In the seminal essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ from 1936, where Walter Benjamin reflected on how human perception changes over time, he states, ‘The adjustment of reality to the masses and of the masses to reality is a process of unlimited scope, as much for thinking as for perception’ (p. 223). For the reader, Benjamin's observation might well embody the guiding principle of the fifteen contributions that comprise Bastard or Playmate?, a volume that explores questions of changing perception in a post-9/11 global landscape, and theatre's role and responsibility in an age of ever-increasing mediatization, surveillance and blurred boundaries between the symbolic and the real.
Several chapters focus on Dutch and Flemish theatre and performance, such as the taboo-breaking performances of ensemble Abattoir Fermé or the digital landscapes created by director Kurt d'Haeseleer. But we are also treated to essays on the Berlin-based performance collective Rimini Protocol, which incorporates various media and technologies into its productions and explores how theatricality infuses everyday life; an analysis of Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson's video installations; and a convincing demonstration of how the late director Christoph Schlingensief successfully blurred boundaries between theatre, life and activism.
Two main threads, which often overlap, can be identified: on the one hand, the volume contains essays that examine how theatre incorporates other media and reflects on the aesthetic results and consequences of the relationship between the viewer and the performance; on the other hand, a number of chapters investigate how theatre appropriates other genres and technologies to articulate a political critique of the notion of representation or the simplified and preformulated reports offered by commercial mass media.
Christophe van Gerrewey's reflection on the paradoxical relationship between ephemeral live performance and museum installation set on documentation and preservation is among the highlights and is worth signalling out. So too is Nancy Delhalle's thought-provoking essay on the relationship between representation and responsibility, in which she demonstrates how contemporary directors incorporate prerecorded material into their productions in order to comment on the increasingly mediatized social reality. Finally, Elise Morrison analyses performances that blur the boundaries between theatre and surveillance technologies to pose questions about how we all find ourselves under constant watch by closed-circuit television.
While several authors occasionally refer to the groundbreaking work on performance, liveness and mediatization by Peggy Phelan, Philip Auslander and Steve Dixon, it is noteworthy to what extent most of them are influenced by and quote the writings of left-wing (male) European philosophers such as Althusser, Benjamin, Deleuze, Rancière and Brecht. Bastard or Playmate? demonstrates, in a refreshing way, the need of Marxist and neo-Marxist approaches to face the challenges posed by surveillance technologies and media manipulation in the age of global terrorism, ever-increasing consumerism and neo-liberalism. It is a rich volume that celebrates the political responsibility and potential of live performance that does not shy away from other media, but willingly embraces them to continuously mutate, and yet at the same time remains one of the most innovative and relevant art forms today.
