Mind Games: Applying White’s principles of narrative therapy
to the creation of a cabaret about depression and bipolar disorder.
Jo Loth BA (UQ), Dip Ed (QUT), MA (QUT)
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for Doctor of Philosophy
Queensland University of Technology October 2011
Abstract This PhD represents my attempt to make sense of my personal experiences of
depression through the form of cabaret. I first experienced depression in 2006.
Previously, I had considered myself to be a happy and optimistic person. I found the
experience of depression to be a shock: both in the experience itself, and also in the
way it effected my own self image. These personal experiences, together with my
professional history as a songwriter and cabaret performer, have been the
motivating force behind the research project.
This study has explored the question: What are the implications of applying
principles of Michael White’s narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret
performance about depression and bipolar disorder? There is a 50 percent
weighting on the creative work, the cabaret performance Mind Games, and a 50
percent weighting on the written exegesis. This research has focussed on the
illustration of therapeutic principles in order to play games of truth within a cabaret
performance. The research project investigates ways of telling my own story in
relation to others’ stories through three re-authoring principles articulated in Michael
White’s narrative therapy: externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and rich
descriptions. The personal stories presented in the cabaret were drawn from my
own experiences and from interviews with individuals with depression or bipolar
disorder. The cabaret focussed on the illustration of therapeutic principles, and was
not focussed on therapeutic ends for myself or the interviewees.
The research question has been approached through a methodology combining
autoethnographic, practice-led and action research. Auto ethnographic research is
characterised by close investigation of assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs. The
combination of autoethnographic, practice-led, action research has allowed me to
bring together personal experiences of mental illness, research into therapeutic
techniques, social attitudes and public discourses about mental illness and forms of
contemporary cabaret to facilitate the creation of a one-woman cabaret
performance.
The exegesis begins with a discussion of games of truth as informed by Michel
Foucault and Michael White and self-stigma as informed by Michael White and
Erving Goffman. These concepts form the basis for a discussion of my own personal
experiences. White’s narrative therapy is focused on individuals re-authoring their
[ii]
stories, or telling their stories in different ways. White’s principles are influenced by
Foucault’s notions of truth and power. Foucault’s term games of truth has been used
to describe the effect of a ‘truth in flux’ that occurs through White’s re-authoring
process. This study argues that cabaret is an appropriate form to represent this
therapeutic process because it favours heightened performativity over realism, and
showcases its ‘constructedness’ and artificiality. Thus cabaret is well suited to
playing games of truth. A contextual review compares two major cabaret trends,
personal cabaret and provocative cabaret, in reference to the performer’s
relationship with the audience in terms of distance and intimacy. The study draws a
parallel between principles of distance and intimacy in Michael White’s narrative
therapy and relates these to performative terms of distance and intimacy. The
creative component of this study, the cabaret Mind Games, used principles of
narrative therapy to present the character ‘Jo’ playing games of truth through:
externalising an aspect of her personality (externalisation); exploring different life
values (an autonomous ethic of living); and enacting multiple versions of her identity
(rich descriptions). This constant shifting between distance and intimacy within the
cabaret created the effect of a truth in ‘constant flux’, to use one of White’s terms.
There are three inter-related findings in the study. The first finding is that the
application of principles of White’s narrative therapy was able to successfully
combine provocative and empathetic elements within the cabaret. The second
finding is that the personal agenda of addressing my own self-stigma within the
project limited the effective portrayal of a ‘truth in flux’ within the cabaret. The third
finding presents the view that the cabaret expressed ‘Jo’ playing games of truth in
order to journey towards her own “preferred identity claim” (White 2004b) through
an act of “self care” (Foucault 2005).
The contribution to knowledge of this research project is the application of
therapeutic principles to the creation of a cabaret performance. This process has
focussed on creating a self-revelatory cabaret that questions notions of a ‘fixed truth’
through combining elements of existing cabaret forms in new ways. Two major
forms in contemporary cabaret, the personal cabaret and the provocative cabaret
use the performer-audience relationship in distinctive ways. Through combining
elements of these two cabaret forms, I have explored ways to create a provocative
cabaret focussed on the act of self-revelation.
[iii]
Keywords
Cabaret, depression, bipolar disorder, narrative therapy, persona, parody, provocateur, vamp.
[iv]
List of Figures
Figure 1: ‘The flying girl’ 2009 ............................................................................................. 124 Figure 2: ‘The flying girl’ 2010 ............................................................................................. 132 Figure 3: ‘The country and western singer’ 2010 ................................................................ 133 Figure 4: ‘Dame Hurry‐to‐Therapy’ 2010 ............................................................................. 134 Figure 5: ‘Jolene in 2010 ...................................................................................................... 140 Figure 6: ‘Jolene’ falling apart, 2010 .................................................................................... 141 Figure 7: ‘Jolene's’ disintegration continues, 2010 ............................................................. 142 Figure 8: 'Ms Rapid Cycling', 2010 ....................................................................................... 146 Figure 9 : You put my brain back the wrong way, 2010 ...................................................... 147 Figure 10: ‘Jolene’, 2010 ..................................................................................................... 151 Figure 11 : 'Jo', 2010 ............................................................................................................ 153
Photography credits: All photos by Jacinta King except for Figure 1(by Ben Knapton).
