The Possibility of Darkness: Blackout and Shadow in Chris Goode'sWho You Are

Abstract

Although a rather recent convention, sitting in the dark looking at others in the light has become a standard element of going to see a theatrical performance. Before the introduction of powered lighting systems that focused light on the stage, however, audiences and actors alike were bathed in a shared illumination. As life outside the theatre becomes ever more exposed by light, what are the possibilities presented for and by a performance that takes place in darkness? In this article I discuss these possibilities as they were explored in Chris Goode's Who You Are, a performance commissioned by Tate Modern for Experiences of the Dark, a series of talks, presentations and other works inside Miroslaw Balka's giant installation How It Is.

‘Demented Particulars’: Traces of Godot and the Provincial Theatre Archive

“…They make the case that the term 'site-specific' should only refer to a performance created specifically for a site, 'sitegeneric' to a performance created for a series of similar sites, while 'sitesympathetic' refers to performance that physicalises an existing performance text within a particular site. 7 As will be shown in the following, the Happy Days Festival productions tend to fall into the latter two categories. These sites offer a rich semantic backdrop for the performances of many of Beckett's texts yet may not really draw on site in the way that truly site-specific performance does; not truly engaging, in other words, with the archive of history that inscribes place.…”

“…Far from being 'at home', or at the centre of things, Lavery reminds us that cataclysmic events such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, demonstrate that human beings are actively dispelled from the oikos. This precarity is something that Beckett is all too aware of and, using Footfalls (1976) as his main example, Lavery demonstrates, through reference to Jean-François Lyotard's late writings, how this hostility is enacted in a world such as Endgame where it has ceased to rain 7 and where beyond the sanctuary of the room Hamm bewails, 'Nature has abandoned us'. 8 Trish McTighe addresses questions of performance and landscape in her article on place and archive in relation to the Happy Days International Beckett Festival that has been held for several years in the Northern Ireland town of Enniskillen.…”

“…The first point to note is that ecology is not necessarily about 'nature' (whatever that means) and neither is it limited to a scientific or cybernetic study of a given ecosystem or communication network. 7 Rather, as I use it, ecology is a mode of operating that seeks 2007). It also explains why nature in this article is always placed in inverted commas.…”

“…6 If the narrative of the scholar in the well-catalogued, beautifully preserved Beckett archive seldom affords the deep-seated excitement of a genuinely new discovery, it is nonetheless a narrative of what, in the opening part of 'Archive Fever', Derrida presents as the image of the arkhe, a place where things begin, where power originates, and its workings are inextricably bound up with the authority of beginnings and starting points. 7 The counter-narrative of the scholar searching the fileboxes in county records offices for Beckett productions is one of a different kind of experience. Far away from the privileged space that the Beckett archive accords to all marks and traces of the Beckettian oeuvre, the dustier traces of Godot in provincial theatre archives are far more akin to unreclaimed, unauthorised archival residue.…”

“…In his article 'The Possibility of Darkness', Martin Welton discusses the British Parliament's 2010 Daylight Saving Bill debate on the benefits of an additional hour in the United Kingdom's time zone, so daylight stretches longer into winter evenings. 7 Although somewhat less utopian than the claims of Excelsior, Ministers argued that the benefits would significantly improve the quality of national life, leading to reductions in road traffic accidents, crime, and obesity, while boosting the economic and cultural landscape.…”