Grant Tyler Peterson (Theatre, Brunel University)
‘Situationist Theatre Legacies and Participatory Spectatorship since 1964’
In the early 1960s, British Situationist Alexander Trocchi impacted the London arts scene in ways yet to be fully acknowledged. Trocchi’s absence in the field of theatre and performance is curious despite alliances with prominent twentieth-century theorists and theatre makers, including Guy Debord, Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Joan Littlewood, Jeff Nuttall and John McGrath. As a historiographical project excavating Trocchi’s legacy and Situationist modes of spectatorship, this talk considers Trocchi’s key manifesto, “Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds” alongside the ground-breaking 1965 London installation performance, sTigma. A performance genealogy could even extend from Trocchi’s proposed aesthetics of spectatorship to the recent ‘affective turn’ and ‘immersive’ performance practices. The proposed genealogy in this talk attempts to recuperate germane British Situationist legacies while tracing an eversion of participatory spectatorship methods from the sixties to the present.
A discussion follows the seminar.
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