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Wordmadeflesh:1 Writing the Body in Irish Theatre BERNADETTE SWEENEY In performance practice, when the word is made flesh it is made to matter, it is made material in the perfonnance moment. As Peggy Phelan argues in Unmarked: The Politics of Pelformance, "In moving from the grammar of words to the grammar of the body, one moves from the realm of metaphor to the realm of metonymy. [...JIn perfonnance, the body is metonymic of self, of character, of voice, of 'presence'" (150). In critical practice, when the flesh is made word, it is recorded by a language outside of itself. W. B. Worthen, in Theorizing Practice, writes, "[AJII writing about perfonnance must face its own impossibility: the event is gone, the records are always partial and suspect , and the only thing we know is that nothing we say happened actually took place in precisely that way" (6). This anxiety about capturing the live, doing it justice, recording it accurately, illustrates the troubled relationship between the flesh and the word in perfonnance that extends beyond the "faithful" rendering of a play text to a "faithful" response to that perfonned rendering. My aim, therefore, is to question the·relationship between the languages of the script, the stage, and the critic. In so doing Tpose the following questions throughout: what happens during the creative process, and during the performance moment when "the word" is made flesh? What then happens when that performance is critiqued and the "flesh" is made word, as the performance moment is described and analysed? Here I address a number of elements in assessing the relationship between the play text, the performance text, and the published responses to both. During the processes of performance and critique a number of adjustments, compromises , and decisions are made that have a very real impact on the fields of theatre and performance in Ireland and elsewhere. Productions, texts, even practitioners are found, lost, edited out, and refonned during these processes. This paper offers a glimpse into some of these, to suggest that the role of the Modern Drama, 47:4 (Winter 2004) 686 Wordmadcflesh: Writing the Body in Irish Theatre 687 critic could, and should, be expanded to disrupt any perceived linearity in the relationship between the word and the flesh in performance. The written word in Irish theatre has a high cultural currency - and has been central to the projects of colonialism, resistance, creating national identities, gender identities, and divisions. The body has to some extent been corralled, appropriated, and relegated by the civilizing project of the word.' But the body also gives voice to the word, and inscribes the word physically and conceptually . Is there then an Irish body? No. But there is a relationship between cultural specificity and representation. There are a number of elements to consider in assessing the relationship between the written word, the perfonnance of that word, and the written responses to the performance. Each of thesc contributes a frame of reference - theatre traditionally has been seen as a literary art form in Ireland, for reasons ranging from aspects of colonial resistance, to postcolonial nation-making. to the commodification of the Irish writer as an economic and cultural artefact. Recent developments in interdisciplinary work have offset this somewhat, as individuals are not confined to one role, and critical practices can be, and are, informed by the work of performance practitioners who write, critical writers who perform. and so forth. What is the role of the critic? Commentator-documentor-dramaturg-marketing assistant-advertiser-judge-newshound-perforrnance analyst ...? It is important to acknowledge here that critical writings can range from newspaper reviews to academic articles, and that each critical exercise has a specific remit, context, and target readership. A review usually has a tight turnaround to meet publication deadlines and is, in a way, the fust line of response. A longer feature article can include interview material from practitioners , and an academic article will usually include social and/or historical references, more contextual material and direct references to the text or texts under consideration, and reference to reviews and audience response. While there are some instances where I use the term critical practices to encompass all of these possibilities, I...

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