Performance Research Volume 22 Issue 6

Under the Influence

Issue editors: Jim Drobnick

ISSN: 1352-8165 (2017) 22:6

Being “under the influence” conveys contradictory meanings. While designating impairment, it also connotes the unleashing of creative inspiration. Such a contrast is typical of the discourse on drugs, which in different contexts can bring about liberatory, therapeutic, spiritual or deleterious effects. This special issue explores how performance mobilizes intoxication and altered states. How do narcotics, psychedelics, and other stimulants destabilize the norms of theatricality? What impact does inebriation or addiction have on notions of artistic agency and ethics? Featuring perspectives from historians, critics and practitioners, this issue stakes out the multifaceted ways that artists have responded to drugs and addressed their socio-political implications.

Introduction

Jim Drobnick

pp. 1 - 2

The Aristocrat of Harlem : Slumming, immersion and intoxication in prohibition-era New York City

Chloë Rae Edmonson

pp. 3 - 12

Dispensing with the Law : Measuring alcohol and its effects in Shower Party

Asher Warren

pp. 13 - 19

I Don’t Belong Here : Living under transatlantic influence

Fernando Matos de Oliveira

pp. 20 - 25

Inebriationism : Alcohol, performance and paradox

Jim Drobnick

pp. 26 - 42

Jeremy Shaw’s DMT : Curating psychedelic experience

Jennifer Fisher

pp. 43 - 53

Arousing Formlessness : Collaborative encounters with chemotherapy

Caro Novella

pp. 54 - 56

“Riddle Coma” : Enthralment at the Neuro-receptor Theatre

Ray Langenbach

pp. 57 - 67

Aestheticizing Addiction to Generate Change : An exploration of performance practice with biographical drug-use narratives

Cathy Sloan

pp. 68 - 72

Outside Edge’s Theatre for Recovery : Reshaping influence and the addict identity

James Reynolds

pp. 73 - 82

‘It Blows My Mind’ : Intoxicated performances by Ridiculusmus

Richard Talbot

pp. 83 - 92

Under the Influence of … Affective Performance

Zoe Zontou

pp. 93 - 102

Unstyled (review)

Justine Hobbs

pp. 103 - 105

Notes on Contributors

pp. 106