted by the coeditors. indeed,

— Interest in Arabic theatre is clearly increasing. Those successors of Aaltonen and Ibrahim’s Those successors of Arabic theatre is clearly increasing. Interest in Importantly, the value of Albakry and Maggor’s volume is not limited to students of theatre Albakry and Maggor’s volume is not of the value Importantly, protesters from the perspective of an officer and his family in Ahmad Hassan Al-Banna’s In Ahmad Hassan and his family in protesters from the perspective of an officer to the US in the age of is only the most obvious of direct connections Abu-Naga Said of Search the 2014 coup d’état While it begs a more thorough addendum following #BlackLivesMatter. the late Nehad Selaiha’s Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, led by former Chief of Military Intelligence “The Fire and the Frying Pan: Censorship and invaluable article (first printed in TDR in 2013) provides a thorough contextualization as the collection’s conclusion. Performance in Egypt” researchers Arabic would have been a welcome inclusion for students and The play titles in promises an invaluable teaching Tales Tahrir Still, looking to follow up with the original texts. and dramaturgical resource. questions of representation and translation of volume who take up the mantle of elaborating on a Arabic theatre might benefit from incorporating critical scholarship Egyptian and other It is of course to be expected that most aca- Arab world. range of cultural production in the But it is also clear that Arabic theatre is with other scholars of theatre. demic exchange about studies of For example, in related disciplines. future approaches will benefit from scholarship on explorations of encounter and translation such Arabic theatre in translation might build New work would surely also El-Ariss. Tarek scholar as those offered by the Lebanese literary politics and the popular such as those put forth by benefit from considering elaborations of Ted Armbrust and Walter US anthropologists Sabry, Tarik Moroccan cultural studies scholar Questions Elhamamsy. Walid Mounira Solimon and or Egyptian literary scholars Swedenburg, such as those explored by US anthropologist of political economy of art production in Egypt, such as those taken as are theorizations of hybridity, seem especially apropos, Winegar, Jessica authoritarian cen- Considering the reality of up by the Lebanese media scholar Marwan Kraidy. analysis of the politics and performativity of censor connections to sorship in today’s Egypt, - or in imagined set the Egyptian capital of, or the periphery from outside, include perspectives In addi- of the former). of Sorrows is a powerful example Comedy tings (Ibrahim El-Husseini’s there is also a clear attempt the characters in the plays are young protesters, while many of tion, make up Egyptian society (a won- the range of demographics that in the selections to represent Al Khamissi and translated by by Khalid based on the novel , play Taxi derful example is the and guilt shame, doubt, Violence, El Ghaba). and Rewan Wright Al Khamissi with Jonathan refreshingly rendered with tex- recurring themes in the volume, emerge as centrally important, economic hardship, explore social strife, and stage, As the plays rehearse, ture and complexity. both documentation of histori- they present and family life, peer pressure, conservative mores, about what political activity could recreation for students and players cal events and imaginative look like. to be an excellent resource for students and teachers The collection also promises and drama. to their own It should be easy for readers to relate the situations of the humanities writ large. lives Arabic theatre of other specifically in histories ship and its evasion, Wedeen up by US political scientist Lisa Arabic theatre studies might ples of critical literature in an interdisciplinary overlap from which it is clear that whatever the framework future scholarship on translation and Moreover, benefit. include the nuanced interpretation of political change it will have to Egyptian theatre employs, . Tales Albakry and Maggor’s Tahrir collected in - in recent years by schol been elaborated Revolution that have Square and the #Jan25 Tahrir the volume and anthropology, history, geography, media, Arab of ars and commentators - 2011 protest occupa buildup to the initial were written in the texts that includes performance Abdel Mu’iz’s Mohamed Abdel Naser and Square (such as Hany Tahrir central tion of Cairo’s in 2008) written Is a Sin, Dancing They Say Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

