Diffractive Dramaturgy

Abstract

This article explores how aspects of posthuman theory, and in particular diffraction as theorised by Haraway and then Barad, can be used by theatre makers to develop the practice of being and making in company at this current moment in time.

I begin with an analysis of the ways stories (including stories within plays) are shared in the rehearsal room. When framed as a diffractive practice that allows for the 'iterative (re)configuring', difference can be foregrounded both as a radical dramaturgy, and a process tool for collaborating, creating and developing performance material—new ways of being together.

Donna Haraway, in Staying with the Trouble, references an essay by Ursula K. Le Guin, who calls for the need for new kinds of stories, that gather many strands together by a process of exploring the potential connections between all things: explorations of multiples and difference rather than egos and individualism. Here, I consider diffraction in the context of the work of Flute Theatre where Kelly Hunter MBE has developed a dramaturgical process for using Shakespeare's later plays when working with children with severe autism and their families.

This diffractive dramaturgy explores the way we audience / perform work for each other. Subjectivity and objectivity for example, are experienced differently when explored from the point of view that all matter is entangled. There is the potential for a dramaturgy of agential cuts that manifest as a kaleidoscope of intra-actions and material manifestations: a myriad of entwined textures diffracted through and with the participants own experience and context.

This is a new experimental, experiential landscape, where we feel for and towards (in a tentacular way) a collaborative making process that tilts the optic away from traditional expectations. It is a multi-perspective way of working; a posthuman process that finds form in difference.