Show it Again and Again and Again and… An Exploration of Vital Materiality in Headroom through Repetition and Difference

Abstract

This research assumes the concept of repetition and difference taken from Gilles Deleuze’s writing as a dramaturgical tool for theatre and performance to analyse the performance Headroom (2018). It reveals certain qualities of repetition and tries to connect these qualities to the field of new materialism, which stresses the importance of post-anthropocentric thought and the idea of agential matter. These ideas are found to be connected to Deleuze’s theory about the actual and the virtual and the analysis of Headroom shows that repetition and difference could indeed be used to open up the awareness of the audience towards new materialist thought. The repetition and difference in lighting and sound emphasize the tendencies of humans to look for routine, making these often invisible patterns visible. The relation between the performer’s bodies and the objects on stage are shifted to more equal levels than usual in theatre and performance because of repetition and difference as well. Through this, things acquire agency in and are an active part of the composition, forming the assemblage of the performance. In a further analysis, the actual and the virtual are explored as connected and the sensations and experience of the audience is found to be often caused by the physical thing-power of objects in Headroom that are shown with the use of repetition and difference. In a comparison with other media that incorporate repetition, it is found that the specific qualities of liveness and presence of the theatre experience fits best with the use of repetition and difference to focus on vital materiality.