Forum Modernes Theater
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0930-5874
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Narr Verlag Tübingen
Es handelt sich um einen Open-Access-Artikel, der unter den Bedingungen der Lizenz CC by 4.0 veröffentlicht wurde.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/0601
2011
261-2
BalmePerforming the Precarious
0601
2011
Katharina Pewny
In the last decade, the “precarious” – meaning the uncertain, unstable – was conceived as a theoretical concept in philosophy, sociology, and art theory. The changing working conditions in theNew Economy, theworldwide economic crash in the autumn of 2008 and the increasing poverty are frequently staged in contemporary theatre, performance, and dance. Texts and stagings of Berlin-based author and director René Pollesch and Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009) by Tokyo-based author and director Toshiki Okada are performances of the precarious that stabilize the unstable ground of precariousness, at least temporarily.
fmth261-20043
Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre (René Pollesch, Toshiki Okada) Prof. Dr. Katharina Pewny (Ghent University) In the last decade, the “ precarious ” - meaning the uncertain, unstable - was conceived as a theoretical concept in philosophy, sociology, and art theory. The changing working conditions in the New Economy, the worldwide economic crash in the autumn of 2008 and the increasing poverty are frequently staged in contemporary theatre, performance, and dance. Texts and stagings of Berlin-based author and director René Pollesch and Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009) by Tokyo-based author and director Toshiki Okada are performances of the precarious that stabilize the unstable ground of precariousness, at least temporarily. 1. Academic and Activist Discourses on the Precarious The word “ precarious ” can be traced back to the French adjective précaire, which in turn originates from the Latin word precarius, meaning “ sensitive, difficult ” (Pewny 2009: 30 - 47[? 2011? ein 2009 ist nicht angegeben, DF). In 2004, Judith Butler launched an influential discourse on vulnerability as a human ontology of precariousness (Butler 2004). Her thoughts have been referenced in theatre and dance studies and in performances that deal with war and other traumatic events (Burt 2008). The term “ precarious ” , as it has been developed in activist and sociological discourses, includes several aspects. It embraces human vulnerability arising from unsecured, precarious working conditions within current economic developments, as well as bodily vulnerability. A person living under precarious conditions is subjected to changes within her working and living conditions that she does not have power over. Despite all their political, social, and economic differences, the “ multiple loci of Europe ” (Chakrabarty 2000: 17) provide comparatively wealthy and secure contexts of living — at least for those who hold a European passport. However, the economic shift from Fordism to post-Fordism from the 1970 s onwards set a destabilization of living and working conditions in motion. An increasing number of people, also from what was formerly known as the “ middle class ” , conduct free-lance work and therefore live under precarious conditions (Bologna 2006: 97 - 106). Precarious working and living conditions can mean discontinuities of income, of social security, of legal status, and thus of planning one ’ s life and future. Unstable working situations, such as part-time employment and free-lance work, are thus being called “ precarious ” work. For the most part, precarious work is not backed by institutional resources and power mechanisms and it also lacks institutional rites de passages such as celebrations for starting a new job, work anniversaries, and retirement. Changes in precarious working situations have to be experienced and lived through individually rather than collectively. Precarity is a new norm that has moved from the peripheries of (European) societies to their centres. Many temporary work situations demand skills traditionally important for work in the arts, such as creativity, Forum Modernes Theater, 26 (2011 [2014]), 43 - 52. Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen excellent self-performativity and flexibility. This is an aspect of the dialectic entanglement that art and work have been engaged in since the early 1990 s: aspects of free time and “ play ” increasingly enter the working environment of the New Economy (Haunschild 2009: 153). The theatre, in particular, has become paradigmatic for precarious working and living conditions. Because “ play ” differentiates the performing arts from other art forms, “ the connection of play and work in the theatre serves as an exemplary standard ” (ibid. 154). Simultaneously, there are increasing demands on those working in the arts and especially theatre to conform to the laws of the market. Therefore, the work of theatre makers and performers serves as a model of precarious working life, not only for other freelance academics, cultural workers, and artists in the New