Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts Vol.10, No.1 Spring 2016 ‘Are We On The Same Page?’ ISSN: 1751- 0171 1 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts Editors James Rowson and Catherine Love Book Review Editor Poppy Corbett Editorial Board Siobhan O’Neill, Adam Rush and Raz Weiner Advisory Board Mojisola Adebayo (Goldsmiths); Elaine Aston (Lancaster University); Peter Boenisch (University of Surrey); Matthew Cohen (Royal Holloway, University of London); Helen Gilbert (RHUL); Janelle Reinelt (University of Warwick); Joseph Roach (Yale University); Dan Rebellato (RHUL); Helen Nicholson (RHUL); Brian Singleton (Trinity College Dublin); Patrick Lonergan (National University of Ireland, Galway); John Bull (University of Reading); Helena Hammond (University of Roehampton); Sophie Nield (RHUL) Platform is based at, and generously supported by, the Department of Drama & Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London. Copyright © 2016 Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts. All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced or utilised in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. Submission Information Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts is published biannually. Contributions are Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts is published biannually. Contributions are particularly welcome from postgraduate researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and early-career academics in theatre and performing arts. We welcome the submission of academic papers, performance responses, photo essays, book reviews, interviews, and new dramatic writing. Platform also welcomes practice- based research papers. Papers should not exceed 4500 words (including notes and references). Practice-based papers should normally include images in JPEG format (300ppi). Reviews should be around 1000 words. Photo essays should not exceed 2000 words and 10 pictures. All contributions should be formatted according to the MLA style guidelines (see Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers) and should include a 200-word abstract of the article submitted as well as the article itself. Authors should also send a 50 word bio with their submission. Submissions should be sent electronically as email attachments to [email protected]. Peer Review Policy All articles are subject to peer review. All articles are anonymously refereed by two or more independent peer reviewers, in addition to review by the editorial board. Books for review should be sent to James Rowson, Department of Drama and Theatre, Royal Holloway University of London, Katherine Worth Building, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX For all enquiries, please contact the editors at [email protected]. For free access to archived issues, go to http://www.rhul.ac.uk/dramaandtheatre/platform/home.aspx. Issue and cover design: James Rowson and Catherine Love Cover image: Tim Crouch performing An Oak Tree, Photograph by Greg Veit (2015). @PlatformJournal 2 CONTENTS Editorial 5 Notes on Contributors 8 Tim Crouch’s Transferable 10 Jack Belloli Skills: Textual Revision as (University of Distributed Determination in My Cambridge) Arm and The Author “That Space”: Across Text and 29 Verónica Performance in Suspect Culture’s Rodríguez One Way Street (University of Barcelona) Dramaturgies of Spontaniety 53 Filippo Romanell (Theatre Practioner) Celebrating Ten Years of Platform 75 3 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Book Reviews Howard Barker’s Theatre: 85 Richard Ashby Wrestling with Catastrophe edited (Royal by James Reynolds and Andy Holloway, Smith University of London) A Good Night Out for the Girls: 89 Cath Badham Popular Feminisms in (University of Contemporary Theatre and Sheffield) Performance by Elaine Aston and Geraldine Harris The Illuminated Theatre: Studies 93 Marina Ní on the Suffering of Images by Joe Dhubháin Kelleher (National University of Ireland) Voice and New Writing 1997- 98 Lucy Tyler 2007: Articulating the Demos by (University of Maggie Inchley Reading) 4 Editorial Editorial The contested relationship between text and performance has long underscored developments in British theatre. Frequently, text and its use in theatre-making processes has functioned as a way of distinguishing between different artists, establishing simplistic and misleading categories such as ‘text-based’ and ‘non-text-based’. At the same time, the work of practitioners themselves defies such labels, often mixing approaches that are simultaneously interested in the possibilities of text and in the richness of theatre’s many non-textual elements, including phys- icality, design, music and multimedia. More recently, publications such as Duška Radosavlje- vić’s