Proprioceptive Care in Samuel Beckett’s Nacht und Träume
Swati Joshi explores the concepts of self-care and proprioceptive care via Beckett’s last TV play, a wordless piece featuring only a dreaming man and his dreamed self.
Reviving The Normal Heart: Theatre Review
Louisa Hann reviews the 2021 National Theatre revival of Larry Kramer’s HIV/AIDS play The Normal Heart (1985) Larry Kramer’s polemical play The Normal Heart is among the most frequently revived HIV/AIDS play within a
The Glow
The Glow begins in an asylum. An unnamed woman who does not eat or sleep or speak is forgotten by her peers and captors. She is discovered by a spiritualist medium, ‘a prominent woman’
‘Archiving an Epidemic’: Book Review
Louisa Hann reviews Robb Hernández’s Archiving an Epidemic: Art, AIDS, and the Queer Avant-Garde (New York: New York University Press, 2019). The broad and ever-expanding domain of HIV/AIDS arts and performance scholarship has faced
The Problem of Queer Sex and AIDS Theatre
Ash John discusses tensions between representing sexual desire and the moral histories of HIV/AIDS in contemporary AIDS theatre. What we think of now as the AIDS Crisis has become both a cultural and historical
The Gendered Spectacle of Suffering
Lucy Weir explores the gendered nature of critical responses to on-stage violence I am an art historian by training, though my expertise lies in performance, from dance and theatre to live art. Throughout my
Disability, religion, and accessibility as response-ability: review of Claire Cunningham’s Guide Gods
Daria Hartmann reviews the German premiere of Claire Cunningham’s Guide Gods at Tanzhaus Düsseldorf, November 2018. In Guide Gods, the Scottish dance choreographer and disability activist Claire Cunningham uses a potent mix of dance, storytelling,
Illness as metaphor II: Ear for eye
I ended last month by suggesting that we need works of art which strip illness bare of its metaphors and give truth value to both its social conditions and the testimonies of those affected.
Reviews on The Polyphony
We are delighted to introduce our Reviews section and also to kickstart our call for reviewers. The Polyphony aims to showcase reviews of books, exhibitions and events that fall within the broad remit of the
A hand on the arm: Gesture, neurodiversity and performance
Not I (TourettesHero) and A Certain Sense of Order (Tick Tock) ‘I can’t say how many times I’ve felt so happy’ says Jess Thom, ‘for a hand on my arm’. She is referring to a moment