Economy, but also far beyond that. Consequently, people living under precarious conditions have started to discuss their living and working situations in publications, in visual media, on the Internet, and at public gatherings. The French writers Anne and Marine Rambach ’ s book Les Intellos précaires initiated debates on precariousness in 2001 (Rambach 2001). They spread rapidly from France to other Midand Western European countries such as Germany, Spain, and Italy. In 2003, the German-Swiss theorist and artist collective Kleines postfordistisches Drama released the video Kamera läuft (Camera rolling, in which the collective stages casting situations with performers who read texts on precarious work. The texts consist of samples from previously conducted interviews with the producers and their friends. Looking for an alternative to the unionled strike that took place in Madrid in 2003, a Spanish feminist network launched the video Precarias a la Deriva (2005) on the precarious lives of both migrant and Spanish women in 2004. Both videos create visual identities that make the working and living methods of their producers visible, and they perform a “ narration of the self ” , which Richard Sennett claims is a strategy for coping with the insecurities of New Capitalism (Sennett 2006). Both these videos were circulated widely within the discussion forums surrounding precarious work in the last decade. Closely linked to political activism and anti-globalization networks, precarious subjects have extensively produced representations of themselves and of the fictive saint “ San Precario ” on the Internet and at public demonstrations, including the “ Mayday! ” protests each year on May 1 st . Despite the transnational similarities among the precarious working and living conditions in many European and other Western contexts, there are some differences to be noted. Performances of precariousness in German-speaking countries, such as the video Kamera läuft! , focus mainly on the problems of time management, on the constant pressure to be creative, and on the lack of institutional resources. The pressing issues featured in the French and Spanish contexts are, for example, lack of money, acute poverty, and the precarious situation of migrants and other sans papiers. In this way, some social differences within Europe and the broad range of meanings of the term precarious become visible. 2. Performing the Precarious in European Theatre (René Pollesch) The effects of the increasingly destabilized living situations for both individuals and social groups, and possible artistic strategies that emerge from them, have been readily present in Western European theatre and performance from the mid-1990 s until today. Many of these representations have taken on different aesthetic forms, ranging from traditional spoken-word theatre to 44 Katharina Pewny intermedial performances. Some examples of this are the KVS Express Armwoede/ Pauvérité/ Poverty festival at the Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg Brussels in January 2011, the inter-artistic campaign Pimp Your Poverty, launched by the Gentian Arts University in March 2010, or the video Between the Chairs (2006), a filmic interview by Jorge Léon with Ronald Burchi, a migrant dancer who used to work in Meg Stuart ’ s company Damaged Goods. Thomas Mann ’ s novel Buddenbrooks, a story about the decline of a wealthy North German merchant family, was adapted for the stage by wellknown author John von Düffel in 2005 and, in 2006, shown at five big theatres in Germany. Elfriede Jelinek has re-written William Shakespeare ’ s Merchant of Venice for her post-crisis play Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns (The Merchant ’ s Contracts, 2009). Sabenation (2004), a production by the director ’ s collective Rimini Protokoll, revisits the bankruptcy of Belgian Sabena Airlines. By staging his own precarious situation as a dancer in Perform Performing (2004/ 2005) and extensively touring with it in Europe and Asia, dancer Jochen Roller turned his unstable working conditions into full-time employment, as he is now dance dramaturge at the renowned Hamburg performance venue Kampnagel. Consequently, Roller sold his own performance at the Kampnagel summer festival in 2009, entitled Wir können uns nicht aus der Krise shoppen (We cannot window-shop our way out of the crisis, 2009).. One of the best-known theatre makers, who has successfully transformed his own precarious living and working conditions into a flourishing career, is René Pollesch. Pollesch ’ s own career is an example for the “ successful ” integration of “ work ” and “ play ” within the New Economy (see Haunschild above). René Pollesch received his degree from the Institut für Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft (Institute for Applied Theatre Studies) at Justus Liebig University in Gießen, Germany. Between 1994 and 1998, he was unemployed and worked in low-income jobs, until his breakthrough with the Heidi Hoh- Trilogy (1999 - 2001). In 1999 and 2000, René Pollesch was the writer-in-residence at the Lucerne Theatre in Switzerland, and