Performance as surplus material

This thesis arises out of a desire to include in my theatre practice, stories that cover the breadth of cultural experiences informed by ‘being an immigrant’ after witnessing its reduction to Eurocentric political and anthropological studies of other cultures within theatrical representations in the UK. In contrast to intercultural theatre and interculturalism’s promotion of disciplinarity through culture, this thesis articulates an alternative interdisciplinary practice by prioritising material that does not fit within existing disciplinary frames, as well as within cultural, social and political categories that seek to erect a place of strategic dominance through disciplinarity. I call this the surplus material. Based on the way I present migrancy and my experience as an immigrant, I offer an aesthetics of homelessness that radically questions disciplinarity and its appropriation of the everyday. I place this within the Eurocentric and colonial history of the West and its othering of immigrants culturally, through legal means, racialisation and by parading the concept of European modernity as a universal standard to the rest of the world. The discovery of the surplus material is mapped through the journey of two of my productions – Majnoun (2003) and Plastic (2008) – focusing in particular on a shift away from narrative-based, story-telling theatre to non-linear and visual performance in the case of Majnoun, and a shift towards site-specific and participatory performance in Plastic. Through Majnoun and Plastic I look at the way the identity of women is defined by both secular and religious regimes in Iran as symbols of their patriarchal values to uphold masculine supremacy. I also study the central role of the 1979 revolution in my own displacement and in influencing my spatial approach, first towards theatre, and later in my interdisciplinary practice. Revolutions situate social change within urban architecture and spatial design by undermining the relationship between planned space and pre-defined instructions for use. Interdisciplinarity and the aesthetics of homelessness sustains its existence through a continuous creation of temporary spaces that emerge out of social relations and unconscious combinations. Comparing venue-based programming to architectural approaches and site-specific work, the thesis explores the relationship of performance to public and private spaces and structures of power, arguing for a re-interpretation of public spaces beyond their conventional use for a more inclusive and creative urban life. My contribution to knowledge is through elevating the idea of performance beyond the discipline of theatre through the surplus material and its mechanism of unconscious formations, paving the way for more sustainable and collaborative interdisciplinary practices.