The Displeasure of Implication in Fix & Foxy’s Dark Noon (2019)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v36i1.152975Keywords:
Fix&Foxy, Dark Noon (2019), implication, implicatedness, implicancy, performance analysis, political theatre, postcolonialism, spectatorship, emancipation, Jacques Rancière, Michael RothbergAbstract
In their award-winning and still touring 2019 performance Dark Noon, the project theatre Fix&Foxy, led by Danish director Tue Biering, creates a theatrical space in which the audience are implicated in the hypercomplex relations between violent colonial oppression and the entertainment industry. What appears through the staging is the indirect complicity of the present White European in the long-distance and long-term atrocities of colonialism. Drawing on, amongst others, Michael Rothberg’s theory of The Implicated Subject, the present performance analysis will describe and discuss this unpleasant dramaturgy of implication in Dark Noon, and more specifically, how it works through a complex play on non/identity between the actors, the spectators, and the characters of the performance.
References
References
Ahmed, Sarah. 2013. “Critical Racism/Critical Sexism.” feministkilljoys blog, 19.12.2013. https://feministkilljoys.com/2013/12/19/critical-racismcritical-sexism/ (1.2.2024).
Auslander, Philip. 2008 (1999). Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Barba, Eugenio. 1985. “The Nature of Dramaturgy: Describing Actions at Work.” New Theatre Quarterly 1:1, 75–8.
“Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype.” Smithsonian. National Museum of African American History and Culture, n.d. https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/blackface-birth-american-stereotype (19.10.2023).
Bleeker, Maaike. 2023. Doing Dramaturgy: Thinking Through Practice. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. 1999. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Christoffersen, Erik Exe. 2022. “Contemporary Art, Representation and Remediation.” Peripeti. Special issue: Fix&Foxy, 170–85.
Dixon, Steve. 2019. “How Does Theatre Think Through Incorporating Media.” In Maaike Bleeker, Adrian Kear, Joe Kelleher and Heike Roms (eds.). Thinking Through Theatre and Performance. London and New York: Methuen Drama, 130–44.
Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2014. The Routledge Introduction to Theatre and Performance Studies. London and New York: Routledge.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 2004 (1960). Sandhed og Metode: Grundtræk af en Filosofisk Hermeneutik. Translated by Arne Jørgensen. Aarhus: Systime.
Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
Martin, Jaqueline and Willmar Sauter. 1995. Understanding Theatre: Performance Analysis in Theory and Practice. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
Nielsen, Thomas Rosendal. 2011. Interaktive dramaturgier i et systemteoretisk perspektiv. PhD Dissertation in Dramaturgy. Aarhus University, Aarhus.
Nielsen, Thomas Rosendal. 2022. ”Vi er ikke ikke Den Hvide Mand.” peripeti.dk, 4.10.2022. https://www.peripeti.dk/2022/10/04/dark-noon-fixfoxy-filmbyen-aarhus-aarhus-festuge/ (24.8.2023).
Pavis, Patrice. 2003. Analyzing Performance: Theatre, Dance and Film. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Rancière, Jacques. 2009. The Emancipated Spectator. London and New York: Verso.
Rothberg, Michael. 2019. The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
da Silva, Denise Ferreira. 2022. Unpayable Debt. London: Sternberg Press.
Schechner, Richard. 1985. Between Theater and Anthropology. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Schultz, Laura Luise. 2022. “The Management of Audience Discomfort: Fix&Foxy’s Practice of Political Confrontation.” Peripeti. Special issue: Fix&Foxy, 138-53.
Seel, Martin. 2015 (2001). “Inszenieren als Erscheinenlassen: Thesen über die Reichweite eines Begriffs.” In Kai-Uwe Hemken (ed.). Kritische Szenografie. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.
Szatkowski, Janek. 2019. A Theory of Dramaturgy. London and New York: Routledge.
Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: PAJ Publications.
Performances
Black Madonna. Sort/Hvid. Script: Madame Nielsen. Director: Christian Lollike. Performed 30.4 – 19.52018 at Sort/Hvid, Copenhagen.
Come on, Bangladesh, Just do it! Fix&Foxy and Royal Danish Theatre. Director: Tue Biering. Text: Jeppe Kristensen. Performed 3.3 13.5.2006. Turbinehallerne, Copenhagen.
Dark Noon. Fix&Foxy. Director and scriptwriter: Tue Biering. Co-director and choreographer: Nhlanhla Mahlangu. Set designer: Johan Kølkjær. Sound designer: Ditlev Brinth. Light designer: Christoffer Gulløv. Props designer: Marie Rosendahl Chemnitz. Cast: Bongani Bennedict Masango, Joe Young, Lillian Tshabalala, Mandla Gaduka, Siyambonga Alfred Mdubeki, Katlego Kaygee Letsholonyana and Thulani Zwane. First performed 11.5 – 1.6.2019 at Revolver at Republique, Copenhagen.
Viljens Triumf [Triumph of the Will]. Fix&Foxy. Directors: Tue Biering and Jeppe Kristensen. Performed 1 – 20.11.2012. Old factory building in Copenhagen.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The copyright belongs to the authors and Nordic Theatre Studies. Users can use, reuse and build upon the material published in the journal but only for non-commercial purposes. Users are allowed to link to the files, download the files, distribute the files on a local network (preferably by links), upload the files to local repositories if their institutions require them to do so, but not republish the files without proper agreements with the journal and the author.