Editorial: Being Seen and Heard

In 2019, the new Methuen Drama series, Theory for Theatre Studies, released two initial offerings: Sound by Susan Bennett and Space by Kim Solga. Though the two books are separate entries in the series, they cross over in a number of ways—displaying how co-imbricated these concepts are in theatre and performance studies. For example, both Bennett and Solga use audio walks (Janet Cardiff’s Forest Walk and Platform’s And While London Burns respectively) as main case studies. Sound studies scholar Jonathan Sterne notes, “Depending on the positioning of hearers, a space may sound totally different. If you hear the same sound in two different spaces, you may not even recognize it as the same sound. Hearing requires positionality” (4). Audio walks are a particular form of hearing/positioning, with a soundtrack impacting on how an audience member experiences an (often urban) space.¹

Sterne emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinarity for sound studies and takes time to emphasize ways in which thinking through sound also requires a thinking through space. He finds fault with what he calls “the audiovisual litany” (9), which positions hearing and seeing in opposition rather than looking for “points of connection” (10). One way that we might consider “points of connection” between sound and space in theatre and performance studies is through questions of audibility and visibility. Sterne argues that there is a problematic notion that being heard automatically leads to political agency (9), a point that parallels Peggy Phelan’s critique of the assumption that “greater visibility of the hitherto under-represented leads to enhanced political power” (2). Questioning how theatre and performance centre particular bodies and perspectives, both visually and sonically, is the central subject of this Views and Reviews section, which features reviews of a number of new publications. Though not all reviewers look at the connection between sound and space, the issue of agency and omissions in relation to who is seen and heard runs throughout.

We begin with Natalia Esling covering both Bennett’s Sound and Solga’s Space. While Esling considers the two texts as distinct entities, her review also suggests further points of intersection in the two studies. For example, Esling highlights tensions between sonic and spatial approaches when discussing Bennett’s entry point, “on historical examples that privilege sound over sight.” Esling also covers how both texts address historical omissions related to sound and space. She notes that Bennett considers the relationship between feminism and listening to “[remind] readers of the absence of women’s voices in conversations about sound up until recently” and that Solga discusses ways “space can be used to challenge its role in perpetuating certain discriminatory systems and structures, in both theatrical and quotidian contexts.”

Thinking across space and sound is also central to Natalie Rewa’s review of audio and sound artist Nancy Tobin’s chapbook Guide de la conception sonore selon Nancy Tobin. In the review, Rewa calls attention to the idea of “tuning a room” to highlight the connections between spatial and sonic dramaturgies. As Rewa notes, Tobin “conceptualizes sound as an event in the space of the performance and precisely tunes the space by the placement of speakers, thereby making the acoustics of the architectural space integral to the rehearsal process.” In order to achieve this ‘tuning’ of space, the artist/designer has to be actively involved in the rehearsal process from the very beginning. Rewa argues that Tobin’s chapbook works as a form of advocacy, with the audio/sound designer positioned as integral to production dramaturgy, which may require “behavioural adjustments to the concept of rehearsals and with this an expanding knowledge of the experiences of reception.”

The next three reviews shift away from an explicit linking of sound and space but continue to connect to the question of whose voices are heard and whose bodies are seen in the context of Canadian theatre and its histories. Jacqueline Taucar looks at another Canadian theatre designer in her review of Patricia Flood’s Susan Benson: Art, Design and Craft on Stage. In contrast to Tobin’s chapbook, this study covers visual dramaturgy as it charts Benson’s legacy as a...