Yangzi Zhou, University of Warwick
This presentation approaches the UK-based screened theatre work of Belgian director Ivo van Hove from the perspectives of adaptation, physicality, and (double) intermediality, analysing the filmed sequences and compositions of three performances: A View from the Bridge, Obsession, and All About Eve, all of which were broadcast via National Theatre Live (NT Live). In the presentation, I will focus on how the contemporary dramaturgies of live recordings and the contemporary affects of the mediatised performances, generally conceived as van Hove’s directorial aesthetics, are aligned with the National Theatre’s agenda as a theatre institution. Building on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘contemporaneity’, I will also consider the surrounding discourses in Continental European and British theatrical aesthetics in the post-Brexit context, as well as debates between contemporary adaptations and new writing, to draw attention to what I call the ‘conservative aspirations toward contemporaneity’ in both van Hove’s productions and NT Live at large. My presentation thus forms part of my recently completed doctoral research into NT Live’s construction of ‘theatreness’ through forging and appealing to certain expectations of theatre as an abstract idea and an embodied experience. The van Hove broadcasts adapt spatially narratable stories from screen to stage and back to screen, and curate a series of affective experiences between media and cultural history. By showcasing the intermedial manifestations of the aspirations to both the conservation of performances and the creation of new experiences, they have fortified the institutionalised framework which characterises the contemporaneity of mediatised theatre under the brand of NT Live.
Biography: Dr Yangzi Zhou (she/her) is an Early Career Teaching Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, University of Warwick, where she works as part of the team developing interdisciplinary pedagogies and modules. Central to her research is how different modes of mediums and artistic forms work with and against each other to shape our cultural life. Her recently completed doctoral project concerns the intermedial strategies of National Theatre Live in reconstructing encounters with theatre for the screen. Other fields of interest include affect theory (especially the cultural representation and politics of negative affects), diaspora narratives on stage and screen, and adaptation studies.