Aquapelagic Assemblages: Performing Water Ecology with Harmattan Theater

"Aquapelagic assemblage" is a term proposed by Phillip Hayward to identify processes of transformation along aquatic ecologies at the interface of human sociality and marine environments. The performance work of Harmattan Theater has involved a persistent inquiry into the junctures between colonial history, coastal landscapes, island ecologies, and human sociality. Drawing on the idea of "aquapelagic assemblage" as an aesthetic practice, in this essay, Harmattan founding artistic director May Joseph and associate director and performer Sofia Varino explore three Harmattan performances as working experiments toward a praxis of aqua-pelagic assemblage.