{"id":201,"date":"2020-04-18T09:49:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-18T09:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/?p=201"},"modified":"2022-02-05T13:15:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T13:15:13","slug":"nora-the-big-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/nora-the-big-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nora. The Big Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Penelope Chatzidimitriou<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attis Theatre. Nora<\/em>, based on A Doll\u2019s House<\/em> by Henrik Ibsen, adapted and directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. Winter 2019 to Spring 2020, Athens, Greece.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In his adaptation of A Doll\u2019s House<\/em>, Theodoros Terzopoulos does away with realism in acting as well as setting. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Nora, a Modern \u201cMother Machine\u201d<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago in \u201cThe return to Dionysus: A tribute to Theodoros Terzopoulos,\u201d organized by the European Cultural Centre of Delphi in Greece, I embraced Olga Taxidou\u2019s trope of the \u201cMother Machine\u201d and her assumption that \u201c[the] fascination that tragedy has with mainly monstrous mothers may be the precondition, the grounds of its theatricality\u201d (44); that figures like Medea, Agave and Jocasta can be seen as manifestations of the \u201cMother Machine,\u201d which activate tragic theatricality. In the case of Theodoros Terzopoulos, I suggested the \u201cMother-Machine\u201d sets in motion awe-inspiring performances like Bacchae<\/em>, Antigone<\/em>, Medeamaterial<\/em>, Rockaby <\/em>and Jocasta<\/em>, impelling them in tragic directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Agave, the ultimate \u201cMother Machine,\u201d lifting her son\u2019s head. Bacchae<\/em> by Euripides, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos, Attis Theatre, Freiburg, 1987, performed by Sophia Michopoulou. Photo: Lothar Sitzek<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cMother Machine\u201d creates a caesura<\/em>, a cesarean section between maternity and natality, birth and rebirth, and it is there that the distinctive aesthetics of Attis Theatre\u2014its aesthetics of Violence and Cruelty, Mourning and Seduction\u2014can be seen to take shape. Among the characteristic women of Attis Theatre who activate the \u201cMother Machine,\u201d I am selectively recalling here the childless Yerma of the pre-Attis Theatre period, who opens, with her poetics of despair, the director\u2019s way to tragedy; the \u201cabsolute\u201d mother Agave, absolute in the sense that she is the agent of both birth and death; and the Beckettian Woman in Rockaby<\/em>, infant and mother together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Woman emerging from the cesarean section. Rockaby<\/em> by Samuel Beckett, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos, Attis Theatre, Athens, 2003, performed by Sophia Michopoulou. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In my discussion of the \u201cMother-Machine\u201d back in Delphi, I consciously left aside the \u201cmodern women\u201d of Attis Theatre, figures like Mademoiselle Julie (2008) and the Woman in Amor<\/em> (2013). Now, another \u201cmodern woman,\u201d Nora, has come to complete this set of three. Like Miss Julie and the Woman in Amor<\/em>, Nora is a new manifestation of the \u201cMother-Machine,\u201d who opens up a similar caesura<\/em>, making a similar incision which distinguishes maternity from natality; birth, that is, from the regenerating human capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Miss Julie\u2019s grand finale as she immerses in an archetypal endopsychic womb. Mademoiselle Julie<\/em> by August Strindberg, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos, Attis Theatre, Athens, 2008, performed by Sophia Hill. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Dead Zone and the Dangerous Doll<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This Nora<\/em> would not feel at home in a typically naturalistic, bourgeois living room. Instead, the diagonal space, designed by Terzopoulos, on which Nora (Sophia Hill), her husband Helmer (Antonis Myriagkos) and her creditor Krogstad (Tasos Dimas) perform, is the caesura<\/em>, the incision visualized. But this is a dead zone, a no-exit \u201chere,\u201d with its doors opening and closing only to trap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The minimalistic setting multiplies the iconic door of A Doll\u2019s House <\/em>to stress the social and existential impasse. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is a seductive Nora. But as is often the case in the theatre of Theodoros Terzopoulos, seduction \u201chides a burnt desire at its core\u201d (Terzopoulos 76, my translation). Thus, here Nora is not just attractive but a Woman of Seduction and Burnt Desire. As an unmotherly \u201cMother Machine,\u201d she opens a caesura<\/em> between birth and rebirth and thus causes hard tissue injuries in the flesh of the late-nineteenth-century realistic text. In this way, she stages a postdramatic Theatre of Seduction and Burnt Desire and makes the theatre experience a seductive process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The typical Ibsenian triangle in a game of Seduction. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Theatre as an art of Seduction takes place in the here and now, refuses realistic representation and analytical thinking. It rather prefers to challenge, fascinate and seduce; \u201cto lead,\u201d that is, \u201cthe other from his\/her truth\u201d (Baudrillard 82). Hence springs its dangerous force for those who are dedicated to decorum, the right and the truth. Such is the theatre of Terzopoulos, such is his Nora<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This Nora is a Seductive Doll. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This Nora is not \u201can innocent dolly\u201d but a \u201cdangerous doll\u201d (Hill), bringing to mind Jean Baudrillard\u2019s saying that \u201c[t]o seduce is to appear weak. To seduce is to render weak.