representation

During the course of the module Body in Performance I have struggled with representation and especially with representation of the real in connection to theatre.

In the online Merriam-Webster lexicon I found several definitions of the verb ‘represent’¹:

1: to bring clearly before the mind: present

2: to serve as a sign or symbol of

3: to portray or exhibit in art: depict

4: to serve as the counterpart or image of: typify

5 a: to produce on the stage

   b: to act the part or role of

6: to take the place of in some respect

7: to point out in protest or remonstrance

8: to present again or anew: re-present

The verb and its derivative noun representation are used in various contexts (everyday life, art, legal context), which doesn’t lessen my confusion.

Present in order to make clear, serve as a sign (Derrida once again²), depict, typify, produce on stage, act the part or role of, remonstrate, re-present. All these verbs and phrases could be connected to theatre. Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at an example to investigate representation further.

I call up my friend and say: let’s go for a coffee. She says yes and we agree on a day, a time and a place. Tomorrow afternoon, at six, in cafe Petite Fleur. This habit of meeting a friend, sitting in a cafe (at a table, on a chair, with a coffee mug) for a couple of hours catching up, talking about silly or serious stuff is a widespread social ritual in Greece. I invite my friend to drink coffee with me, and we go to a cafe that is authorized and operates according to specific legal regulations, which makes it a real cafe (In this case real is used to describe something that operates according to specific regulations, but we will come back to that later). What we are doing is iterating a social behaviour that might serve as a sign of closeness, friendship, solving a friend’s problem etc.

Let’s think about performance art now. I (I as in Foivi, performer, Greek, daughter, friend) choose to drink coffee in a gallery as part of my artwork. There might be one or several tables, chairs and coffee mugs in the space. The set up resembles or depicts a cafe. On the other hand, I might even use legal regulations to have an authorized cafe for my performance. Anyhow, the audience is invited to attend the performance on specific dates in a specific space. They might watch me or participate in coffee-drinking. What we have here is the iteration of a social ritual that might for example perform the need for closeness or the power relation between consumers and underpaid plantation workers. In this case the signification of coffee-drinking is displaced. If we now revisit the definitions of represent, it seems that coffee-drinking serves as a sign, and I present in order to make clear, I re-present, I might even remonstrate.

And finally theatre. On stage there is a set up that represents a cafe. It is reconstructed in order to resemble. Two actors are drinking coffee. A social behaviour is repeated on stage. The scene might expose the characters intentions, signify friendship, develop the plot etc. The audience is invited on specific dates to watch two actors drink coffee. Which additional definition of represent could we employ here? If I am one of the actors (I as in Foivi, actor, Greek, daughter, friend) I embody a character, I act the part of a fictional person, who drinks coffee. That is, I need to pretend that I have other social roles (for example American, mother, hairdresser, friend). I need to rehearse in order to convince the audience that I have these social roles.

Yet, which social roles are not rehearsed or learned? Which social rituals are not rehearsed or learned?

Multiple definitions, functions and contexts of representation and re-presentation became visible in the example above. In the first case I repeat a social ritual in my everyday life to signify friendship. In the case of performance art I acknowledge that there is a social ritual, I re-present it in front of the audience and I possibly displace its meaning. In theatre I re-present a ritual on stage while also re-presenting a character. Adding a layer of social roles (that is, me embodying a character), reconstructing in order to resemble, attempting to convince the audience; are these the links that tie representation to theatre? In simple words, as I understand it at this moment, to represent in theatre is to repeat social roles and social rituals on some kind of stage in order to serve a variety of purposes.

And that is exactly where my aporia lies. How can I as a performer approach the real, if I am always iterating signs which belong to the symbolic order? Social roles and rituals, language and theatrical props are signs/marks. My body is trained to recognize and repeat them on stage. My body was cultured to recognize and repeat them in everyday life in order to be part of a certain society. Iteration upon iteration. And what happens if I cannot relate to signs anymore? In the past few years I felt disconnected from language. Words didn’t seem to make sense anymore. I couldn’t use them to create a text. I didn’t want to utter them on stage. So I chose to not speak. I dressed up as a clown, I walked around Athens, I watched the people and the city, I listened and I did not speak.

Is there a connection between not speaking and the real? What is the real in theatre/performance? What is the real that I want to approach?