Richard Gough - Seminar one 03/03/10

The notion of theory is complex and contradictory in Richard Gough’s work, as Gough appears to supersede theoretical boundaries, instead offering an exploration of dramatic text.

Gough opened the Seminar with a montage of photos exploring objects in space and the unpredictability they evoke. Gough uses an integrated approach to theory where the idea of unpredictability becomes dominant. It is this unpredictability that holds the capacity to provoke the imagination. Gough argues it is the imagination of the audience that becomes the essential ingredient for understanding his performance making. He uses terms such as, notion, method and formula in place of theory or theoretical approach. Simply put, Gough blurs the boundaries between tradition and innovation in his performance making, arguing for theatrical as opposed to literary. This kind of approach is not recognized as academic practice in Western Europe, so Gough argues for an expanded notion of performance studies at an academic level, proposing performance research as practice informed theoretical inquiry. Gough’s theoretical integration with performance practice produces an approach to performance studies that is innovative, unpredictable and complex. His theory becomes more about the process and reflection of his processes rather than the product or outcome.

Gough’s approach to performance theory lies in the narration of everyday practice – the ‘best roles are played out in everyday life’. As Gough recounts his experience with a number of customs officers, he makes mention of the performativity of objects. The objects in his possession evoked a ‘network of meanings’ determining Gough’s occupation. Various customs officers interpreted these objects and Gough began to perform his new role. Like bodies in space, objects in space hold the power to evoke emotion, place and time. Gough finds joy in the ‘markings and scars of objects’, looking for the action that goes with objects and how this differs when experienced out of context. This effect, he argues, is best understood through performance practice rather than theoretical inquiry.

Using practice based experimental methods, it would be naïve to think Gough abolishes many of the academic theoretical approaches we have come to know at tertiary level. Instead he proposes literary theory be considered alongside performance practice. Gough is homogenous in his approach using performance as metaphor for life. Gough considers the food object as a ‘model for theatre’ as well as a metaphor for ‘complex social and political actions’. The immersion experience of these works can only be understood through the use of theory and practice. It is only through the exploration between tradition and innovation that the desire to affect change can be truly fulfilled.

Richard Gough’s approach to theory in performance making integrates the notion of traditional theoretical understanding, but is predominately constructed through methods of experimentation and innovation. Gough’s work in made in and from circumstances and objects arguing for an experience in the world and of itself.