Thinking through the Pandemic: A Performative Perspective
Channel: Science Gallery Bengaluru
Date: 2021-12-02

Saturday, 27 November 2021 
Rustom Bharucha 
Writer and Dramaturg 

In a freewheeling range of thoughts on the relationship between the pandemic and the practice of theatre and performance, this talk shed light on a number of issues in a dialogical mode of address. This included the rationale behind the global closure of theatres independently of discussion and debate in civil society, and the difference between the present shutdown and earlier pandemics when theatres and cinemas remained open. Rustom walked us through the ways in which tropes relating to ‘contamination’ and ‘contagion’ are treated as metaphors in performative discourse, and the impact of social distancing in initiating new modes of performances in the cultures of everyday life. Finally, the talk touched upon the affirmation of social protest in public assemblies during the time of the pandemic, and the need to arrive at a new concept of care through a renewed attention to the art of breathing.

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