The Performativity of Intimacy in Theatre
Summary
This thesis researches and explores the phenomenon of intimacy in
sensory-corporeal-based encounters in contemporary participatory theatre
exemplified in three case studies: Tino Sehgal’s Kiss, Wunderland’s
Sommerfugleeffekter (Eng: Butterfly Effects) and Dries Verhoeven’s
Guilty Landscapes: Episode 1 – Hangzhou. This thesis perceives
intimacy in theatre as a (syn)aesthetic phenomenon that fuses and
connects perceptions of closeness with distance and difference in a
multitude of sense-making processes. The notion of ‘(syn)aesthesia’ is by
Josephine Machon described as a multitude of perceptions and processes
of somatic and semantic sense-making(s) dominating contemporary
affective performance in both as means of expression and reception. The
connectivity of closeness within distance and difference is by Liesbeth
Groot Nibbelink perceived as the circumstance of intimacy in theatre.
What generate intimacy in theatre is modes of interaction and
engagements of senses and corporeality that is maintained through
elements of mutuality, which is theorised by Bennett Helm. The analysis
of the case studies shows that intimacy is not to be understood as one
specific experience. Instead three different intimacies – affected by
(syn)aesthetic perceptions and processes of closeness and distance
evoking emotions and sense-makings – are generated as a result of the
three performances’ different modes of affectivity, engagement and
interaction. This research concludes that intimacy can be evoked in a
theatrical setting despite theatre’s reproducibility and the unfamiliarity of
performers in close encounters through new deconstructed
understandings of closeness and distance in a society of today dominated
by intermedial and technological influences. The ambivalent and
challenged experiences of intimacy in theatre create potential for
reflection over the role and phenomenon of intimacy in the social world.