at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. Since 2001 he has been the artistic director of the “ Prater an der Volksbühne ” at the Rosa- Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin. It is here that he has produced several of his theatre texts, including Stadt als Beute (The City as Loot, 2002), Insourcing des Zuhause - Menschen in Scheißhotels (Insourcing the Home - People in Crap Hotels) (2001), and Sex (2003). In the following years, Pollesch received prestigious theatre awards for a number of his many texts and performances. In 2001 and 2006, his pieces world wide web-slums and Cappucetto Rosse were awarded the Mühlheimer playwright prize, in 2002 he was critics ’ choice for best German playwright in Theater heute, and in 2007 he was awarded the Nestroy Theatre Prize in Vienna. Pollesch ’ s theatre texts actively engage with a corpus of post-structuralist studies, including the work of Michel Foucault, Donna Haraway, Judith Butler, Boris Groys, and Giorgio Agamben. The author shows the dissolution of traditional images of bodies, families, sexual order, and privacy within post-capitalism (e. g. Die Welt zu Gast bei reichen Eltern (A Time for Rich Parents to Host the World, 2009). 1 Here, he shows how all these things are saturated with the necessity and the prescription of accumulating capital. Since Pollesch doesn ’ t depict reality, but rather shows mechanisms used to construct it, the figures on stage in his productions refrain from expressing feelings or inner conflicts. Instead, his texts are made up of numerous variations and repetitions of citations taken from theory, film, and other media, of complex sentences using academic language and of banal phrases, which the 45 Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre actors/ actresses would scream on stage in his early performances. His sets, which are frequently made by Berlin-based stage designer Bert Neumann, have large screens that often show scenes taking place behind the back wall, i. e. offstage. In the following, I will show the ways in which precarious work and work in the theatre is a recurrent theme in Pollesch ’ s pieces. This will provide the basis for discussing how the citations in his work can offer an alternative to the phenomenon of wholesale capitalization. One of the recurrent themes throughout Pollesch ’ s work is the unstable working situation of cultural workers and actresses. In the trilogy Heidi Hoh (1999 and 2003), the protagonist Heidi Hoh appears as a prototype of precarious life within the New Economy of the 1990 s. She works in the service industry. Her living space is also her workplace, which transforms into a Mercedes- Benz dealership during the performance. The following sentences are exemplary for the Heidi Hoh-Trilogy: “ It looks like a Daimler or Chrysler terminal ” (Heidi Hoh 1, 1999: 89), “ economic processes affect spaces and bodies ” (ibid.: 93). Adaptability is a trait of the hybrid cyborg figure Heidi Hoh, who leads her life according to the demands for flexibility placed on cultural entrepreneurs. While some theorists view the bodies of the performers in Heidi Hoh as the last means of resistance and ambiguous sexuality against the overwhelming influence of capitalization (see Bergmann 2009: 205), I argue that the bodies Pollesch stages are not situated outside of these powers, but merely resources of mediatization and economization. In Pollesch ’ s theatre, no stable identities or bodily materialities exist that could challenge the realities outside. He consistently bases his texts and stagings on his own experiences of precariousness as a theatre maker. This decision is an ethical one, as Pollesch states, for it is not about creating representations of an absent “ other ” or about staging a voyeuristic gaze on those “ affected ” , as in participatory theatre (Pollesch in conversation with Hegemann, 2006: 103 ff ). In Der Tod eines Praktikanten (Death of an Intern, 2007), a piece about the invisibility of the unpaid work of an intern, the daily fees actresses Inga Busch, Christine Groß, and Nina Kronjäger receive for their work are printed in large numbers on their white dresses that resemble bridal gowns. Speaking about Der Tod eines Praktikanten in an interview, the author reflects on the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of different stagings of poverty and precarity (Barnett 2006: 32). Consequently, the precarious working conditions in the theatre itself are a recurrent theme in Pollesch ’ s later theatre work. In Seid hingerissen von euren tragischen Verhältnissen (Be delighted by your tragic circumstances, 2008), Pollesch directed an acting class at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. This time around, he focused on the institutional aspects of art education. He further explored this topic in Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in uniform, 2009), wherein he arranged the young actresses as a chorus, accentuating their commodification within their education and professional futures. Pollesch ’ s reflections on the economy of the theatre are taken to another level in Fantasma (Phantasm, 2008), which was his first production after