Who's Looking at Who(m)?: Re-viewing Medusa

Who's Looking at Who(m)?: Re-viewing Medusa LIZBETH GOODMAN Is it Medusa's image or her gaze which has caused all the trouble, and earned her such a bad rep? What or who, exactly, is turned to stone by Medusa? Is it those who dare to look at her, or those at whom she looks? What is it about Medusa which so frightens mortals with a need to look around, and which offers to those making theatre today such a strong metaphor for the transformative power of women? And what is it about the languages of performance which allows us to transcend some of the rules of grammar and syntax, while remaining ambiguously framed by our own words, voices, ways of communicating and creating? Where, if anYWhere, can we draw any lines or boundaries between performance and communication, text and subtext, sexual desire and sexual expression, longing and imagining, movement and the thought of movement, looking, seeing, being seen, and being seen to be seen ... so that we may choose to present ourselves in deliberately provocative ways? What happens if for "Medusa" we read "lesbian theatre maker" or "performance artist oT,theatre practitioner interested in borderlines between sexuality and creative expression"? The broader the tenn, the more accurate and interesting , and also the harder to pin down, to freeze into one image or form which can be easily identified, defined, analysed. The term "lesbian theatre maker" is not broad enough to encompass the images, or the creative views, of all the women whose work is analysed in this article. It's a good place to start, but each woman's art work leads in a different direction, modulating between expressions of sexuality and politics in the work, and a need to expand boundaries, cross borders, question terminology, and transform even the most liberating of images. This article looks at (and from) a variety of women's work from different cultures and performance traditions , informed by mUltiple positions with regard to sexuality, race, and culture . Some of the work literalizes the notion of the personal performance text as "written on the body," connecting to larger ideas of women's sexuality as Modern Drama, 39 (1996) 190 Re-viewing Medusa 191 expressed in corporeal as well as imaginative, amorphous and amorphic forms. The article draws together many views and perspectives, not seeking to confine all this work under one heading, but rather to offer a glimpse of each "Medusa" and the shadows she casts in performance pieces representing lesbian and bisexual identities, personal politics, and a multiplicity of views. The figure of Medusa can be seen looking out of and at much feminist theory of the past few decades, although she remained largely invisible in and to much feminist and specifically lesbian theatre and performance art work of the [970Sand 1980s. By contrast, the [990S has seen an increase in the extent to which feminist theory has begun to inform women's and lesbian theatre work, and the extent to which lesbian theoretical perspectives have been adopted by gay male artists and those who write about queer culture. Medusa now figures in a wide variety of plays and performance pieces, often in work which pushes past boundaries of single disciplines by combining scripted text with movement, direct address to the audience, dance, visual images, and multi-media formats. In this article I'll look briefly at the figure of Medusa, considering her figure and configuration as a metaphorical presence (or absence) in a selection of international work by women. IN THE SPACE PROVIDED: SEXUALITY, QUEER THEORY AND THEATRE The phrase "in the space provided" brings to mind the essay examination: write your answer in the space provided; if you have too little to say then use large type face; if you have too much to say, extend the margins and shrink the spaces. But how can the subject of lesbian theatre be addressed "in the space provided" when that space is not clearly defined? Where does Medusa fit in? What if shc writes in Sanskrit, or doesn't write at all? In thc space provided, this article can only raise questions and give brief glimpses into research which has been...