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Staging the Twitter War: Toneelgroep Amsterdam￢ﾀﾙs Roman Tragedies

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Staging the Twitter War: Toneelgroep Amsterdam￢ﾀﾙs Roman Tragedies Fisher, Mark. 2007a. “A land that time will never NVA. 2012. “Speed of Light Edinburgh.” August. forget.” Scotland on Sunday, 23 August. www. www.nva.org.uk/current-projects/speed+of theatrescotland.com/Scottish-theatre-writing/ +light-31/ (28 June 2013). Articles/halfife.html (10 November 2012). Pearson, Mike. 2010. Site-Specifc Performance. New Fisher, Mark. 2007b. “Half Life.” The Guardian, York: Palgrave Macmillan. 8 September. www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2007 Ritchie, Graham. 1997. “Monuments Associated with /sep/08/theatre (15 January 2013). Burial and Ritual in Argyll.” In The Archaeology of Jamie, Kathleen. 2012. Sightlines. London: Sort of Argyll, ed. Graham Ritchie, 67–94. Edinburgh: Books. Edinburgh University Press. Legendre, Thomas. 2011. “Landscape-Mindscape: The Scottish Government. 2007. “Highland 2007.” Writing in Scotland’s Prehistoric Future.” Scottish www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2007 Literary Review 3, 2 (Autumn/Winter):121–32. /01/12113611 (28 June 2013). Legendre, Thomas. 2012. Half Life. Unpublished Solnit, Rebecca. 2000. Wanderlust: A History of manuscript. Walking. New York: Penguin. Massey, Doreen. 2005. For Space. Thousand Oaks, Webb, Sharon. 2012. In the Footsteps of Kings: A New CA: SAGE. Guide to Walks in and around Kilmartin Glen. Kilmartin: Kilmartin House Trust. Morton, Timothy. 2010. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. NVA. n.d. “About Us.” www.nva.org.uk/about TDR: Te Drama Review 57:4 (T220) Winter 2013. (12 September 2012). ©2013 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology NVA. 2007. “Half Life: Journey into the Neolithic.” www.halfife.org.uk (12 September 2012). Staging the Twitter War Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s Roman Tragedies James R. Ball III On 14 November 2012, following an intensi- an hour had given what would become a week- fcation in rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip long war its name: “The IDF has embarked targeting Israel, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Operation Pillar of Defense” (2012b). The made their frst formal announcement that IDF Twitter feed soon became its own front military operations against Gaza had recom- in the battle as a locus for many of the speech menced: at 9:29 am eastern standard time, acts that compose and surround war. Included @IDFSpokesperson (the IDF’s offcial Twitter in the declarations tweeted that morning: presence) tweeted, “The IDF has begun a wide- “All options are on the table. If necessary, the spread campaign on terror sites & operatives IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas Gaza.” “We recommend that no Hamas opera- & Islamic Jihad targets” (2012a). Minutes later tives, whether low level or senior leaders, show @IDFSpokesperson tweeted their frst target, their faces above ground in the days ahead” the Hamas leader Ahmed al-Jabari, and within (2012c; 2012d). James R. Ball III is currently Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland. He has previously reported on the work of the UN Security Council in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East for securitycouncilreport.org and Critical Acts whatsinblue.org. He researches the intersection of theatre and international relations by studying the forms of spectatorship and theatricality that attend to scenes of global politics. He received his PhD in Performance Studies from NYU. [email protected] 163 Figures 1 & 2. Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s Roman Tragedies as seen from the house (left) and the stage (right). (Courtesy of Daniel Dinero) Hamas, the Palestinian political organiza- play’s political plots to emerge in abstractions tion that has administered Gaza since 2007, (drums and strobe lights to indicate war), allu- returned fre in cyberspace via the Twitter sions (a uniform of suits and ties to suggest account of its military wing, the Al Qassam 21st-century political classes), and the struc- Brigades. @AlqassamBrigade matched threat tures by which each spectator’s gaze, body, and for threat, tweeting “Liberation of occu- engagement were managed. A handy fyer dis- pied #Palestine started...we are coming #IDF” tributed to playgoers at the outset contained (2012a) and challenged the IDF’s characteriza- a scene schedule marking the times at which tion of events whenever it could. Responding each of the three plays’ scenes (in their origi- to @IDFSpokesperson’s “Warning to reporters nal sequence) would occur. It also featured the in Gaza: Stay away from Hamas operatives & call to (digital) action, “You are encouraged facilities. Hamas, a terrorist group, will use you to take pictures and tweet using the hashtag as human shields” (2012e), @AlqassamBrigade #RomanTragedies.” Audience members could offered, “Warning to Israelis: Stay away from then follow the new media commentary from Israeli #IDF = #IOF [Israel Occupation Forces] their devices or on an LED ticker that broad- and bases. IDF, a terrorist army, will use you as cast curated selections to those seated in the human