Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-06T23:21:42.938Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - On text and dance: new questions and new forms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2010

Elaine Aston
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Elin Diamond
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

'Playwrights don't give answers, they ask questions. We need to find new questions, which may help us to answer the old ones or make them unimportant, and this means new subjects and new form.' Caryl Churchill builds on this assertion from 1960 by stressing the need to use the theatre medium more fully, an ambition pursued subsequently with a passion clearly in evidence in the series of collaborative projects she undertook between 1986 and 1997. In the performances to be considered, A Mouthful of Birds (1986), Fugue (1988) made for television, The Lives of the Great Poisoners (1991), The Skriker (1994) and Hotel (1997), Churchill included dance and movement choreographed by Ian Spink and it is this particular interweaving of text and dance that is the focus of this chapter. How, for instance, can simultaneity of action or the specific temporal and spatial qualities of dance contribute to Churchill's evocation of such elusive, yet crucial experiences as remembering and forgetting? In different ways issues of memory permeate these plays as recollection, re-writing of narrative, intentional forgetfulness and desire for memory retention seep into the more obviously dramatic thematic concerns of the supernatural, violence, transformation, poisoning and death. Churchill's desire to share the stage/ screen with a dance-based performance maker over the course of five performances suggests a sustained preoccupation with the way that dance, in the hands of Spink, could contribute to her general drive for new forms to explore persistent as well as new questions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×