the financial crisis began in the autumn of 2008. Fantasma takes place in, and in front of, a haunted house where a theatre troupe was murdered. Against the backdrop of the disappearance of the actors ’ corpses, love scenes take place that invoke heterosexual conventions and their direct association with economic factors. The protagonists Sofie Rois and Martin Wuttke take turns repeating the sentence: “ You invested a lot in me and [. . .] and probably stopped loving me because of some rumor on the stock market. ” This statement about how this love came to an 46 Katharina Pewny end is followed by the question “ Why did China and the Soviet Union change over to capitalism? ” Both (unanswered) questions point out the interchangeability and thus the commoditized quality of political and economic systems and of romantic partners. Love is as insecure as economic-political systems, because it, too, can come to an end at any time, for inexplicable reasons. Pollesch connects the capitalized rhetoric of love with reflections on two mechanisms used in theatre production, which are his own citation-based style of writing and the theatrical performance situation. In Fantasma, the (theatre) text appears as an alternative to the precarity of love and economy. It includes sentences like: “ The medium money has to be overwritten with the medium language ” or, “ language contains the phantasm that could perhaps bestow experience ” . 2 Text, or more precisely, text that does not come from one ’ s own pen, enables contact: “ We can only touch each other with sentences that aren ’ t our own. ” Contact by way of citation, a mechanism that theatre writer Pollesch employs, creates intimacy both on stage (between Rois and Wuttke) and between the stage and the audience. A kiss between Rois and Wuttke makes the reality status of their encounter an issue: “ I only do this in the performance. ” When Rois acts like a diva, referencing Ernst Lubtisch ’ s Film Madame Dubarry (1919), she brings up a “ friend ” of hers “ in the performance ” (in der Vorstellung). The German word Vorstellung means both “ performance ” and “ imagination ” . The banter merges seamlessly from musings about a “ friend ” into directly referencing the audience. Rois: “ They ’ re only sitting there so they can be with me. ” Pollesch ’ s Fantasma ends by talking about the audience ’ s love for the actors and actresses. The entire ensemble, along with the stage crew, comes on stage, swinging their arms and singing a love song by Milton Drake, a composer of nightclub, theatre, and film music. The song praises the role that the imagination plays for love, the chorus line reads: “ If it ’ s me/ I ’ ll be in heaven/ If it ’ s you. ” René Pollesch ’ s works perform the precarious in two aspects: he stages the precarious work of the theatre maker and, like many other post-dramatic plays, his theatre work itself is precarious, in the sense that staging the transitory cannot take place on stable ground. Pollesch ’ s theatre is not merely a self-reflective rendition of a theatre maker ’ s precarious life that only applies to a small number of cultural entrepreneurs. Rather, his performances are more broadly valid because they show precarious work as a new norm for working and living in post- Fordism. The recourse to previously existing texts in Fantasma allows an image of love to emerge that points to much more than the precarity of capitalization. 3. Performing the Precarious in Japanese Theatre (Toshiki Okada) In addition to the above-mentioned performances of the precarious by European-based artists, there was another performance of the precarious on tour in Europe in the 2009/ 2010 theatre season: Toshiki Okada ’ s Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009). In this section, I will first introduce the author and the piece, and then take a look at the similarities and differences in Pollesch ’ s and Okada ’ s aesthetic strategies. Playwright, prose writer, and director Toshiki Okada was born in 1973. In 1997 he founded the theatre company Chelfitsch in Tokyo. His first production to receive international attention was Five Days in March (2004), a story about the first five days of war against Iraq in 2003, which Japan also took part in. In 2005, Okada received the prestigious Kishida Kunio Drama Award for this production. Okada ’ s later productions were shown in Japan, Europe, and the USA. 47 Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre In 2009, he directed the Tokyo production of Tattoos, written by German author Dea Loher. In October 2009, Okada ’ s most recent production Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech premiered at the Berliner Theater Hebbel am Ufer (HAU). The next year, the production began touring Japan and Europe, and has been shown in Tokyo, Kyoto, Brussels, Lisbon, Hannover, Ljubljana, Barcelona, Hamburg, Paris, and Modena. