Conference opens: 9.00am Monday 8th September
Conference closes: 5.30pm Tuesday 9th September
Please get in touch with any questions at beyondanthroposcenes[@]gmail.com
In theatre and performance, the human is generally understood as ‘centre-stage’ – often literally. But with the escalation of threats posed by technological advancements and climate and ecological crisis, ‘the human’ is increasingly understood as unstable and precarious. Far from being at the centre of the universe (the position assumed by individualist, Enlightenment-based humanism), decades of postmodern and postdramatic theatre practices have unsettled the human from its historical centre, or even pushed it offstage altogether. Looking beyond performances that use human-oriented narratives to explore the socio-cultural effects of technology and the wider hyperobject of climate crisis, this hybrid two-day conference asks: what might be learned by bringing the fields of ecodramaturgy and posthumanism together to interrogate possible meanings and roles of ‘the human’ at a point in history when history faces its dissolution?
The way ahead necessitates new and creative modes of being and acting ‘human’. Through a combination of papers, provocations, performances, workshops and discussions, this conference explores how contemporary European performance might interrogate and go beyond normative understandings of ‘the human’. In the interests of encouraging collaboration and conversation, the conference is moving away from the model of keynote speakers and towards more discursive frameworks. The centrepiece of the conference on Monday evening will be a live performance of The Talent (2023)* by Action Hero and Deborah Pearson: an award-winning production that explores the possible legacy of the voice in a posthuman future. The conference will also host a screening of the Finnish theatre company WAUHAUS’s sky every day (2022) by Pipsa Lonka, a critically acclaimed performance that decentres the human while emphasising the presence of nonhuman life.
*Update August 14, 2025: due to unforeseen circumstances, this performance of The Talent will instead be presented as a screening. There will be a presentation onsite at the originally scheduled time, and the recording will be made available to those attending the conference remotely. The screening will still be followed by an in-person panel with the artists to discuss the work.
A Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, Louise teaches acting, performance, and approaches to using technology in theatre. Her research is focused on robots in theatre, in particular the ways in which theatre can enrich understanding about the sociable possibilities of robots, at the same time as inquiring into ways in which stage robots nuance our understanding of theatre. Louise has conducted collaborative, interdisciplinary projects with robots (‘Interacting Nao’ and Baxter the robot, www.robottheatre.com) and has published on robot performers and characters as well as posthuman theatre. Louise co-edited Twenty-First Century Drama: What Happens Now (Palgrave, 2016) with Siân Adiseshiah.
Catherine Love-Smith (publishing as Catherine Love) is Lecturer in Theatre in the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York. Her research interests include contemporary British theatre, ecodramaturgy, and the relationship between text and performance. Her publications include the monograph Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre, a chapter in the Methuen Drama Handbook of Women in Contemporary British Theatre, a short book on Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree, and journal articles exploring the work of Katie Mitchell, Simon Stephens and Elevator Repair Service. She is also a theatre critic and arts journalist who writes for the Guardian and The Stage.
Alex Watson is Principal Lecturer in academic studies at Performers College Brighton (BIMM University). His research focuses on contemporary British plays, climate crisis performance, and one-person theatre. His monograph, Staging Systemic Violence: British Theatre 2010-2019 is published in the Methuen Engage series, and he is currently editing the 2010s volume for the Modern British Playwriting: Decades series. He has other upcoming and published work including articles and chapters for Contemporary Theatre Review, JCDE, Theatre Notebook, and The Routledge Companion to 20th Century British Theatre.
Bee Scott is a queer science fiction playwright and theatre maker who has worked in theatre and audio drama across the US and UK. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of York supervised by Dr Louise LePage.