This paper defines several components found in the mall performance from a theatre practitioners point of view in terms that are relative to our current explorations. The mall is a 'found' urban performance space. It is ambiguous as to whether it is public or private and is thus ideal for subversive use as a performance venue. The street theatre opens all the boundaries around class, age, gender, race etc., by using public space not designated for theatre. As the shopping mall becomes a global village phenomenon then performance using that space will join the Information Age.
Richard Schechner is referred to for his lifework in environmental theatre. He questions the relationship between the 'authorities' and the 'people' in locations such as the streets or malls. Umberto Eco makes a point, 'the larger the dominant system, the more distant it appears, the easier it is to trick, to subvert and the less effectively it can control those who move within it.' (Eco, 1986). From our architectural point of view, Peter Eisenman explored the idea that real and imagined meaning is inscribed at a location. Thus, semiotically the site of a performance can be read as a text authored by a historically determined by community practices. The site specific performance are very open to ambiguous readings.
All cities provide public space and the mall is one of them. Festivals sponsored by the dominant force often limited opportunity of sanctioned disruption. If a performance is outside of the dominant agenda it is then subversion.
The shopping mall as the cathedral of consumption area considered to have no historical reverberation, no palimpsest or no texture. They are a shrine of advertisement... the need... the now... look. The security forces restrict entrance to those who are unable to buy. To avoid expulsion for loitering, strategies of resistance are created such as window shopping, parading, hanging out and even shop lifting.
The paper ends with a series of thought provoking questions about the orthodox events versus the Queerville theatre. Ownership and possession through occupation.
First, the malls are trying desperately to have a history of a human side to them. This is by no means to interfere with its primary objective of commerce. Given that the power structure wants to have a human face, personal history, it is easy to find a middle ground to establish a performance space. To insult the venue or its owners will only lead to confrontation and expulsion (maybe the intended final act) so subtle texts are most likely to have immediate survival.
Page Created April 14, 1998
Page Last Updated April 14, 1998