Abstract:
The manifesto aims to restore repetition as the underlying principle of theatrical performance, alternative to representation. The premise is Gilles Deleuze’s: repetition “for itself” creates difference “in itself”. Understood and experienced “in itself”, difference goes untethered to pre-existing individualities being actively compared; its significance is a new reality, not a looked-for novelty. The session will be structured as a deconstruction of this premise through a series of principles to be tested in practice. The aim is to perform “pure repetition”: the participants’ attempt to repeat physical and vocal acts as empty forms that reveal their contents each time they are performed.
Question 1, after last year’s IPPT: can repetition be a method to explore and expand eco-somatic practices?
Question 2, after Karen Barad: can it be used to experience embodiment as a mode of empathy with/in an environment made of continuous entanglements of imagination (e.g., characters and dramas) and matter (i.e., both human and other than human)?
The manifesto aims to restore repetition as the underlying principle of theatrical performance, alternative to representation. The premise is Gilles Deleuze’s: repetition “for itself” creates difference “in itself”. Understood and experienced “in itself”, difference goes untethered to pre-existing individualities being actively compared; its significance is a new reality, not a looked-for novelty.
BIO:
Filippo Romanello is an independent researcher and theatre-maker. His practice encompasses dramaturgy, directing and actor training. He holds a PhD in drama for a research titled Spontaneity and Repetition: Towards Immanence in Text-based Performance (Liverpool John Moores University, 2020).