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech is based on three of Okada ’ s theatre texts. The texts incorporate John Cage ’ s “ Sonatas ” and “ Interludes For Prepared Piano ” , as well as other music pieces by Tortoise, Stereolab, and John Coltrane. The rhythm of the speech matches the rhythm of the music, both in the script, where the minutes and seconds of the musical score have been transferred to the text, and in the performance. The piece interweaves elements of theatre with spoken word monologues and dance consisting of non-narrative patterns of movement. There is a clear plot that leads to temp worker “ Erika ’ s ” layoff, despite its interruption by the middle scene, entitled Air Conditioner. The three scenes are separated by brief blackouts, and there is no change in the very minimalist stage set made up of a table and four chairs. Alienation effects recur repeatedly in the piece, such as the announcement: “ We ’ re going to do this piece called ‘ Air Conditioner ’ now ” (Okada n. d.: 7). The alienating work environment is represented by the physical effects of the cold in the office, which match the theatrical alienation effects in the piece. The first part, Hot Pepper, consists of ten scenes. In the script these scenes are superimposed by the corresponding musical pieces, such as “ Sonata, Interlude, ” and are separated by a blackout and a short intermission during the performance. In this part, the three temporary workers - “ Temp. 1, 2, and 3 ” - plan a farewell party for their colleague Erika. They discuss the choice of food and if the full-time employees should chip in more than the temporary workers, who expect to be laid off soon themselves. The figures don ’ t explicitly respond to one another, instead they come back to and elaborate on issues that were already touched upon in the piece. In each scene, there are two temporary workers sitting at a table eavesdropping on the third ’ s monologue. In the second part, Air Conditioner, the full-time employees discuss the physical effects of the coldness in the office. “ Man ” and “ Woman, ” the “ full-time workers ” , face each other reciting short monologues, which often recur, similar to the speech held in the first part. The three temporary workers sit at the table and watch. In the third part, The Farewell Speech, Erika turns toward the other performers and holds her farewell speech; once again, a performance situation is recreated on stage. Each of the three parts of the play shows the farewell party and the workers chatting during break, which are institutionalized rituals of the contemporary work life, for the spectators both on and off stage. In 2009 and 2010, Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech was shown at prominent theatre festivals in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. These are also the European countries where lively debates and links between activist art and precarious working and living situations have been emerging since the turn of the century. Although the play ’ s success may easily be attributed to a growing interest in performances of the precarious in European contexts, the reasons for its success are much more far-reaching. The interest in the play is a result of the globalized theatre audience in Europe being able to identify with the precarious (theatre) figures in Japan. The audience-focused dramaturgy of the play creates a specific dynamic relationship between difference and similarity for a European audience. I will begin by explaining trans- 48 Katharina Pewny continental difference as emphasized in the play and then discuss the construction of similarity in the play ’ s media reception. The spoken text is in Japanese, while the English translation is projected onto the rear wall of the stage. 3 In this way, English appears as a global means of communication, even in non-English speaking countries like Spain or Germany. The trans-cultural dramaturgy that is taking place here is not between “ Japan ” and another national linguistic community, as one might assume at first glance. Instead, it is a dramaturgical mediation between a local situation and the audience living in a globalized knowledge society. The necessity of this dramaturgical mediation is underscored in the performance, for instance, when in addition to the translations, the Wikipedia explanation of “ Motsu hot pot ” , a special kind of soup (Okada n. d.: 1), is projected onto the wall. This means that it is not primarily socially disadvantaged precarious subjects who are being addressed, but rather the globalized cultural entrepreneurs, European nomads, and highly skilled workers (Janjar 2010: 24). If they identify with the theatre figures, which economic and social situations can they relate to themselves? Until the mid-1990 s there was near full employment in Japan, unemployment rates then rose to 5.4 %, and since autumn 2008 the unemployment rate among young people has risen to a staggering 20 % (Mitani 2008: 110). The drastic decline of full-time employment has meant an increase in the precarious working and living conditions of one fifth of the gainfully employed youth in Japan. