Volatile Encounters: In Extremis Performance and the Real

Dr Suzanne Little: Volatile Encounters: In Extremis Performance and the Real

2017 London, Out in Africa: A man walks on stage at the Arcola Theatre. He explains he is an actor from Luxembourg who was in South Africa to work. Shortly after arriving, he was kidnapped with a group of white tourists and then left for dead by his kidnappers. In extremis, the group descended into cannibalism. He wants to confess, explain what happened and how he survived.

This is an in extremis performance (defined here as performances that represent death, murder, extreme suffering, depravity or violence and threats to life in explicit ways). Out in Africa is framed as ‘real’, claimed to be the actor’s own story. In an era where images of violence, death and suffering already suffuse screens to the point of creating mass compassion fatigue, to stage the same in theatre is to risk charges of exploitation or to have that which is in extremis considered banal. Claiming reality can however alter reception and perception. In this presentation, I explore the potential appeal and practices of linking in extremis performance and the ‘real’ using Out in Africa as a case study. Beyond fulfilling desires for the authentic, a reality claim can work to amplify, validate and situate in extremis performance, giving practitioners the opportunity to shock and make political statements, to highlight and offer new understandings of situations that create extreme suffering and threats to life and more. The ability to achieve these effects will be shown to be dependent upon a variety of elements including the processes involved in creation, the intensity of the experience as well as perceptions of realness. The ability is further subject to a certain volatility that arises when combining reality claims with in extremis performance.

Suzanne Little is Associate Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She is an interdisciplinary researcher/practitioner and is director of the Performance of The Real Research Theme. Suzanne has published in journals such as Performance Research and Theatre Research International and contributed to multiple books. She has published on political dance; trauma, repetition, care and mobilities in performance; Practice Research, reflective practice, and documentary theatre and witnessing. Suzanne’s recent publications include Performance, Resistance and Refugees (2022, Routledge) co-edited with Caroline Wake and Samid Suliman, and an article in the “On Care” issue of Performance Research (2023).