Exercising Freedom: An Arendtian clown training utopia

Göze Saner’s ‘Exercising Freedom: An Arendtian clown training utopia’ proposes a performance pedagogy that consists in exercises of/for freedom. Steering clear of approaches to training that claim to free a performer’s body or voice, Saner instead offers a close reading of political philosopher Hannah Arendt’s theatrical understanding of freedom and political action (particularly ‘Action’ in The Human Condition and “What is Freedom?” in Between Past and Future) to extract the skills and qualities required of an actor to publicly perform an action that is ‘wholly unexpected and unforeseen’ (Arendt 1960: 43), make a new beginning, reveal who they are as well as the cracks in systems that appear unchangeable and bring about the experience of freedom, not only for themselves, but also, and more importantly, for the witnesses. How does one train to perform the event of freedom in the Arendtian sense? Following the image of Greta Thunberg on her first school strike, the article investigates how a personal action can resonate historically and incite collective activism. Given the unique relationship between a single performer and multiple spectators, the solo genre resonates with Arendt’s description of freedom; however, it also raises specific challenges—particularly with respect to the neoliberalist celebration of a different kind of individual freedom and its influence on solo performance as a paradigm. Touching briefly upon solo documentary performance and solo autobiographical performance, the article arrives at clowning, as a solo form of training, acting and relating. Analysing Avner Eisenberg’s clown pedagogy as well as Alison Hodge’s core training, viewed here as clown training insofar as the ensemble becomes a space for solo emergence, the article formulates a training utopia that exercises—that is, rehearses, practises, educates, keeps working—an Arendtian freedom in action and thereby extends an invitation for all to be a Greta Thunberg

what happened to the tyrant

what happened to the tyrant is the performance outcome of a practice-based research project that builds on Göze Saner’s PhD on the archetype of the tyrant. Exploring the practical containers and methodologies that emerged during the PhD with other performers from different backgrounds, the project continues to examine the dynamics of remembering and forgetting underlying the actor’s engagement with archetype as well as to further investigate the relationship between clown and tyrant

the truth about the tyrant

the truth about the tyrant at University of Kent at Canterbury is a site-responsive reworking of the practical culmination of Göze Saner’s practice-based PhD research titled From Tyrant to Clown and Back: An Actor’s Practical Study of Archetype in Performance. Previously performed at the Boilerhouse Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, 12-13 June 2007, this fifty-minute devised solo promenade performance explores the archetype by playing with the dynamics of remembering and forgetting and by weaving through a multiplicity of moments and spaces, each of which draws on a central object and a specific mode of relationship between actor and spectator. Incorporating various tyrannical texts, moments, and physical forms, including Camus’ Caligula and Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Capitano Spavento’s lunch with Death and Henry Miller’s clown sitting at the foot of a ladder trying to bestow eternal bliss on his spectators, a precise way of sitting from a personal dream on ‘becoming’ the tyrant and the song of Xenophon’s tyrant forever needing to be loved, the piece archives the generici of the tyrant

Killing in the Name of…

No abstract available

Migrant Steps: Interview with Göze Saner

Migrant Steps is a theatre project that engages migrant women living in the UK and Europe. Starting from the figure of a travelling tortoise and combining methodologies such as psycho-geography, performance art, physical theatre and autobiographical writing, the project explores the participants’ relationship with the cities where they live

Becoming Tortoise: A Participatory Installation

Put on a pair of headphones, pick up an umbrella, strap a speaker to your ankle and take a step...out of the shell of a tortoise...onto unfamiliar floors...into the rain... through city streets. This installation utilises simple and repeatable interactions with sounds, objects, stories and instructions to investigate playful ways to document, contain and share practice as research. It explores the possibilities of playful enactive spaces to enhance storytelling and build emotional and embodied connections with others - characters, animals, archetypes, and strangers