Author Archives: Lauren Bethany Elouise Watson

The Performance Ends Now.

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1 hour and 40 minutes.

From chicken tikka curry and rice, to pouring cream, chocolate, buns and lasagne, our performance was stopped after 1 hour and 40 minutes.

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(Photo credit: Darren Page, 11.12.13)

 When the performance was stopped, it came both as a shock and a relief. Although the two hours we aimed for were not fulfilled, I feel as though our performative task had been completed.

I should clarify that we did not stop our performance, but our lecturer did. And for this I am grateful. When “both the performer and the audience are vulnerable” (LaFrance 2013, p. 507), there is a duty of care for both parties, and I will openly admit that as Gainers we were very vulnerable, and not in a good place. Physically or mentally.

“Negligence involves conduct that falls below the standard of care that would be observed by a reasonable person and which subjects another to an unreasonable risk of harm. An act may be negligent if the actor should realize that it involves an unreasonable risk of subjecting another party to harm or emotional distress that is likely to cause illness or bodily harm” (LaFrance 2013, p. 539).

We pushed our bodies as far as we could without causing harm, and as far as our lecturers deemed ethical. The experimental task element behind our performance was completed, and although stopped, I believe it was successful; all six of us pushed our limits, while addressing our frame of Feederism.

Though commenting on Feederism, through the performance I realise that our piece addressed much more than the ‘feeder’ fetish. As six women, our piece contained sexual and social politics focussing on the female form and its relation to food within society. Perhaps it was naive of us to overtly focus on the fetish, as we are complete outsiders looking in on such a secretive and taboo sexual desire. However, the frame it provided us with (a one-on-one relationship of control), created a larger and further encompassing performance, leaving the audience with their own questions, conscience and ideas towards food, women and the two combined. We used our own bodies and limits for performance, however “when a body is prepared for the theatre, this is a specific instance, and operates within the context of the general process whereby a culture produces the body” (Sheperd 2006, p. 6), and because our bodies are not those of Gainers or Feeders, we are exploring our own bodies within the given frame, so therefore in our own culture.

Works cited
LaFrance, Mary (2013) ‘The Disappearing Fourth Wall: Law, Ethics, and Experimental Theatre’. Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, XV (3) Spring, pp. 507-582.
Sherperd, Simon (2006) Theatre, Body and Pleasure, New York: Routledge.

Pulled! The Short Straw.

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As of today, I am Lizzy’s Gainer, and she is my Feeder.

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Photo Credit: Lizzy Hayes and Lauren Watson, 5.12.13

If I said I was looking forward to this role within the performance, I would be lying. After our work-in-progress showing, the reality and difficultly of this task dawned on me. I am going to have to eat for 2 hours.

One of the scariest and daunting aspects of this performance is that it is a “relationship of domination, control and dependency” (Mateus 2008, p. s184), completely controlled by my Feeder, Lizzy. The quantity of food is, and will remain unknown to me until the performance. All the control is now handed over to the Feeders within the group. I like food, and I like to eat to remain healthy. Usually with the often small binge on junk food. And this is fine, I don’t mind if I over indulge one day, because I am in control. I know how much I am eating, what of, and when I’ll stop. So, for this control to be passed to another is terrifying. However, I don’t believe that this role is going to be harder than the role of Feeder. Personally, I would hate to have that much control over someone else, and to remain in role throughout the two hours. The possibility of the Gainer gagging, crying or being sick is something which I would struggle to handle whilst remaining impartial to it.

When left “[un]marked, the rituals of everyday life can be intimate or even secret” (Schechner 2013, p. 52), but with the frame and context of the Feeder fetish, the ritual of food and feeding becomes unrelenting. The ritual when repeated becomes exhausting, and resented by both parties. Although this claims not to be the case with actual Feeder/Gainer relationships, I am worried that my relationship and own rituals towards food will be tainted or altered by this experience.

Works cited
Mateus, M.A,  C.S Silva, O. Neves, J. Redondo (2008) ‘Feeders: Eating or sexual disorder?’, European Psychiatry, XXIII (2) April, pp. s184-185.
Schechner, Richard (2002[2013]) Performance Studies: An Introduction, New York: Routledge.

 

Force Feeding Relationships…In A Babydoll.

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For our work-in-progress session, we performed a live experiment. Primarily, this was to gage the reaction and reception from the audience, allowing us to alter and change variations within our experiment as was needed. So this experience would be as close to our final piece as possible, and to give an authentic feel to both us as performers and the audience, we drew straws the day before to see who would take which position; the Feeder, or the Gainer. (I use the term Gainer here loosely. We are not eating to gain weight, or for either party to receive sexual pleasure from the act of feeding or being fed. In our experiment, I use the term simply to define the two separate roles).

Once we had drawn straws, and roles were decided, we were able to decide on costume. Our intention of dressing differently was to see which pairing of the Feeder and Gainer went well together; looked more aesthetically pleasing, and whether or not these costumes affected how the audience viewed the piece.

