Peter Civetta

THE PERFORMANCE OF GOD –
RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN THE AFTERMATH OF 11 SEPTEMBER

[pages 1 - 16]

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Abstract

This paper looks at religious addresses, such as sermons and khutbahs, and explores how they can be seen as performances of particular communities as well as performances for those communities. Using performance paradigms, this paper focuses on the formation, delivery, and reception of the sermonic event and its possible impact. Through an in-depth study of addresses delivered in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, this paper showcases the power and influence of this overlooked form of cultural discourse.

Robert F. Gross

Glamour and Frightful Mutilation: Kondoleon, Kierkegaard and Camp

[pages 17 - 34]

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Abstract

Although playwright Harry Kondoleon and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard might seem to have little in common, both share an interest in the limits of representation in relationship to the religious. In The Houseguests, Kondoleon works at the boundary between Kierkegaard’s aesthetic and religious realms, using familiar camp strategies to create a queer world that is then challenged when unexpected disasters reduced the characters to extremes of suffering. But, rather than the camp style being defeated or undermined by this suffering, it works to define the limits of the theatrical representation of the religious as Wholly Other.

Mark Pizzato

Soyinka's Bacchae, African Gods, and Postmodern Mirrors

[pages 35 - 104]

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Abstract

Aristotle’s ancient theory of catharsis offers the dominant European model on the value of violent identities in drama. Yet, Soyinka’s theory of the hero’s sacrifice onstage combines the Aristotelian tradition, through Nietzsche’s view of the ancient Greek ritual chorus, with Yoruba myths of various gods (orishas): Ogun, Esu, Obatala, and Orisha-nla. In his adaptation of Euripides’ play, The Bacchae, Soyinka creates a ritual space onstage that intersects the cosmological and ideological dimensions of African and European theatre. His work speaks through Nigeria’s premodern ritual traditions and its modern colonial alienations to the postmodern loss of self, history, and community (Jameson). Soyinka thus provides the basis for a postmodern sense of tragic catharsis, regarding mass-media violence, hybrid identities, and hypertheatrical sacrifice in the current mirror stages and screens of virtual reality. His Bacchae also raises certain questions about the opposition of political and spiritual theatre as it tends to be articulated in Euro-American performance (as Brechtian alienation versus Artaudian cruelty). This essay will examine the ancient and postmodern values of sacrificial identity in Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides: through his own theatre theories based on Yoruba mythology, through Artaud’s and Brecht’s theories of audience identification, and through Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, especially its notion of catharsis in the traversing of fundamental fantasies.

Eli Rozik

The Ritual Origin of Theatre - A Scientific Theory or Theatrical Ideology?

[pages 105 - 140]

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Abstract

The theory of the ritual origin of theatre, first proposed by the Cambridge School of Anthropology, swiftly became a commonplace. Although refuted by Pickard Cambridge, its impact is felt in Kirby’s shamanist and Schechner-Turner’s performance theories that suggest alternative arguments while the ritual thesis remains firm. Eventually, it was adopted by leading directors who attempted restoration of the allegedly lost ritual elements and vital to the rejuvenation of theatre. I claim that this theories reflect erroneous theories of both ritual and theatre, and an ideological bias instead of a scientific approach. Similar considerations apply to the theory of recreation of theatre by the Church.

Herbert Sennett

PREACHING AS PERFORMANCE
(A Preliminary Analytical Model)

[pages 141 - 156]

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Abstract

This paper will attempt to formulate a basic performance analysis of Christian preaching as a first step to the development of a model for Christian preaching as performance art. This study will have as its immediate context Christian preaching as it exists within the African American Christian community with its rituals and societal contexts. As such, the methodological approach will be analytical and phenomenological rather than deconstructive or post-structuralist in nature.