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech highlights this remarkable decline in its story line and dramaturgy of the audience. While the three temp workers show their surprise when they hear that Erika has been fired despite her excellent qualifications, the following explanation is projected onto the screen: “ Temp-cutting refers to the massive layoffs that occurred in response to the global financial crisis in November of 2008, when automobile companies and household electronics companies abruptly terminated large-scale contracts with agencies that provided temp workers and the resulting dismissals/ hiring freeze of such workers ” (Okada n. d.: 3). In an interview, Toshiki Okada stresses that the Japanese situation is unique, as he speaks about the painful disillusionment regarding a secure future for the generation born around 1975. Despite the specific economic and social situation in Japan, the European press emphasizes that precarity, and therefore isolation, is a worldwide phenomenon. Jackie Fletcher of the British Theatre Guide sees in Hot Pepper a “ global ” generation with a communication deficiency (cf. Fletcher). In the Viennese press the play is described as a “ hell, where crisis capitalism — along with its accompanying effects of consumerism, unemployment, and, loss of reality — have begun to sway ” (Ploebst 2010). Not one review mentions Okada ’ s message about the specificity of the location or the job market in Japan. The European media keep silent about Japan ’ s economic development. I argue that the press reactions are entangled in mechanisms of the representation of the “ Asian ” in European culture and art. Rimini Protokoll ’ s performance Sabenation (kustenfestivaldesarts Brussels 2004) also has an “ Asian ” figure that is brought into relation with the economic development, specifically with the dismissed workers of the Belgian Sabena Airlines. Founded in 1923 for flights to the colony of the Belgian Congo, when Sabena Airlines closed down in 2001, it was a symbol of the economic downturn of the post-colonial nation state Belgium, the seat of the European Union. In Sabenation, the figure of Deborah Reitanos, the Vietnamese-born, adoptive daughter of former Sabena stewardess Miriam Reitanos, stands in stark contrast to the fired Sabena 49 Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre employees. She emerges as a savior figure in the economic crisis. In 2010, six years after the world premiere of Sabenation and one implosion of the global economy later, Hot Pepper ’ s Erika stands for people who, despite being employed in Japan, an Asian country that until recently was still an economic power, still live precariously. If Deborah Reitanos was still a model for a successful future, that was to lead Europe beyond itself and towards the dream of a flourishing economy based on the Asian model, then Erika and her colleagues are mirror images of global precarious life. “ Asia ” is a metaphor for economic development — as a role model and as a daunting example (cf. Ploebst above). Are the dynamics between difference and similarity that Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech offers the audience based on “ othering ” “ the Asian ” ? In the USA, the “ Asian ” is often employed as a cultural symbol in the service of fabricating a national identity (Shimakawa 2002: 5). However, in European reviews of Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech, it is used to mirror the precarious subjects that inhabit the globalized and thus spatially flexible territories of knowledge societies. This precariousness differs from the complex layers of insecurity that sans papiers and other illegalized migrants face, which are documented in the Spanish feminist video Precarias a la Deriva. The precariousness that is touched upon in Okada ’ s work corresponds more to the nomadic and flexible working and living situation of the intellectual workers who are portrayed in the German-Swiss video Kamera läuft. The possibility of identification with the temp workers in Okada ’ s theatre piece, which some European press reviews have suggested, thus offers imaginary relief from the pressure of success and flawless self-performance for a European audience that inhabits the rather privileged knowledge-based society. The notion of a collective identity of (potentially) precarious subjects in Europe is sustained by the imaginary identification with the tragic heroes of precarity in Japan. This notion, however, does not represent the multiple layers of precariousness in the sense of the physical and mental vulnerability that people without European passports are exposed to. 4. Transforming the Precarious through Performance René Pollesch explicitly references the reality of his own living and working situation in the theatre. Though Toshiki Okada takes his generation as a starting point, he does not bring the work in the theatre on stage. Both artists have been exceptionally successful, and they both stabilize the fundamental instability of the precarious by transforming it into successful speech acts. 4 In his public appearances and in interviews, René Pollesch embodies the ultimate transformation from a precarious theatre studies graduate into a financially settled, renowned director. In his work, precariousness functions as a model and as a new norm in (Western) Europe; in Okada ’ s work, precariousness serves as a model as well, owing