\u201d She seduces and is seduced, manipulates and is manipulated. She consumes the latest cosmetics, presents and men (her complacent husband and her sarcastic, flirting creditor), and she is similarly consumed by them. She constantly buys and always pays off shopping, holiday and medical loans. Such \u201cvulgar\u201d commodity fetishism takes place on stage and eliminates the difference between living subjects and objects. All three characters are depicted as hoarders who sacrifice genuine desire and feelings to the \u201cgold fetish\u201d (Giouras 230\u201331, my translation). Similarly, they hide behind verbal fetishism to survive in their own inferno, in the Dead Zone where the narcissistic man is not different from the beast, the commodity, the living dead: \u201cInfernum continuum,\u201d exclaims Krogstad, giving a chuckle of both sarcasm and tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sophia Hill as Nora will attempt the great escape from this deathly zone. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Big Exit<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As maternal abject (Kristeva), a threatening maternal body (according to her husband), Nora will attempt the Big Exit when she realizes the Big Lie.  Where can she go, though? The breakdown of conventional power relationships neither implies easy management of the self nor gives an easy answer to questions of orientation and destination after the Exit. But as long as desire moves (d\u00e9sir mobile<\/em>), selfhood moves (one\u2019s \u201cI want to have\u201d and \u201cI want to be\u201d) (Pefanis 262).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The total blackness foreshadows Nora\u2019s big exit. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It is upon this mobility that Nora\u2019s Exit from the Dead Zone is designed. With her Exit, she transforms herself into a Chora <\/em>in the Platonic, ontological sense of the term as it is borrowed from Julia Kristeva, who gives it an additional semiotic\/linguistic\/structural meaning: \u201ca Chora, impulsive and sentimental,\u201d which prepares the structure of a new Language and a new Logos. As Chora<\/em>, Nora is not the unmotherly \u201cMother Machine\u201d anymore but motherly, an endopsychic womb, a place of birth for the new selfhood, \u201ca sign-place which carries our pre-linguistic process\u201d (Papapostolou 73, my translation). Hence, by and large, the postdramatic character of the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nora becoming a Chora, in search of utopia, the eu-topos inside her. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Above all, as Chora<\/em>, Nora shows theatre to be \u201can ongoing utopia.\u201d The two, the postdramatic character of the performance and its utopian vision, coincide in so far as theatre offers a promise for the end of power and the emergence of human freedom but no fulfilment, being  \u201ca rehearsal for social reformation\u201d (Pefanis 262, my translation). In that sense, the second caesura<\/em>, which Nora opens in the final, silent scene, her Big Exit from the Dead Zone, refashions the familiar, \u201cgives an elusive picture of the unspeakable,\u201d stresses the importance of d\u00e9sir mobile<\/em> not only for gendered relationships but for all human relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The dynamic distortion of the female in this photograph reflects the impressive finale. Photo: Johanna Weber<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And even if Nora\u2019s Big Exit signifies her Disappearance (the suggestion of suicide narrows the staged event), it does not eliminate the fact and value of desire as moving and motivating. Nora\u2019s disappearance is not a gesture of defeat and banishment but a meeting with Mourning and a dive into the Darkness that is part of the process of Metamorphosis, in the moving place of the endopsychic womb, in the Chora Nora<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the second caesura<\/em> that this \u201cmodern woman\u201d opens, this modern \u201cMother Machine\u201d of Attis Theatre, denies stitches and miracles (Krogstad\u2019s sarcastic, frenchified exclamation: \u201cMiracle!\u201d). Terzopoulos leaves the cesarean section open for us to look at the Abject with Artaudian archaic awe  (Kristeva 17\u20138).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Baudrillard, Jean. Seduction<\/em>. Translated by Brian Singer, New World Perspectives, 2001.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giouras, Thanasis [\u0393\u03ba\u03b9\u03bf\u03cd\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2, \u0398\u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03c3\u03b7\u03c2]. \u00ab\u03a4\u03bf \u03ba\u03b5\u03c6\u03ac\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03bf \u03c6\u03b5\u03c4\u03af\u03c7 \u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u00bb [\u201cThe Capital and Its Fetish\u201d]. \u03a4\u03b5\u03c4\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03b9\u03b1 \u039c\u03b1\u03c1\u03be\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03cd [<\/em>Tetradia Marxismou]<\/em>, vol. 5, 2017\u201318, pp. 225\u201342.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taxidou, Olga. \u201cTragedy: Maternity, Natality, Theatricality.\u201d Performing Antagonism. Theatre, Performance and Radical Democracy<\/em>, edited by Tony Fisher and Eve Katsouraki, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 43\u201359.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terzopoulos, Theodoros [\u03a4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b6\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, \u0398\u03b5\u03cc\u03b4\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2]. \u0397 <\/em>\u03b5<\/em>\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c6\u03ae \u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u0394\u03b9\u03cc\u03bd\u03c5\u03c3\u03bf\u03c5<\/em> [The Return of Dionysus]<\/em>. Athens, Attis Theatre, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hill, Sophia [\u03a7\u03b9\u03bb\u03bb, \u03a3\u03bf\u03c6\u03af\u03b1]. Interview. \u00ab\u0392\u03c1\u03af\u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c0\u03ac\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c3\u03b5 \u03ad\u03bd\u03b1\u03bd \u03b5\u03c3\u03c9\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03bf \u03bc\u03b5 \u03c4\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03c1\u03cc\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2 \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5<\/a>\u00bb [\u201cI \u0391m Always in Internal Dialogue with \u039cy Roles\u201d], culturenow.gr<\/em>, 20 Mar. 2019. Accessed 8 Mar. 