Vulnerable practice – theatre, subjectivity and becoming otherwise in Melodramatics’ Seeing Red

ABSTRACT

This article considers Bolton based community drama group, Melodramatics, and the ways in which their practice helps illuminate forms of relational activity that confront the nihilism of the resilient subject. If we accept resilience as a normative force that restricts the ability of the political subject to ‘become otherwise’, we are invited to turn towards methods of political discourse that facilitate subversive thought and activity at an ontological level. Through a consideration of Melodramatics’ careful attention to one another as they devised the play Seeing Red, this article examines the capacity for theatre to resource politically significant practices of relational becoming.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• vulnerability
• ontology
• theatre
• politics

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Dunn

Ben Dunn was recently awarded his PhD in Drama by the University of Manchester. Informed by a background as a performance practitioner in contemporary and applied settings, his research examines the relationship between theatre practice and social context, with a particular focus on collectivism, politics and ontology.