ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to Bruce Gladwin, Alice Nash and Nikki Watson at Back to Back, and to the wider Hell House ensemble, for their openness and generosity in sharing with me their experiences of working on this project. Thanks also to Arts House in Melbourne, Australia, for its support in making this research possible.
Notes
1 With his reference to ‘autistic theatre’, Rainer may not have had Artaud in mind, but Debuffet did. Debuffet visited Artaud in Rodez, and in a letter written during his formative 1945 tour of Switzerland, Debuffet notes, ‘I am reading Le Théâtre et son Double by Antonin Artaud and marvel at finding that his ideas are the same as mine’ (Peiry Citation2001: 41).
2 Roberts' script is available for faith-based organisations to order on his church's website (http://www.godestiny.org/hell_house/HH_kit.cfm), but Back to Back negotiated directly with Roberts for limited rights (for the short Melbourne season only) to produce the show. The terms of their agreement with Roberts were that they would produce the show faithfully, and Gladwin reported that the language in their programme notes around ‘anthropological study’ also emerged from this negotiation.