spine: 18.5mm theatre theory•practice •performance• of postindustrial space and the production theatre Street Street theatre In France, deindustrialising communities have called upon street theatre companies to convert derelict factories into cultural centres, reanimate urban space, commemorate industrial heritage, and even generate jobs. This book explores how contemporary French and the street theatre transforms industrial space into postindustrial space. This original, interdisciplinary analysis reveals how theatre production of participates in, and makes historical sense of, urban and economic change. How have companies converted spaces of manufacturing into spaces of theatrical production, and to what end? How do these companies, along with municipal governments postindustrial and developers, connect their work to the kind of work that occurred in these spaces in the past? How do those connections manifest in theatrical events, and how do such events give shape space and meaning to ongoing redevelopment projects? Bringing together theatre historiography, performance theory, critical geography, and political economy, this book develops an understanding of the relationship between theatre and Working memories redevelopment that goes beyond accusations of gentrification or celebrations of radical resistance. Ultimately, this volume argues that deindustrialisation and redevelopment depend on the logics of theatre and performance: theatrical events and performative acts make such transformations intelligible and navigable. Street theatre and the production of postindustrial space brings together some of the current theatre and performance scholarship’s fundamental concerns while demonstrating the significance of those concerns to an interdisciplinary readership. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of theatre and performance C studies, French and European cultural studies, critical geography, AL and memory studies. D ER David Calder is Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Manchester Cover image: Metalovoice performers send sparks into the night along the Route Saint- ISBN 978-1-5261-2159-2 Saulge, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) DAVID CALDER 9 781526 121592 www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access CALD429_PPC.indd 1 19/02/2019 11:28 Street theatre and the production of postindustrial space David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access series editors MARIA M. DELGADO MAGGIE B. GALE PETER LICHTENFELS advisory board Michael Billington, Sandra Hebron, Mark Ravenhill, Janelle Reinelt, Peter Sellars, Joanne Tompkins This series will offer a space for those people who practise theatre to have a dialogue with those who think and write about it. The series has a flexible format that refocuses the analysis and documentation of performance. It provides, presents and represents material which is written by those who make or create performance history, and offers access to theatre documents, different methodologies and approaches to the art of making theatre. The books in the series are aimed at students, scholars, practitioners and theatre-visiting readers. They encourage reassessments of periods, companies and figures in twentieth- century and twenty-first-century theatre history, and provoke and take up discussions of cultural strategies and legacies that recognise the heterogeneity of performance studies. also available Directing scenes and senses: The thinking of Regie PETER M. BOENISCH The Paris Jigsaw: Internationalism and the city’s stages DAVID BRADBY AND MARIA M. DELGADO (EDS) Death in modern theatre: Stages of mortality ADRIAN CURTIN Theatre in crisis? Performance manifestos for a new century MARIA M. DELGADO AND CARIDAD SVICH (EDS) World stages, local audiences: Essays on performance, place, and politics PETER DICKINSON Performing presence: Between the live and the simulated GABRIELLA GIANNACHI AND NICK KAYE Queer exceptions: Solo performance in neoliberal times STEPHEN GREER Performance in a time of terror: Critical mimesis and the age of uncertainty JENNY HUGHES South African performance and the archive of memory YVETTE HUTCHISON Unlimited action: The performance of extremity in the 1970s DOMINIC JOHNSON Jean Genet and the politics of theatre: Spaces of revolution CARL LAVERY After ‘89: Polish theatre and the political BRYCE LEASE Not magic but work: An ethnographic account of a rehearsal process GAY MCAULEY ‘Love me or kill me’: Sarah Kane and the theatre of extremes GRAHAM SAUNDERS Trans-global readings: Crossing theatrical boundaries CARIDAD SVICH Negotiating cultures: Eugenio Barba and the intercultural debate IAN WATSON (ED.) David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access Street theatre and the production of postindustrial space Working memories DAVID CALDER Manchester University Press David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access Copyright © David Calder 2019 The right of David Calder to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted b him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC- BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of The University of Manchester, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ISBN 978 1 5261 2159 2 hardback First published 2019 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access CONTENTSContents List of figures page vi Acknowledgements viii Introduction: working memory 1 1 Theatre in ruins: street and theatre at the end of Fordism 24 2 Reincorporation: putting the countryside back to work 59 3 Excavation: the imaginary archaeology of redevelopment 98 4 Resurfacing: continuous theatre for a creative city 135 5 Recuperation: alternative pasts, sustainable futures 174 Bibliography 191 Index 202 David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 The former Photosacs factory prior to its conversion into La Transverse, Corbigny, 2003. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) page 64 2.2 La Transverse, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 64 2.3 Metalovoice company members approach the assembled crowd for the inauguration of La Transverse, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 82 2.4 Metalovoice performers send sparks into the night along the Route Saint-Saulge, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 83 2.5 KompleXKapharnaüM performers fix images to the exterior wall of La Transverse as projections play over them, Au travail, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 86 2.6 A Metalovoice performer strikes pipes with a mallet, Ouverture, Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 88 2.7 The full stage picture of Metalovoice’sOuverture , Corbigny, 2011. (Courtesy of Metalovoice) 89 3.1 An acrobat’s image is captured, multiplied, and projected onto the wall of the Cusset hydroelectric plant in PlayRec, Villeurbanne, 2007. (Courtesy of KompleXKapharnaüM) 110 3.2 KompleXKapharnaüM performers excavate archival materials in PlayRec, Villeurbanne, 2007. (Courtesy of KompleXKapharnaüM) 111 David Calder - 9781526147288 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 10/06/2021 01:57:35AM via free access List of figures vii 3.3 Footage of a KompleXKapharnaüM performer’s hand is captured and projected onto the wall during the re-excavation of archival material in PlayRec, Villeurbanne, 2007. (Courtesy of KompleXKapharnaüM) 112 3.4 Archéotopos Agency (BlÖffique Théâtre) guide spectators through the dig site to view the cycloptic animal skeleton, KompleXKapharnaüM, SPP, Vaulx-en-Velin, 2012. (With the permission of the photographer, Magalie Rastello) 125 3.5 Spectators piece together a map of the Carré de Soie, SPP, Vaulx-en-Velin, 2012. (With the permission of the photographer, Magalie Rastello) 128 4.1 The Great Elephant carries riders along the banks of the Loire, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes, 2010. (Photo by the author) 136 4.2 The entrance to the Machines Gallery beneath the Naves, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes, 2010. (Photo by the author) 137 4.3 Front view of the repurposed Naves, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes, 2010. (Photo by the author) 139 4.4 Visitors scan their tickets to gain entry to the Great Elephant’s boarding platform, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes, 2010. (Photo by the author) 151 4.5 View of La Machine’s workshop from the observation post, Les Machines de l’île, Nantes, 2010. (Photo by the author) 152 4.6 The Queen’s Carriage in the Machines Gallery prior to demonstration, Les Machines