Performance in an Age of Precarity
40 Reflections
Andy Field author Maddy Costa author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:11th Feb '21
Should be back in stock very soon
"This magical book is a love letter to the artists whose imagination and cleverness transport us and unite us, and to the beauty and fragility of their performance. When I read it I feel like I am constantly on the joyful edge of falling in love, trying so hard to keep hold of the feelings evoked. A very precious book in our precarious times." Vicky Featherstone
An anthology of critical essays that draw on a decade of the authors thinking, writing about and working within contemporary performance as critics, producers, dramaturgs, makers, archivists and more.
Together, the 40 essays sketch a map of the contemporary performance landscape from avant-garde dance to live art to independent theatre, tracing the contours of its themes, aims, desires and relationship to the wider worlds of mainstream theatre, art and politics.
Each essay focuses on a particular artist and these include Bryony Kimmings, Dickie Beau, Forced Entertainment, Scottee, Selina Thompson, Tania El Khoury and Uninvited Guests.
Reflecting the radical nature of the work considered, the authors attempt to find a new vocabulary and a non-conventional way of considering live performance in these essays.
As both a fresh survey of contemporary performance and an exploration of how to think and write about upstream and avant-garde work, this book should be an essential resource for students, artists and audiences, as well as an accessible entry point for anyone curious to know about the beautiful and strange things happening beyond the UK’s theatrical mainstream.
Andy Field and Maddy Costa have built a theatre of words inhabited by a fascinating cast of performers. Beyond their evocative descriptions of spectatorship and participation, Performance in an Age of Precarity also shares compelling accounts of friendship, landscapes of memory and expressions of political urgency. These warm and generous portraits are an important record of observation and affect, placing the artist (as independent maker) center stage. * Robin Deacon, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA *
This magical book is a love letter to the artists whose imagination and cleverness transport us and unite us, and to the beauty and fragility of their performance. When I read it I feel like I am constantly on the joyful edge of falling in love, trying so hard to keep hold of the feelings evoked. A very precious book in our precarious times. * Vicky Featherstone, Artistic Director, Royal Court Theatre, London *
ISBN: 9781350190641
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 362g
224 pages