Karel Vanhaesebrouck

Theatre, performance studies and photography: a history of permanent contamination

From its very beginning photography has always held a tense relation with theatre practice, both media influencing and contaminating each other in a permanent and systematic way. At the same time, both are traditionally situated at opposite ends of a continuum in which the degree of medium specificity is taken as a pivotal point of reference. Under the influence of performance studies on the one hand, and the accelerating hybridisation of theatre practice on the other, this traditional twofold distinction has been increasingly questioned. Within theatre history and performance studies (the scope of which is not solely defined by contemporary forms of theatricality), photography and more specifically theatre photography occupy a privileged place: they are no longer considered to be a theatrical ‘residue’, but are, on the contrary, regarded as an integral part of a visual history, of a cultural history, which mainly focuses on the place of theatre in society. At the same time, theatre photography is an integral part of the signification process which is at the very heart of performance studies, contaminating the process of decoding and contributing to the constitution of the expectancy horizon of a public. This article will investigate the different aspects of interference between performance studies, theatre history and photography by means of different concrete examples taken from theatres photographic heritage.

Resisting the constraint The constraint as a methodological tool for performance-oriented theatre history

This article investigates the way the notion of constraint could be extended to theater studies and theater history, focusing on the case of French clas - sical tragedy in the seventeenth century. Can classical poetics be regarded as a set of constraints? Rather than viewing the constraint as a literary technique, the authors argue that it is also relevant to other, nonliterary phenomena, for example, to the theater. There the idea of constraint can be put to use as a tool for theoretical reflec- tion on and critical or historical analysis of performance practice. The article pays special attention to (1) the way Aristotelian poetics developed throughout the seven - teenth century from a flexible set of tips to a hegemonic theoretical practice; (2) the increasing use of textual and performative constraints to resolve the disorder and friction typical of French (early) modern theater practice; (3) the divergence between theory and practice, between the intended and the actual performance; and (4) the relationship between the notion of constraint, on the one hand, and that of disci - pline, on the other.

The Hybridization of Flemish Identity: The Flemish National Heritage on the Contemporary Stage

At a moment in time when Belgium, both as a signifier of a national identity and as a political construction, is more and more in crisis, a generation of young Dutch-speaking theatre artists, including Ruud Gielens, Raven Ruell and Chokri Ben Chikha, has begun to interrogate concepts of Flemish and Belgian identity by confronting these discursive formations with the hybrid and multicultural day-to-day reality in the country. Their works display attempts to revive - or more accurately, to construct - a theatrical repertoire for a country that, on top of its problematic political identity, does not have a theatrical canon. Their performances investigate the darker sides of Flemish and Belgian history, such as the collaboration with the Nazi-occupation during World War II and the subsequent fierce repression of those collaborators, or the colonial enterprise in Congo. These artists thereby embrace a history that has been (consciously or unconsciously) forgotten. Motivated by their urgent desire to understand the political and cultural complexity of present-day Belgium, they radically expose its gaps and less glorious passages. This article will explore Oom Toon (Uncle Toon, 2007), a triptych directed by Rieks Swarte based on particular events from Flemish theatre history, and Singhet ende Weset vro (Sing and Be Merry, 2006) by Ruud Gielens and his company Union Suspecte, a production inspired by a Flemish songbook of the same name. The two productions disclose their distinct, individual ways of negotiating Flemish history and its mythological afterlife. The article will attempt to contextualize both productions within a longer genealogy and unpack the ways in which they relate to and problematize Flemish heritage and nationalist discourses.

Theatre of War: Commemorating World War I in Belgium

Every town and village throughout Flanders is commemorating the gruesome events of 1914–1918 with a range of activities. Some of these propose intelligent and thoroughly researched perspectives on WWI, while others are just simple tourist entertainments. Flemish theatre artists enthusiastically contribute to this frenzy, although some choose to deconstruct the folkloric myths to comment on the economics of the commemoration industry or on present-day atrocities.