ABSTRACT

This article discusses the ecological potentials of live theatrical performance. I focus on the possibilities for performance to do and enact the ecological, rather than (only) represent or be about ecology. My proposal is that the theatrical medium itself – the dynamics of the performance form – is where the ecological potential of theatre most generatively lies. Through critically reflecting on aspects of the final performance from my practice-led performance project Wild Life, which involved collaborating with professional and nonprofessional child and adult performers to co-devise a dance performance that explored ‘wildness’, I discuss two key methods for doing ecology through performance: firstly, producing unpredictability and exposing human-nonhuman entanglement; and, secondly, devising homological relations between sections of the performance which structurally connect intra-human and nonhuman-nonhuman performances.

This article responds to, and builds on, the timely discussion begun by scholar Carl Lavery and others about ‘what theatre and performance might be able to do ecologically’. Bringing together my perspective as a practitioner-researcher, spectator and critic responses to the final Wild Life performance, ideas from the performance and ecology field, and theoretical concepts from wider ecological thinking, this article presents a unique discussion about ecological performance practice.

摘要

本文讨论了现场戏剧表演的生态潜力。我专注于表演做和制定生态的可能性，而不是（仅）代表或关于生态。我的建议是，戏剧媒介本身——表演形式的动力——是戏剧的生态潜力最具有生成性的地方。通过批判性地反思我以实践为主导的表演项目Wild Life的最终表演的各个方面，其中涉及与专业和非专业的儿童和成人表演者合作，共同设计一个探索“野性”的舞蹈表演，我讨论了通过表演做生态的两个关键方法：第一，产生不可预测性和暴露人与非人的纠缠；其次，设计表演部分之间的同源关系，在结构上连接人类内部和非人类-非人类表演。

本文回应并建立在学者卡尔·拉弗里（Carl Lavery）和其他人关于“戏剧和表演可以在生态上做什么”的及时讨论的基础上。本文汇集了我作为实践研究者、观众和评论家对最终野生动物表演的反应、表演和生态领域的想法以及更广泛的生态思维的理论概念，对生态表演实践进行了独特的讨论。