À quel corps appartient cette voix ? Quelle voix est parlée par ce corps ? La disjonction de la voix et du corps comme fondement de la performance dans les spectacles Spectacular, Void Story et The Thrill of It All de la compagnie Forced Entertainment

• Main Author: Charlotte Bouteille-Meister
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2013-07-01
• Series: Sillages Critiques
• Subjects: Forced Entertainment; Tim Etchells; Spectacular; Void Story; The Thrill of It All; Performance
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/3008

In three recent productions of the British theatre company Forced Entertainment – Spectacular (2008), Void Story (2009) and The Thrill of It All (2010) – the performance itself the lies in the gap created purposefully between the performers’ voices and their bodies. This can be the gap between the incongruous presence of bodies on stage and the "vocal action" the actors perform, between the vocal but motionless bodies and the moving but silent and pointless image projected on the screen, or between actual sweating bodies and their technically-distorted and therefore artificial voices. In theatre, the body of the performer traditionally embodies the voice of someone else; but in the case of the company Forced Entertainment, this fundamental otherness seems to take centre stage and becomes the core subject of their performances. This disjunction is very enjoyable for the spectator, but it also raises poetical, political and existential questions. For what is a theatrical performance in the end? A voice that is present here and now or an alien voice from an alien place? Does the disjunction between voice and body have anything to say about the modern individual torn apart between personal desires and social stereotypes, between exhilaration and failure? And finally how can one represent and confront death, this moment when the rhythm of the performance slows down and the story comes to a halt that signifies the ultimate separation of body and voice – whilst knowing that death will always undermine the brilliant playfulness of every performance by Forced Entertainment?