Call for Papers on the 'Performative' in Ibsen's Play

Dear Students, Researchers and Colleagues, 

Well, we've got an appreciative response from Researchers at the University of Montreal, in response to our blog post on Thomas Ostermeier's rendition of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. 

[The Flashback: As part of my paper with my I MA students on Ibsen, we had taken along with us students from I MA (currently in II MA) and other day scholars aka Ibsen enthusiasts from other departments, for the performance of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. It was quite an absorbing performance, which went on till late into the night].

Now, researchers from the University of Montreal, have written to invite those of us who were spectators during the performance—to present papers on the various aspects of the play's performance and its reception in Chennai, amongst the Chennai audience. They are also planning to publish the papers. I've offered to contribute a paper too. Would love to have your paper as well, latest by 05 September 2015. Please do contact me for more details.

I reproduce below the Call for Papers sent to me by Ms. Edouard Bourdelle from the University of Montreal, Canada. 

With all best wishes, 

Rufus

Call for Papers – about An Enemy of the People from Thomas Ostermeier

Thomas Ostermeier’s world success is patent. An Enemy of the People deals with political, social and ecological issues which lead to a public debate between stage and audience through fiction: a water contamination implies the responsibility of the authorities, who have to chose between an economic or a sanitarian resolution. Water here appears as an allegorical pretext, and even more, to question the notion of “democracy”. 

In the middle of the show characters start a debate. First, it is fictitious, and happens on stage between protagonists. The actors ask for the audience’s opinions and the fictitious debate overflows in the whole theatre and is forgotten for a moment in order to let people have an argument. It can be long and vehement depending on the country, the audience, and the actuality. We think that this debate is not a common performance, it offers its whole political sense to theatre. Each town is a good witness of this political issue. 

When it started in Avignon, people were not only the judges of protagonists : this fictitious case reminded them some recent ecological disasters, like Fukushima. In Montreal, the opening night occurred during a water contamination. In Istanbul, Buenos Aires, or Moscow, the show took places in a violent climate of political tensions, which were increased on stage, and moreover in the audience. Interactions with reality – literal or allegorical – are particularly obvious, thanks to this theatrical machine. We do not only want to analyse this theatrical machine. We also want to gather records about the reception of the audience, about these “people” who have an enemy on stage and whom one gives a chance to speak. 

We would like to understand, for each, its political issue. We would like to compare performances which are already studied (in Avignon, Montreal, London), to others : in Belfast, Moscow, Calcutta... Through those different reactions, we are convinced it is possible to draw an image of what could be nowadays a political theatre (and even, in this special case of the Schaubühne, an institutional theatre). Thus we call for records and analyses of shows, in French and in English. 

We would like a review of the audience’s reaction, and of the debate, especially the themes people dealt with, their involvement and how they took part during the show. Each show uses the whole fictitious machine which is particular to the play and at the same time deals with the “reality” of each place, people (it happens often that comedians adapt some remarks to the context of a precise audience, according to its horizon of aspiration). Our aim is to produce a collection of articles for a publication in 2016. 

We expect texts from 1000 to 5000 words for the following performances : Moscow Calcutta New Delhi, Chennai, Belfast Athens Istanbul Québec Venice, Sao Paulo Buenos Aires New York Siegen Oslo Cluj-Napoca Melbourne, etc. 

Contact : claire.legendre@umontreal.ca , edouard.bourdelle@gmail.com 

Deadline : Project before 05/09/2015 – texts 30/11/2015.