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection<\/em>. Translated by Leon S. Roudiez, Columbia UP, 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Papapostolou, Petros [\u03a0\u03b1\u03c0\u03b1\u03c0\u03bf\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5, \u03a0\u03ad\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2]. \u00ab\u0397 \u03c0\u03bb\u03b1\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae \u03ad\u03bd\u03bd\u03bf\u03b9\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u2018\u03a7\u03ce\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2\u2019. \u03a6\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c3\u03bf\u03c6\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae, \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03bb\u03c5\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b8\u03b5\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03ad\u03b3\u03b3\u03b9\u03c3\u03b7\u00bb [\u201cThe Platonic Concept of \u2018Chora\u2019. Philosophical, Psychoanalytic and Theological Approach\u201d]. \u0395\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2<\/em> <\/em>[<\/em>Enateniseis<\/em>]<\/em>, vol. 22, January\u2013June 2014, pp. 73\u20134.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pefanis, Yiorgos P. [\u03a0\u03b5\u03c6\u03ac\u03bd\u03b7\u03c2, \u0393\u03b9\u03ce\u03c1\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u03a0.]. \u00ab\u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 \u03ad\u03bc\u03c6\u03c5\u03bb\u03b7\u03c2 \u03b5\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2 \u03c3\u03c4\u03bf \u03b8\u03ad\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf. \u03a5\u03c0\u03bf\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1, \u03c4\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c1\u03cc\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9\u00bb [\u201cPerformances of Gendered Otherness in Theatre: Subjects, Identities and Roles\u201d]. \u03a0\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2<\/em> <\/em>[<\/em>Paravasis]<\/em>, vol. 10, 2010, pp. 257\u201377. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*<\/a>Penelope Chatzidimitriou <\/strong>(MA in Theatre Studies, Royal Holloway University of London; PhD in Theatre Studies, English Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki). Doctoral research in the complete opus of the internationally acclaimed Greek theatre director Theodoros Terzopoulos; collaboration with Attis Theatre (Athens) as a scholar; interest in modern directors, performance and performance art. In 2010, she published (in Greek) her book on the work of Theodoros Terzopoulos. Other publications are included in editions of Bloomsbury Methuen Drama<\/em>, China Theatre Press<\/em>, Cambridge Scholars Publishing<\/em>, Theatre der Zeit<\/em>, etc. She lives and works in Thessaloniki as a theatre lecturer and critic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2020 Penelope Chatzidimitriou
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Creative<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performance-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/PER-NoraPen-Photo-4-Miss-Julie.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/on-migration-towards-europe-simple-as-abc3-the-wild-hunt-by-thomas-bellinck\/","url_meta":{"origin":201,"position":0},"title":"On Migration towards Europe. Simple as ABC#3: The Wild Hunt by Thomas Bellinck","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"April 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Garcia Martinez Manuel* Abstract Simple as ABC#3: The Wild Hunt, directed by the Belgian director Thomas Bellink, evokes illegal migration to Europe, which has been taking place since the so-called Arab Spring of 2011. The show criticizes the attitude of rejection adopted by European countries toward migrants. 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As a jury member, Christine Matvienko saw the productions before the pandemic. Russian theatre before the pandemic was diverse and interesting both in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Performance Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Performance Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/performance-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/PER-Rusbefore-The-Storm.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/PER-Rusbefore-The-Storm.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/PER-Rusbefore-The-Storm.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/05\/PER-Rusbefore-The-Storm.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/its-everyday-bro-youtube-authenticity-and-the-psychopathology-of-late-capitalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":201,"position":5},"title":"“It’s Everyday, Bro”: YouTube, \u201cAuthenticity,\u201d and the Psychopathology of Late Capitalism","author":"Penelope Chatzidimitriou","date":"May 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Eaket* Abstract Within Theatre and Performance Studies, terms like \u201cliveness\u201d or \u201c(co-)presence\u201d are keywords that encapsulate entire debates within the discipline that have played out over time; negotiations of meaning enacted through academic, performative usage. I want to examine the medium of YouTube (2005+) and, more specifically, Shane Dawson\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Essays","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/category\/essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2020\/04\/image6.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}