Performing silence as political resistance: audience interaction and spatial politics in thomas ostermeier’s richard III
Volume
99
Pagination
125 - 136
DOI
10.1177/0184767819837720
Journal
Cahiers Elisabethains
Issue
ISSN
0184-7678
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
According to Jan Pappelbaum, what fascinated him and Thomas Ostermeier about ‘reconstructed’ Globe Theatres is that ‘[i]t becomes impossible to ignore the presence of the audience; actors are particularly exposed and entirely at the mercy of the spectators’. This article investigates the spatial politics that emerge from/within the ‘quasi-recon-structed’ Globe for Ostermeier’s production of Richard III. Examining a 2017 performance of the play at London’s Barbican Theatre, I consider how audience interaction (and the potential for theatrical failure in that interaction, specifically through performative silence) becomes the site of political resistance in the context of theatrical performance.
Authors
Simari, ACollections
- Department of Drama [98]