Politics, culture and performance

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." If we start looking at ourselves as characters who perform, and observe where the stage is, a lot more can start to make sense.

- SAURABH MODI

Richard Sennett in the book The Performer: Art, Life, Politics borrows the observation Shakespeare's character "the melancholy Jaques" makes in the play As you Like It, to knit a thread of what a performance is across the thread of what the stage to perform looks like. The many knits finally turn into a scarf that drapes thoughts on civility and cultures.

The author holds the thought on what a performance is with a lot of care. A performance has a lot in common with a ritual. Different cultures have evolved strict practices that are coordinated actions with a sense of order. An artist modifies such rituals in the service of self-expression. A performance is this self-expression that has the potential to engage and even dissolve the barrier between the performer and the spectator. The book offers many instances from works of multiple artists to help a reader get a full grasp of this thought. For me, the matchstick struck flame on viewing a football match as a performance. When athletes on the pitch express themselves using rituals crafted by rules, barriers between spectators and players often dissolve. One can feel nervous before a penalty kick or devastated as the goalie misses to save.