27 August 2020

Dear Joshua,

I propose we try a letter-writing format. It’s a little old-fashioned; perhaps this suits a discussion around the theatre and the social.

I would have written earlier, but I’ve been delayed by (you guessed it) the Covid pandemic, which has so many repercussions and «after-­effects«, small and big, in every part of life and society. Impossible to quarantine the social consequences of the pandemic. The idea that we can press »stop« on our activities, and then »restart«, is absurd: it is in itself a mark of psychic suffering, and no doubt there is more to come.

When we spoke on the phone a few weeks ago, a couple of things struck me. Firstly, you described the theatre as a constrained space, in terms of bodily rules and behaviours. I guess this is where design, architecture, and the dramaturgy of the audience all intersect: normative rules and conventions are inscribed in curtains, in balconies, in red velvet seats, as well as in temporalities of silence and applause. Going to the theatre means, partly, to agree to submit to this architecture of space and time, this dramaturgy of perception.

In the past I have been struck by...