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LIFT and the London 2012 Olympics: spectacular experiences
Get PDFIn 2012, London staged the Olympic Games and the associated Cultural Olympiad which produced the ‘London 2012’ Festival, funding a wide series of events including many of the London International Festival of Theatre’s (LIFT) productions. A decade on, this article considers the impact of these overlapping events during a period of unprecedent austerity in the United Kingdom, and how arts events might be considered to be colluding with the government’s own agenda. The connection between neoliberal governance with its programme of increased privatisation, rapid gentrification and opportunistic marketing of diversity is examined with reference to increasing nationalism through Olympiad displays together with the increasing influence of the ‘experience economy’ as defined by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore. Phoebe Patey-Ferguson is a Lecturer in Theatre and Social Change at Rose Bruford College. This is the second article for New Theatre Quarterly derived from Patey-Ferguson’s PhD on LIFT in its social, cultural and political context following ‘LIFT and the GLC versus Thatcher: London’s Cultural Battleground in 1981,’ published with an accompanying interview with LIFT’s founding Artistic Directors in Volume 36, Number 1, February 2020.
Key Terms: London International Festival of Theatre, festivals, Olympic Games, Cultural Olympiad, London 2012, experience economy, multiculturalism, sociology of theatre, spectacle
'From the Finishing School of Marisa Carnesky: Lessons in Doing It Together' in Obsessions of a Showwoman: The Performance Worlds of Marisa Carnesky, ed.
Get PDFThe London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) in Context, 1947-2016
Get PDFThis thesis maps the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) in its social, political, economic and cultural contexts from its inception in 1981 until 2016. Founded by Rose de Wend Fenton and Lucy Neal, LIFT established an innovative festival form that sought to create social, political and artistic change by presenting high-quality, avant-garde international theatre and performance throughout London. By locating the innovations of LIFT in the sociopolitical context of its creation and in direct relation to historical developments, it argues that international theatre festivals can act as catalysts for change through transforming ways of seeing and being, produced in and productive of the broader societal landscape.
Opening with a historical perspective on LIFT, this thesis first gives context to its emergence in the 1980s and the role of international theatre festivals as they were first introduced into the field of theatre. It then examines LIFT’s development through four decades up to the present day, examining its shifting positions in the field. Methodologically rooted in the framework of the sociology of the theatre, the thesis interweaves archival research and primary observations with an exploration of the sociological, economic and political factors that have driven the creation and evolution of international theatre festivals in Britain. The thesis explores the dominant influence of neoliberal ideology in all contemporary areas of British life, arguing that their principles interpenetrate the field of cultural production to the extent that limits the possibilities of festivals achieving their full social purpose. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of culture and Maria Shevtsova’s development of Bourdieu’s theory in relation to theatre, provides the theoretical frame of the thesis
Review: Life: LIVE!, by Lucy McCormick, Fierce Festival, Birmingham (UK), 19 October 2019
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To be a cult sensation you must aim for Hollywood-level stardom. In King Kong (1933), Fay Wray – who has spent the majority of her screen time screaming hysterically – dangles precariously as she is carried up the Empire State Building by the giant gorilla. This image is evoked by Dr Frank-N-Furter (‘What ever happened to Fay Wray? That delicate satin draped frame’) in an elaborately shonky ‘floor show’, which becomes the doomed finale of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Wet from ‘absolute pleasure’ in the pool, his mascara and signature heart tattoo have smeared across his skin as he is carried by Rocky up the cardboard RKO Tower, which topples and plunges them both a few feet to their deaths. King Kong used the most advanced stop-motion and model-building techniques of the day in scenes which, to a twenty-first century audience, add a layer of ridiculousness to the still heart-wrenching love story. In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the possibilities of what can be achieved by centring fantasy on a tight budget and schlocky-horror techniques means the work is both parody and tribute, never mocking what it loves but rather reworking it
'Live Art: Radicalism and Complicity in a Scene of Constraint', Contemporary Theatre Review, 34:3, (2025), pp. 231-250
Get PDFMaking Shit Happen: Queer Utility in Nightlife
No full textBetween 2016-2018, we were both involved in the management of queer venues alongside others where our arms plunged elbow-deep into toilets, grasping through London's sewer networks towards each other. Our roles sustained flows of effluence removal, drinks, patrons, money, performers, and queer effervescence. These labours bonded us as working class, queer academics, leading us to consider how we know queer nightlife through utilities that enact social processes. Our DIY queer nightlife methodology embraces gossip, embodied knowledge, and mess, examining shocks, blocks, and leaks as both material and metaphorical dynamics to trace how use and misuse intertwine in these spaces
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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