shields” (2012b). Commentators would house. Many had already entered into this form soon describe these discursive and narrative of digital participation before receiving the battles, playing out in volleys of 140 charac- production’s blessing: as the audience waited ters or less, as the world’s frst Twitter war (see for doors to open, user @cynthiayang tweeted Schachter 2012; Sutter 2012). “Even the lobby experience is immersive: gen- From 16 to 18 November 2012, a dif- eral admission can turn sextigenerians into ferent Twitter war could be found onstage gladiators #RomanTragedies” (Yang 2012). at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): The fyer further identifed set changes Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s Roman Tragedies, between certain scenes denoting the moments directed by Ivo van Hove. The nearly six- in which audience members could circulate hour long, intermission-free spectacle cut from house to stage or back again, fnding together three of Shakespeare’s Rome-set trag- new vantages among the couches, televi- edies: Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony sions, and risers that were set on the stage. and Cleopatra. By reducing each play to as few When the audience was frst allowed onto the as 90 minutes, van Hove emphasized inter- stage (soon after Coriolanus returned trium- personal confict and human intrigue (for phant to Rome), the twitterati marveled at instance, Coriolanus’s fraught relationships their access, “@natty_ijs we’re on stage! Come with his mother, wife, and son, and Antony to Rome! #RomanTragedies” (Frisbie 2012), and Cleopatra’s romance), allowing each and bemoaned the new conficts it sparked, Critical Acts 164 Figure 3. Audience members circulate during a set change. On the LED feed, from a CNN report on Gaza: Small boy killed in the crossfire. (Courtesy of Daniel Dinero) “@planetaclaire apparently there’s no more onto the street #romantragedies. Brilliant” space in Rome #RomanTragedies” (natty_ijs (Verkerk 2012) — or offered their own analy- 2012). Those with the best views took on cer- sis of the gesture — “Poor Enobarbus. It just tain journalistic responsibilities, as did tweeter wouldn’t be Ivo van Hove if an actor didn’t @sbishopstone who captured the “End of run out into traffc followed by a camera. Coriolanus #RomanTragedies pic.twitter. #RomanTragedies” (Bishop-Stone 2012c). Still com/KOvZ99iU” (Bishop-Stone 2012a). As others on twitter drew attention to the ways the carnage mounted, photographic evidence the outside world encroached upon the staged proliferated. history, as contemporary news briefs would also Twitter also became a venue for refec- be featured on the LED ticker above the stage: tion and analysis. As Marc Antony wept over “#RomanTragedies live news of Israel/Hamas Caesar’s corpse (a scene staged as a 21st- during Coriolanus” (Kanthou 2012). century press conference), tweeters waxed phil- Geoffrey Way identifes three primary osophical: “Lessons Julius Caesar taught me: modes in which social media have been inte- Don’t try to be a god and people won’t try to grated into live performance: “social media as stab you. #RomanTragedies” (Lorenzetti 2012). a means for access, social media as a means for For some spectators, Twitter provided oppor- participation, and social media as platforms for tunities for Roman Tragedies to stitch itself dramatic performances” (2011:403–4). Way’s into the fabric of the wider world. A few duti- categories mark several opportunities for the- fully reported the moment the show spilled out atre artists to use social media to encourage Critical Acts beyond the opera house walls, Enobarbus run- engagement with an audience — from provid- ning out through the audience onto Lafayette ing views of a rehearsal process, to promoting Avenue — “The cast literally moved out interaction between audiences and performers 165 or characters, to serving as venue. Nonetheless, of both actors and spectators and gesturing Way’s examples offer scant evidence that the towards the work that goes into making real- incorporation of such new media into live, world politicians camera-ready. stage dramas is or will become anything more The intimacy allowed spectators did not than fad. Yet for Roman Tragedies Twitter proved always bring greater clarity or access: since the essential: the play modeled a particular form of stage featured dozens of fat-screen televisions 21st-century spectatorship by incorporating the and was embellished with a few well-placed microblogging service, and by deftly navigat- ferns, one’s view was often partial or indi- ing between the modes Way identifes. These rect. The televisions offered live video of the modes further offer a conceptual apparatus that play from several stationary cameras installed can clarify the formal similarities between the throughout the opera house and hand-held use of Twitter in war and in theatre. The IDF cameras whose operators followed the major Twitter feed had long shown glimpses of the players. The action I was trying to see might be forces that would deploy in Operation Pillar of blocked by other audience members or some Defense and each tweet invited participation furniture, or indeed be behind me entirely, by others who could re-tweet or respond.
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