Abstract
Qualitative research has moved significantly in the last decade or so in its validation and acceptance of avenues of knowing and explaining which span alternative modes of research dissemination than those more traditionally expected of the academy. The use of performance constructs and conventions in the interpretation of qualitative research has given access and a sense of legitimation for the inclusion of emotive, physical, and, at times, confronting approaches to explaining or interpreting the experiences of ‘the other’. This paper discusses an agenda of obligation and purpose implicit in the performative turn in qualitative research and its clear potential to influence wide audiences. The comparison between performance as interpretation and therapy and the pre-tensions of artistry are further discussed in the context of exploring a new understanding of the audience–performer–researcher dynamic.
Notes
1. The term claque refers to the clandestine use of agents or supporters who seated in and amongst an audience attempt to sway the audience's reception of a particular subject, performer or performance.
2. In the round theatre places the defined acting area in the centre of a hall or auditorium – so that the audience may surround the stage (boxing ring style).
3. Abiding by strict research and ethics protocols including obtaining informed consent where required, etc.
4. In the theatre of the fifteenth–eighteenth centuries commissaries and other members of a claque would have frequent opportunity to ‘chat’ with other audience members as plays were often lit with candles on wagon wheel sized candelabras suspended above the stages. All on stage activities were regularly intermittently paused in order to renew the hundreds of tallow candles required to light these indoor performances.