to its reception in Europe as something global. These performances of the precarious are successful speech acts (Austin 1962: 8 f ), because they reference recognized social institutions and rituals. Pollesch quotes recognized academic texts, while Okada incorporates precarious working situations into the institutionalized rituals of working life. These theatrical performances do not refer to the more complex levels of insecurity in the precarious living and working situations of those illegalized and migrant persons portrayed in the video Las Precarias and in the online representation of the fictive saint “ San Precario ” . The success of both theatre makers and their performances of the precarious can thus be 50 Katharina Pewny read as exceptions of a few privileged (male) subjects who inhabit the territory of the globalized knowledge society. However, it can also be read as a “ tactic of the weak ” (de Certeau 2000), in the face of a globalized economy that does not value art for what it is and thus measures its value solely as a product of trans-cultural exchange and as an ironic model, where precarity features as the new norm. Notes 1 Translation: Celeste Osborn and Erika Doucette The title of the play is a reference to the slogan of the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006: Die Welt zu Gast bei Freunden, literally meaning “ The world visiting friends, ” but which was widely translated as “ A time to make friends. ” - Trans. 2 The following quotes reference my performance notes from a showing at Akademietheater Vienna, 30 January 2009. 3 Here, I am referring to the performance in Kampnagel Hamburg on 26 August 2010. 4 In this way, theater performances of the precarious differ from the notion of “ precarious art ” within the fine art context, which affirms the unstable ground of precariousness (Bourriaud 2009) Sources cited: John L. Austin. How To Do Things With Words. Oxford, 1962. Jürgen Berger. Von Nichts kommt nichts - was macht die Krise mit dem Theater, das Theater mit der Krise? http: / / www.goethe.de/ kue/ the/ tst/ de6426613.htm, 13.10 2010. David Barnett. “ Political Theatre in a Shrinking World: René Pollesch´s Postdramatic Practices on Paper and on Stage ” . Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol 16(1), (2006). 31 - 40. Franziska Bergmann. “ Die Dialektik der Postmoderne in Theatertexten von René Pollesch ” . Eds. Franziska Schößler, Christine Bähr, Ökonomie im Theater der Gegenwart. Ästhetik, Produktion, Institution. Bielefeld, 2009. 193 - 209. Sergio Bologna. Die Zerstörung der Mittelschichten. Thesen zur neuen Selbständigkeit. Graz, 1996. Nicolas Bourriaud, “ Precarious Constructions. An Answer to Jacques Rancière on Art and Politics. ” in: Jorinde Seijdel (Edd), A Precarious Existence. Vulnerability in the Public Domain. open No. 17. Rotterdam 2009, pp. 20 - 40. Judith Butler. Precarious Life. The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London/ New York, 2004. Dispeh Chakrabarty. Provincializing Europe. Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton/ Oxford, 2000. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley 2000. Jackie Fletcher. “ Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2010 ” . The British Theatre Guide. http: / / www.britishtheatreguide.info/ articles/ 020610.htm. 12. 10. 2010. Axel Haunschild. “ Ist Theaterspielen Arbeit? ” Ökonomie im Theater der Gegenwart. Ästhetik, Produktion, Institution. Eds. Franziska Schößler, Christine Bähr Bielefeld, 2009. 141 - 157. Mohammed-Sghir Janjar. “ Moslims zijn geen machines ” .De groene Amsterdammer. 18.11.. 2010.24 - 28. Naoki Mitani. “ Youth Employment in Japan after the 1990 s Bubble Burst ” .Young Workers in the Global Economy. Job Challenges in North America, Europe and Japan. Ed. Gregory De Freitas. Cheltenham/ Massachusetts, 2008.109 - 139. Toshiki Okada. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, The Farewell Speech. unpublished Manuscript, Courtesy of the Artist. Katharina Pewny. Das Drama des Prekären. Über die Wiederkehr der Ethik in Theater und Performance. Bielefeld, 2011. Helmut Ploebst. “ Ciao, Erika! Hallo, Wahnsinn! ” Der Standard, 17. 06. 2010. René Pollesch. “ Heidi Hoh ” . Reproduktionskonten fälschen. Eds. Pauline Boudry, Brigitta Kuster, Renate Lorenz Berlin, 1999. 88 - 97. Idem. “ Heidi Hoh II ” .ibid. 164 - 177. 51 Performing the Precarious. Economic Crisis in European and Japanese Theatre Idem. “ Heidi Hoh arbeitet hier nicht mehr ” . www-slums.29 - 103. Pollesch in conversation with Carl Hegemann. “ Liebe, von der man sich selbst erzählt ” .Die Überflüssigen. Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Ed. Die Überflüssigen. Berlin, 2006. 100 - 138. Precarias a la Deriva. A Very Careful Strike - Four Hypotheses. Madrid, 2005. Anne und Marine Rambac., Les intellos prècaires. Paris, 2001. Richard Sennett. The Culture of New Capitalism. Yale 2006. Karen Shimakawa. National Abjection. The Asian American Body Onstage. Durham, 2002. Other media: Kleines postfordistisches Drama. Kamera läuft. Berlin, 2003. Precarias a la Deriva. Precarias a la Deriva. Madrid, 2004. www.precaria.org, 9.10 2010. 52 Katharina Pewny