Theatre-Making: Interplay Between Text and Performance in the 21st Century have offered a refreshingly different take on contemporary theatre practice, moving beyond reductive divi- sions between dramatic theatre and devised performance. There are also indications that theatre as a sector is beginning to break down such divides, with the National Theatre’s recent merging of its Studio and Literary Department serving as the most prom- inent example of this shift. This latest issue of Platform responds to the one-day symposium of the same title, organised by Catherine Love and Caitlin Gowans and hosted by the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London in Septem- ber 2015. The event brought together scholars, practitioners and commentators, offering a number of different perspectives on the intersection of text and performance in British theatre contexts. Speakers included Tim Crouch, Duška Radosavljević, Andy Field, Jacqueline Bolton, Andrew Haydon and Vicky An- gelaki. Among other issues, the symposium discussed the con- tinuing schism between supposedly ‘text-based’ and ‘non-text- 5 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 based’ theatre, the contrast between approaches to text in Britain and continental Europe, the role of institutions in perpetuating or challenging binaries between different theatrical forms and the slippery concept of the ‘open text’. The contributions in this issue suggest a range of ap- proaches to the ideas addressed at the symposium. In the first article, “Tim Crouch’s Transferable Skills: Textual Revision as Distributed Determination in My Arm and The Author”, Jack Belloli presents an innovative contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on the work of theatre-maker Tim Crouch. Drawing on Richard Sennett and Tim Ingold’s notions of “skill”, Belloli explores the nature of indeterminacy in the performances of two of Crouch’s best-known productions. Foregrounding the textu- al revisions made to the scripts and stage directions, the paper demonstrates the liminality of Crouch’s playtexts and how the staging of these two plays provoke the audience to consider the boundaries between the acts of writing and performing. Next, exploring the intersection of text and performance in the work of Scottish experimental theatre company Suspect Culture, Verónica Rodríguez analyses the company’s 1995 pro- duction One Way Street: Ten Walks in the Former East. Her paper interrogates the feature of fragmentation in this work in particular and Suspect Culture’s devising methodologies more broadly, arguing that text and performance in the company’s work “appear as undone and interpenetrated”. In an issue that examines the relationship between text and performance it seems appropriate to conclude this edition of Platform with two pieces of new theatre writing. Filippo Ro- manell’s “Dramaturgies of Spontaneity” includes two disparate extracts from his plays Attempts on Friendship (2014) and Vice Device (2015). In a self-reflective passage before the extracts, Romanell muses on his own writing practices and methods, dis- 6 Editorial cussing theatre scholar Małgorzata Sugiera’s theory of imma- nence as a method to achieve spontaneity in dramatic perfor- mance. This issue also marks the 10th anniversary of Platform, which was founded at Royal Holloway in 2006 by a team of postgraduate research students including Vicky Angelaki, Ma- rissia Fragou and Kene Igweonu. To celebrate this milestone in the life of the journal, within these pages a selection of previous editors share their memories, experiences and hopes for the fu- ture of Platform. The editorial board of Platform would like to express our sincere gratitude to the department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London, where this journal is based. Their continued advice and enthusiastic support of this publication has been invaluable. Developing, reviewing, writ- ing for, and publishing a print journal is an important method of learning for postgraduates and early career researchers, the funding of which demonstrates Royal Holloway’s commitment to providing opportunities for new research and the develop- ment of research skill. We are also grateful to the peer and ac- ademic reviewers for their time and thoughtful feedback. Their support has provided assistance to the research of all who have submitted to this issue. We would also like to thank Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Routledge for book review copies. Finally, we give special thanks to all our contributors who have shared their research and practice. James Rowson and Catherine Love, Editors 7 Platform, Vol. 10, No. 1, Are We On The Same Page?, Spring 2016 Notes on Contributors Richard Ashby Richard Ashby is a PhD student