When the Voice Itself Is Image

This article explores a notion of "vocal image" understood as the generating of or presence of vocalized sound intended to form an acoustic image either linked to language or independent of language. Vocal image is considered, here, from a very particular space: the space of performance practice. It is suggested that the actor's resistance to a playful exploration of sound in the abstract or within language has its roots in the layers of reasonableness inherent in language and in a concept of character as person. This resistance arguably inhibits a dimension of vocal creativity as well as possible vocal access to the articulation of the various texts of postdramatic theatre. In response, Julia Kristeva's identification of the semiotic and chora provide the basis for a theorizing of an intertextuality of voice that references a dimension of sound play already evident in the theatre and performance practices of experimental theatre.