A grotesque act of ventriloquism: Raising and objectifying the dead on stage | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 8, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2049-3010
  • E-ISSN: 2049-3029

Abstract

As a real-life figure who was extensively written about in medical journals after his death, but whose voice is entirely absent from the historical record, the character of Tarrare presents the theatre-maker with a number of ethical and artistic considerations. In documenting Tarrare’s life through puppetry and opera, Wattle and Daub engaged in both a literal and a metaphorical act of ventriloquism, wherein we put our own words into the mouths of the dead. Drawing on Levinas’s ethics of the ‘other’ and Salverson’s reflections on the ethics of documentary theatre, this article interrogates as an example of documentary theatre and explores the unique opportunities and challenges presented when using puppetry to represent the historical ‘other’.

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2020-07-01
2024-05-02
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): documentary theatre; ethics; historical drama; opera; puppetry; the ‘other’
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