Theatre and time/ecology: deceleration in Stifters Dinge and L’Effet de Serge

Lavery, C. (2016) Theatre and time/ecology: deceleration in Stifters Dinge and L’Effet de Serge. Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism, 20(3), pp. 304-323. (doi: 10.1080/14688417.2016.1191997)

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Abstract

This article explores the production of ‘time ecology’ in two works of postdramatic theatre: Heiner Goebbels’ Stifters Dinge (2007) and Philippe Quesne’s L’Effet de Serge (2007). By focusing on the practice of deceleration, it argues that theatre’s ecological potential resides not so much in its ability to represent the world, but rather in its capacity for producing new types of temporal experience that purposefully seek to break with modernity’s regime of historicity and the accelerated rhythms that it has given rise to. Importantly, my concern with deceleration is not an argument for slowness per se; on the contrary, I am interested in highlighting the presence of multiple and interpenetrating timescales and rhythms. As well as exposing the full extent of theatre’s temporal potential, such a concern with postdramatic ‘chronographies’ offers an implicit critique of dramatic theatre’s extant practices of eco-dramaturgy that, all too often, attempt to construct a linear narrative which is invested in conventional sequential models of temporality (beginning, middle, end).

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Lavery, Professor Carl
Authors: Lavery, C.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
Journal Name:Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism
Publisher:Taylor and Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:1468-8417
ISSN (Online):2168-1414
Published Online:17 June 2016
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2016 Taylor and Francis
First Published:First published in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism 20(3): 304-323
Publisher Policy:Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

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