180 Books PhD inTheatre from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. [email protected] intheLevant. withpoliticalaffectconductedinlive rapconcerts manuscript isconcerned She holds a at theAnnenberg SchoolforCommunication attheUniversity ofPennsylvania. Her current book ElRayya Zein isapostdoctoral fellow attheCenter forAdvanced Research inGlobal Communication Selaiha, Nehad. 2013. “The FireandtheFryingPan:CensorshipPerformanceinEgypt.” TDR57, 3 Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism.London:PenguinBooks. References Transforming Public Space. Marching Dykes, Liberated Sluts, Mothers: andConcerned Women Performing QueerModernism. More Books New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 ity asakeyissueoffeministorganizing andofintrafeministdisagreement, Curranslooks ata ground phenomenonofSlutWalks, constitutethebook’sfirstcasestudies. Designating sexual- Back theNightmarch, theNew York andEastBaydykemarches, andtheonline on-the- led initiatives, Curransdiscusses issuesofsexuality, war, andcitizenship. The Minneapolis Take way ofparticipatingincontemporary politicalandculturaldialogues. Through various women- 21st century, ElizabethCurrans’sbookaskshowand whycertaingroupsutilizeprotestasa Focusing onpublicdemonstrationsprimarilyorganizedandattended bywomenintheearly Press, 2017;248pp.;illustrations. $95.00cloth, $27.95paper, e-bookavailable. ist scholarship. queer performancesaspowerfullysubversiveyetinsufficiently recognizedrealitiesinmodern- by depictingandrogynouscharacters. Inthesedifferentcase studies, Farfanrepeatedlyasserts popular ballet ity disruptedconventionalexpectationsofheterosexualnarrativeresolutionin Vaslav Nijinsky’s uncertainty andindeterminacy. Inchapterthree, Farfanhighlightshowdissidentmalesexual- the presenceofqueer “ghostly” figuresfrompastrolesinherworkallowedtheartisttoembody (1895) andSalome(1895), Farfanshowshowthedancer/choreographer’s “uncanny” auraand arise amongstcharacters, actors, andspectators. InanexplorationofLoieFuller’sFire Dance of theconventionalsocietydramawhileopeningupaspaceforqueerdynamicsanddesiresto Pinero’s in ArthurWing sexual identities. Shebeginsbyexaminingtheinterplayofhomosocialandhomoeroticbehavior norms onstageplayedamajorroleinshapingandreflectingthespectrumofemergingmodern cial desire, uncannydoubles, andandrogynousheterosexualityinthereiterationofsex/gender performances, artists, andauthors, Farfanarguesthatcitationalslippagessuchashomoso- cultural stagesinthelate-19thandearly-20thcentury. Bringingtogetheraselectionofqueer Penny Farfan’sworkreflectsonthewaysqueernessandmodernismintersectedsocial 2017; 154pp.;illustrations. $99.00cloth, $34.95paper, e-bookavailable. (T219):20–47. Afternoon ofaFaunAfternoon (1912). The bookculminatesinaclosereadingofNoëlCoward’s Private Lives (1930)inwhichFarfanstresseshowtheworksubvertedcomic norms The SecondMrs. Tanqueray (1893), revealingthesexualdoublestandards By ElizabethCurrans. Champaign:UniversityofIllinois By PennyFarfan. Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,

Books 181 A Lecture on the Performance of on the Performance A Lecture a movement practice rich with — — By Deborah Hay. London: Routledge, 2016; 138 pp.; illustrations. 2016; 138 pp.; illustrations. London: Routledge, By Deborah Hay. choreographer Deborah Hay considers 15 years (2000–2015) of movement Hay considers 15 years (2000–2015) choreographer Deborah By Jill Sigman. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2017; 312 pp.; University Press, Wesleyan CT: Middletown, By Jill Sigman.

, Using the Sky illustrations. $34.95 cloth, e-book available. e-book available. $34.95 cloth, illustrations. This is one shift within one’s own vision of the world. Seeing differently can create a paradigm which explores how chore- Huts, Ten artist book, of the central premises behind Jill Sigman’s environments through a series of hand-built, ography and the visual arts are able to re-envision installa- Intended to be impermanent materials. site-specific dwellings made from repurposed and permaculture, cooking, performance, this nomadic series of huts meant for shelter, tions, the book by Sigman’s recollections of the interac- various other activities are activated within - nearly 500 full-color illustrations document With them. and events that shaped objects, tions, American and Nordic ing her process of reconsidering waste between 2009 and 2015 in North in which Sigman’s interventions highlight issues the book chronicles the many ways locations, the audience’s engagement With and the environment. coexistence, consumption, around waste, Huts includes invitations to Ten in these ritualistic containers defining much of Sigman’s work, A foreword by Pamela perform guided exercises based on the artist’s choreographic exploration. Matthew McLendon, André Lepecki, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, and critical essays by Tatge the huts within Asantewaa complete the book by critically situating Yaa and Eva Elise Springer, and queer theory. art history, philosophy, anthropology, performance studies, the fields of dance, my choreographed body choreographed and the solo my to Fly (2010), Time No (2008), You If I Sing to Beauty (2003), and actions aimed at thoughts, weaves together a series of questions, (2014) — Using the Sky into the unknowable. literally and figuratively, stepping, $135.00 cloth. $39.95 paper, e-book available. e-book available. paper, $39.95 $135.00 cloth. In experimentation through a range of poetic, analytical, personal, and playful engagements with personal, analytical, a range of poetic, experimentation through and dancers’ notes, drawings, Hay revisits a collection of journal entries, language and writing. working process result- text that describe her and her collaborators’ other pieces of written Hay grasps Attempting to translate the ineffable, ing in a book that is a dance score of its own. core of her teaching at a feedback system that has been at the In the that it is possible to achieve the impossible. and the belief risk taking, experimentation, including Hay’s Kristy Edmunds traces her own curatorial experience of the work, foreword, an attempt at destabilizing the experien- “dis-attachment,” explorations with what she calls and accessible to the bodies of proficient dancers. tial structures that are powerfully in place four unique dances Chronicling the choreographic process of Ten Huts. Huts. Ten Using the Sky: a dance. a Sky: the Using spectrum of queer expressions of pleasure and feminist responses to danger manifested in these manifested in these responses to danger of pleasure and feminist queer expressions spectrum of on observations that focus and interviews, local histories, Presenting public demonstrations. describe protests as rare analytical snapshots Currans’s and organizer experiences, participant vigils the silent protests, post–9/11 antiwar In two distinct for public copresence. opportunities she expands on targeting politicians, direct actions in Black and CODEPINK’s Women by the transgressing accepted underscoring how protest movements, and class) within privilege (race citizenship and affect, towards emotions, Turning reinforce others. norms can simultaneously to illustrate how Washington on with a discussion of two marches the book concludes practices, a range of political ends. symbolic value can be transformed to meet a space chosen for its Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dram_r_00804 by guest on02 October 2021

