This is a
collection of essays by (mostly British) artists, performers, and academics on
the intersection between medicine and theater.
It appears in a series entitled “Performance and Science: Interdisciplinary
Dialogues” put out by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. The
introduction makes it clear there are many points of convergence beyond the
scope of this volume, such as how medicine is depicted in plays and therapeutic
uses of theater (e.g. drama therapy). The focus
here, then, is on “the ways in which the body is understood, displayed and
represented in performance” (p. 11). And
the “medical body” of the title refers to one that is ’acted upon’ by illness
or disability and/or by the diagnostic and therapeutic activities of the
medical profession” (Ibid).
The book is divided into three sections: “Performing the
Medical,” “Performing Patients,” and “Performing Body Parts.” The first section includes an essay by Roger
Kneebone, a surgeon, who explores the parallels between his field and theatrical
performance. Kneebone has devised simulations
that enable laypersons to get a sense of what it is like to participate in
surgery. In his view, this encourages cross-fertilization
of ideas. For example, his collaboration
with a jazz pianist has demonstrated to him that musical improvisation, in its
spontaneity, is somewhat like emergency surgery. And his work with a choreographer led to the
development of a dance piece depicting the movements of a surgical team during
a procedure.
In the second section we read about Brian Lobel, a theater
artist who has used his experience with testicular cancer to create a solo performance
piece entitled “BALL.” This not only allowed
Lobel to “regain a sense of mastery over the illness experience” (p. 88), but
has also earned him a niche within the theater community. Lobel now works with other cancer sufferers
helping them develop their own narratives in a project called “Fun with Cancer
Patients.”
The final section of the book includes a description of “Under
Glass,” a forty-minute performance piece consisting of eight specimen jars each
containing a solo performer, said to be “at once museum exhibit, gallery and
medical laboratory” (p. 141), which also provides the book's front cover image. "Under Glass" was devised by Clod Ensemble, whose Performing Medicine
project is known for its teaching programs in numerous London medical schools. Meant to provoke discourse about the public
display of specimens, it brings to mind the Victorian “freak show” as
well as the more recent controversial touring Body Worlds exhibition of
plastinated cadavers and body parts.
