Writing with silent bodies: a pandemic play in three scenes

ABSTRACT

The following text is a play co-written as a response to, and a remembrance of, the experiences during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on writing during lockdown that was meant to make sense of our own experiences as academic labourers and those gained from informal conversations with colleagues. Following the conventions and the sensibilities of theatre, the text demands and offers a (re-)embodiment of voices and affectivities that connected those bodies in a situation in which bodies were absent, yet highly present in their vulnerability. We thus invite the readers to treat the text primarily as a stageable drama rather than an academic paper given unusual form. An introduction that belongs to a more classical academic genre expresses our inspirations and relevant points of reference. A short prose coda hints towards some of the insights we have gained by crafting the play.

KEYWORDS:

• Writing
• affect
• academic labour
• embodiment
• Anthropocene
• art

Disclosure statement

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

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In an act of synchronicity and serendipity we came across the Call for Papers for the special issue of Culture and Organization dedicated to Embodied Writing.

2 Character created by Yuliia Savytska. She described it in the following way:

It was a lush winter apple tree. She was very generous with her apples. I have never tasted more delicious apples than hers. The tree used to grow in our garden, shading the house from the street, and guarding it. She had a strong branch that supported me when I was helping my dad to pick the autumn fruit. But then she disappeared, just like all of my childhood.

If could taste just one more apple from this tree, one more time, and if I could take in its amazing aroma, I could become a child again. I’d be a child. My father's daughter. The fruit picker. They are all gone: the tree, my father, my chilhood. But the apple tree is still growing within me.

3 The body of the third co-author is a male body, likewise childless but caring and creative.