182 Books performative explorations. [email protected] explorations. performative Morelli artist, aninterdisciplinary bodies. As combinespracticeandresearch inbothhisacademicand focuses ontherelationship between thebuiltenvironment andthekinestheticnature ofperforming Didier Morelli isaPhD Candidate inPerformance Studies atNorthwestern University. His dissertation and atooltoinvestigatetheatretimeitself. Parks. The bookscrutinizesmicrodramasandaccounts fortheirbrevityasastructuralprinciple and time;ananalysisofthecontemporarymicrothonsby CarylChurchillandSuzan-Lori Samuel Beckett’sshortplaysasdeliberateattemptstorevealthe instabilityoftheatre, space, thetic theatreasbotharejectionofmodernanddistillation ofit;aconsideration wright MauriceMaeterlinck’sshortdramasastheyrelatetofait-divers; alookatFuturistsyn- pace ofabsorption. The chronologicalnarrativeintroducesareadingofBelgiansymbolistplay- atre’s specializationoftime, theheterogeneityofbrieftime, theriddleofeventfulness, andthe mance, Museapproachesthetemporalrhetoricoftheatrethroughfourrelatednotions:- and assuch, deservespecificconsideration. Byanalyzingplays, bothonthepageandinperfor Muse illustrateshowshorttheatricalworksdivergedfromgenericandcognitiveconventions conventions andexperiencesoftimebecamespecificallyvisiblecontested. Indoingso, ern Western culturalhistory, between1880andtheearly21stcentury, inwhichbothdramatic John H. Muse’sbookexplorestheimportanceoftheatricalbrevityfocusingonaperiodinmod- available. University ofMichiganPress, 2017;246pp.;illustrations. $75.00cloth, $29.95paper, e-book Theatre Artists inthe Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Women, Collective Creation, andDevisedPerformance: The Riseof Women New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology TDR: The Drama Review 62:4 (T240) Winter 2018. ©2018 Microdramas: for Crucibles Theatre and Time. inist methodologiesincontemporarytheatre. historical records;andNiaO. Witherspoon expandsontheatrical-jazzaestheticsandblackfem- on womendirectors;MichelleMacArthurtracestheerasureofCanadianfeministtheatrefrom ethos; DavidCalderexplorestheworkof Ariane Mnouchkineandthedoublestandardimposed Osborne documentsHallieFlanaganandthe Vassar Experimental Theatre Project’scollective played byactress, teacher, andwriterSuzanneBinginearly-20th-centuryFrance;Elizabeth A. specific culturalcontexts. ContributingauthorJaneBaldwinconsidersthefoundationalrole thetic characteristics, aswelldivergingandconverginggendernarrativesthatoriginatefrom three historicalwaves, eachsectionofthebookismarkedbydistinctiveideologicalandaes- authority, relationality, economics, mentorship, diaspora, labor, andprotest. Dividedinto It exploresthemesofemergenceanddisappearance, attribution, historiography, ­ ing, thebooktraceslegaciesofwomentheatre-makersandtheircontributionstofield. evolution ofmoderntheatre. Partofalargerseriesdedicatedtocollectivecreationanddevis- in EuropeanandNorth American contexts, aswelltheimportanceofthesepracticesin the centralrolewomenhaveplayedinemergenceanddevelopmentofcollectivecreation This volumeofessayseditedbyKathrynMederosSyssoyevaandScottProudfithighlights illustrations. $119.00cloth, e-bookavailable. Kathryn MederosSyssoyevaandScottProudfit. New York: PalgraveMacmillan, 2016;348pp.;

By JohnH. Muse. Ann Arbor: Edited by branding, iir Morelli —Didier -