Thinking Matter(s) in Theatre Practice

This article discusses a materialist approach to dramaturgy framed as a dramaturgy of assemblage. It is inspired by posthuman thinking and draws on theory from new materialism (Rosi Braidotti, Jane Bennett, Elaine Gan, and Anna Tsing). The dramaturgical approach is developed through artistic research, and the article refers to the performances Childism (2015) and Jeg vill høre havet (2017), which serve as examples of this practice. I articulate the movement from dramaturgy as a collective practice to exploring a collective which includes more-than-human collaborators. Rosi Bradotti’s work on the nomadic subject (drawing on Deleuze and Guattari) has inspired the notion of the nomadic dramaturge. In her book Posthuman Knowledge, Braidotti discusses what “we” are in the posthuman and post-anthropocentric condition, suggesting that the posthuman subject is (part of) a collective. Following Braidotti, I introduce the concept of dramaturgy of assemblages as a place for this collective subjectivity. A dramaturgy of assemblages responds in practice to the question of how a posthuman framework affects theatre and performance-making. What is presented in this article is all about shifting perspectives. When we think differently, we act differently, and different things are formed.