PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
VOL.26 ISSUE 8
UNDERCOVER

Edited by James Harding,
Fraser Stevens
Published by Routledge
118 pages
ISSN 1352-8165
Softcover

Price: 95 ron


This edition of Performance Research dives into the murky realities that belie undercover and covert undertakings. From domestic engagements to clandestine settings (of which some appear to be one and the same) this issue tackles the ethics, challenges, moral pitfalls, gendered realities, moments of necessity and artistic qualities of undercover practices. Many are topics that fall within the categories of ‘performing ground’ (Levin), ‘not–not identities’ (Schneider), ‘intentional concealment’ (Bok) and ‘dark play’ (Schechner). With an array of international contributors, this issue moves beyond the traditional and popular conceptualization of ‘undercover’ to question how society understands the covert, clandestine and hidden, and where theatre and performance intersect with such undertakings. ‘Undercover’ draws back the curtain on otherwise unseen practices and knowledge and allows readers to glimpse the hidden worlds beneath and within.

Index:
Editorial: Revealing undercover engagements
JAMES M. HARDING AND FRASER STEVENS

Performing under the Bedspread: Hysterical undercover operations
- JOHANNA BRAUN

Mutual Deception and Disguise: Iranian artists and censors
- Q-MARS HAERI

Larvatus Prodeo: Covert seduction in Dora Garcia’s The Romeos [artist pages]
- THOMAS BÎRZAN

The Poetic Failure of Mata Hari: Espionage as performance theatre
- FRASER STEVENS

Unearth Not: Gestures of concealment and Zlato Paković's theatre of reveal in Post-Yugoslav Serbia
- ŽELJANA TUNIĆ AND SNEŽANA STANKOVIĆ

Enstranglements: Undercover in Arts for Health [artist pages]
- BECKY SHAW, ANTHONY SCHRAG, FRANCES WILLIAMS AND SARAH (SMIZZ) SMITH

Spy House: Transformations in espionage performance
- SARA BRADY

Microhistories of Jewish Clandestine Performance, Self-Orientation and Survival during the Holocaust
- ADELA M. KARSZNIA

(C)Overt Operations: Detective disguise and the threat of deception
- ISABEL STOWELL-KAPLAN

Watching the Detectives [artist pages]
- ALEXANDER KELLY

Cover to Uncover: Masked performance and gender in Emmy Hennings’ and Sophie Taeuber’s Dada dance
- SOPHIE DOUTRELIGNE

Undercover Next Door: The Cold War aesthetics of truth and deception in espionage theatre
- JAMES M. HARDING

Unearthing Undercover: Intimations relating campesinos, the more-than-human and the politically disappeared in my art practice [artist pages]
- LIVIA DAZA-PARIS

Hidden Archives, Closeted Desires, Postponed Utopias: Queer ultra-nationalism in Turkish opera
- RÜSTEM ERTUĞ ALTINAY

Fowl Play: Overtures in human–bird communication
- NATALIE DOONAN