Silent partners: Actor and audience in Geese Theatre's Journey Woman

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Abstract

This essay considers the performance context and aesthetics of Journey Woman, a play devised to initiate a week-long rehabilitative groupwork programme for female prisoners. Although Geese Theatre UK are one of the country's longest-established companies specialising in drama work within the criminal justice sector, this 2006 piece is their first created specifically for female audiences. The essay explores the rationale behind Geese's key aesthetic choices for the piece - including the performers' use of full face masks and the essentially Aristotelian, 'tragic' structure of the narrative. These choices distinguish Journey Woman from much of the company's other work, and function to establish a quiet, contemplative mode of spectatorial engagement. With reference to critical sources ranging from Ranciére to criminological desistance literature, 'Silent Partners' argues that Journey Woman's unorthodox aesthetic approach is well-tailored to its target audience. In so doing, the essay also raises wider questions about the ways in which, and degrees to which, applied theatre practitioners seek to render their audiences as 'active' participants in the performance process. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-496
Number of pages19
JournalResearch in Drama Education
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2010

Keywords

  • Applied theatre aesthetics
  • Geese Theatre
  • Mask performance
  • Prison theatre

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