(Experiment in progress: Images by Jakins, Kirsty and Lauren Watson, 22.11.13)

Typically, the Feeder/Gainer relationship is sexual, and although as a group we do not have that sexual attraction or arousal by the concept, we still chose to represented the sexual side of the fetish to see the reactions of our audience. “Theatre is, and has always been, a place which exhibits what a human body is, what it does, what it is capable of” (Sheperd 2006, p. 1), and our experiments embody this idea of the theatre. This experiment is primarily about us exploring our own limitations and relationship towards food, and in doing so our “live performance often does involve the senses in ways that transgress the boundaries of the visually iconic and of the linguistically and musically sonic” (Banes and Lepecki 2007, p. 3). During our short experiment, the Gainers repeatedly gagged, and struggled with the food presented to them. These reactions transgressed those boundaries, not only expected of a performance, but also blurred those of  the private/personal. To gag or be sick is usually a very personal act, and usually brought on by illness. So to show this reaction in public, and from being self-induced by consumption created an entirely new atmosphere and piece for the audience. And because “audience members bring their whole bodies with them into the auditorium, not just their eyes “Ridout 2009, p. 18). their actions and reactions to our physical reactions will be as vital to the experiment as the participants themselves.

(Experiment in progress: Image by Lauren Watson, 22.11.13)

This experiment and our final piece will “reveal histories – they propose practices, privilege materials, mirror social conditions, and implement techniques” (Banes and Lepecki 2007, p. 2). As a UK size 12, weighing 10st 8lb, I am very conscious about my size and weight, more than often feeling uncomfortable in my own skin due to ‘ideals’ on how I should look, and our experiment is causing all of us to look at ourselves and our relation to food in a different light. Our performance shines a light on the often taboo area of ‘Feederism’, a social condition which isn’t highlighted or publicly talked about, and is only really addressed through documentaries. Although we aren’t Feeders and Gainers, we are openly exploring our own boundaries with food. According to Richard Schechner, “performances that insist on sharing experiences with partakers and participants; works that try to evoke both terror and celebration. Such performances are often very personal even as they are no longer private” (2007, p. 25), and our experiment does just this. A marvel at the food we create, and if not a terror in the audience, a horror at what we are attempting to complete.

Works Cited
Banes, Sally, Andre Lepecki (2007) ‘Introduction’ in The Senses in Performance, ed. Sally Banes and Andre Lepecki, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 1-7.
Ridout, Nicholas (2009) Theatre & Ethics, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Schechner, Richard (2007) ‘Rasaesthetics’ in The Senses in Performance, ed. Sally Banes and Andre Lepecki, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 10-28.
Sheperd, Simon (2006) Theatre, Body and Pleasure, New York: Routledge.

Last Words, Last Suppers.

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Reckless Sleepers “share the agenda of Forced Entertainment in their rejection of the processes of ‘proper theatre’ or ‘big theatre’ that attempts to present ‘realism in an unrealistic way” (Tomlin 2008, p.361), and their piece Last Supper does just that; mixing real life final words, with those which can be imagined to be true, while all over a last supper. Sat at an elaborate dinner table themselves, “the Last Supper is a performance piece where we invite our audience to dinner, to eat and drink with us” (Reckless Sleepers n/a, online), creating an unconventional performance space within which we currently think of theatre.

http://vimeo.com/64879300

Interestingly, “it…gives voice to the voiceless” (Gardner 2004, online), despite the fact that the performers then go on to eat their own last words. These last words exist in a liminal space; taken and then imitated on stage from actors for whom the words will not be their last, and then being eaten, digested, as though they had never been there in the first place.

“While you might wonder why it’s worth doing, I am inclined towards the view of Timothy Leary who, staring death in the face in 1996, reportedly declared: “Why not?” ” (Gardner 2004, online)

Our performative experiment is dealing with food and eating, so to disregard Reckless Sleepers’ performance of The Last Supper would be unwise. Their intimate setting mimics that which we are hoping to create. Generally you don’t invite a large number of people round for tea, let alone strangers, and this becomes less likely when the topic of conversation is something highly personal. To reveal the last words of those who have died, either factual, fictional or imagined is something highly personal. Often those words are only said to loved ones, or to themselves, and not broadcast for the wider population to hear.

The notion of hosting a dinner party is not something private, and is indeed considered a social event. So to mix a private and public medium within their performance is interesting and thought provoking. The juxtaposition of the private and public is something which we are hoping to showcase within our performance of Feeder. The Feeder/Gainer fetish is a highly personal and private engagement when enacted within couples, so to host it in a similar style to The Last Supper, and framing it for an audience is unusual and adds another dynamic to the established task of the performance. With a contrast to The Last Supper, whose performance came alive by the use of words and language, our performance will have none.

Chewing.

Gagging.

Clinking.

Crunching.

The ominous and deafening silence will have its own underscore. However, this will not be from anything prepared, but from organic noises created by the piece itself. With the silence, the audience will be unwilling forced to focus more on the sounds and noises which occur naturally, therefore drawing them further into the performance. Though this might make some audience members uncomfortable, I personally feel that any other addition of sound would detract from the live performance, thereby giving the audience some form of escape; but when a performance is as intimate and personal as ours aims to be, the option of escape or distraction should be minimal. Our performance wants to push not just the performers’ limits, but the audiences’ too.

Works Cited
Gardner, Lynn (2004) ‘The Last Supper’, The Guardian, 19 November:
Online: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2004/nov/19/theatre1 (accessed 27 November 2013).
Reckless Sleepers (n/a) The Last Supper, Online: http://www.reckless-sleepers.co.uk/project.php?id=7 (accessed 27 November 2013).
Tomlin, Liz (2008) ‘Beyond Cynicism: The Special Imperative and (Future) Contemporary Performance’, Contemporary Theatre Review, XVIII (3) August: pp. 355-369.