[v]
List of Appendices Appendix One 1.1 Personal Journals (2008, 2009 and 2010) 1.2 Ethical Clearance Information 1.3 Personal Interviews 1.4 Audience Feedback 1.5 Program Notes (2008, 2009 and 2010) 1.6 Mind Games script May 2010 1.7 Personal thank-you letter 1.8 Analysis of audience feedback 1.9 Collaborators and the research cycles 1.10 Confirmation Document (2009) 1.11 Framing Document (2010) Appendix Two 2.1 Work-in-progress showing 2008 on DVD 2.2 Audience Feedback 2008 on DVD Appendix Three 3.1 Work-in-progress showing 2009 on DVD Appendix Four 4.1 Performance of the Mind Games cabaret, May 2010 on DVD
[vi]
Statement of Originality
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
[vii]
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to the interviewees whose stories informed this research project and to acknowledge their generosity in sharing their stories.
I would also like to thank my supervising team: Dr Bree Hadley, Dr Christine Comans and Professor David Kavanagh. Thanks also goes to Dr David Fenton who was my supervisor for the first year of this project.
Development of this research project has been enhanced by my attendance at the following conferences. I thank all of the conference delegates who have participated in the development of this work:
• PSI Conference “Performing Publics”, Toronto, June 2010
Paper: Tension as inspiration: Performing depression and bi-polar disorder for a cabaret audience
• ADSA Conference “Boom or Bust?”, Perth, July 2009
Paper: Mind Games and the cabaret persona: The challenges of manipulating persona within an intimate space
• Ignite Post graduate conference, QUT, Brisbane, October 2008
Paper: Singing the blues: developing a cabaret performance on depression
A work-in-progress presentation of the cabaret was also performed for the QUT post-graduate event Revealing Practices in October 2009. Thanks goes to the central organiser of Revealing Practices, Dr Clare Dyson, and to the attendees of this event.
I would also like to thank all of my creative collaborators, especially director Sandro Colarelli, workshop leader and therapist Margi Brown Ash, dramaturges Therese Collie and Kathryn Kelly, and pianists Wade Gregory and Philippe Klaus, for their contributions to the cabaret performance. Thanks also to The Brisbane Cabaret Festival for presenting a performance of the cabaret at The Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane on 18th June, 2010.
Thanks especially to Jason, Siall, Nic, Jacinta and my family and friends for supporting me on this research journey, through all the ups and downs!
[viii]
Table of Contents
Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
The field of cabaret .............................................................................................................. 5
White’s narrative therapy .................................................................................................... 6
The scope of narrative therapy within this study ................................................................ 6
The research questions ........................................................................................................ 8
Sub‐questions 1 and 2: White’s principles of narrative therapy and cabaret ................. 8
Sub‐question 3: The research methods ........................................................................... 9
Sub‐question 4: The tensions within the process .......................................................... 10
Sub‐question 5: The challenges of the autoethnographic method ............................... 11
Contribution to knowledge ................................................................................................ 13
Key Terms ........................................................................................................................... 15
Depression and bipolar disorder .................................................................................... 15
Self‐stigma...................................................................................................................... 16
Persona .......................................................................................................................... 16
Parody ............................................................................................................................ 17
Chapter Summary .............................................................................................................. 17
Chapter Two: Framing the research ...................................................................................... 19
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 19
Foucault’s games of truth .................................................................................................. 20
Identifying games of truth about mental illness ................................................................ 22
The stigma of mental illness .............................................................................................. 24
Goffman on stigma and self‐stigma ................................................................................... 25
Michael White and spoiled identity ................................................................................... 26
My personal experience of self‐stigma .............................................................................. 27
Foucault, the ethical formation of the subject and games of truth .................................. 29
Principles of White’s narrative therapy ............................................................................. 29
Principle One: externalisation ........................................................................................ 31
Principle Two: an autonomous ethic of living ................................................................ 35
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Principle Three: rich descriptions ................................................................................... 38
An autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions in practice ................................... 39
The work of Margi Brown Ash ............................................................................................ 40
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 41
Chapter Three: A method in the madness ............................................................................. 42
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 42
My research identity .......................................................................................................... 43
Autoethnography ............................................................................................................... 43
Autoethnographic performance and autobiographical performance ........................... 46
Autoethnography within this study ................................................................................ 46
Ethical considerations ........................................................................................................ 48
The ethics of personal stories ........................................................................................ 48
Addressing ethical concerns within the project ............................................................. 53
The Process of Transforming Interviews to Cabaret Material ........................................... 55
Practice‐led Research ......................................................................................................... 56
Action research................................................................................................................... 57
Action research within this project ................................................................................ 57
Analysing the data .......................................................................................................... 60
The three development cycles ....................................................................................... 61
Allowing the practice to lead the research: My epistemological journey ......................... 72
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 79
Chapter Four: The personal and the provocative in contemporary cabaret ......................... 80
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 80
The playful form of cabaret ................................................................................................ 81
Personal cabaret ................................................................................................................. 82
Provocative cabaret: Pleasing and teasing the audience ................................................... 83
The history of the provocateur .......................................................................................... 84
The history of the vamp ..................................................................................................... 85
The contemporary provocateurs........................................................................................ 87
The features of the contemporary vamp persona ............................................................. 92
The use of parody in contemporary cabaret ...................................................................... 97
Musical parody ............................................................................................................... 99
Parodic versions of celebrities and divas ....................................................................... 99
Polemic parody ............................................................................................................. 100
[x]
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 101
Chapter Five: Creating Mind Games .................................................................................... 102
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 102
Creative Processes ........................................................................................................... 102
Transforming personal stories to cabaret .................................................................... 102
Principles of narrative therapy, distance and intimacy ............................................... 103
Externalisation ............................................................................................................. 103
An autonomous ethic of living ..................................................................................... 104
Rich descriptions .......................................................................................................... 104
Parody .......................................................................................................................... 105
Sharing my story .............................................................................................................. 106
Externalisation: creating ‘Jolene’ ................................................................................. 106
‘Jolene’: a provocateur and a vamp ............................................................................. 109
My own autonomous ethic of living ............................................................................ 110
Rich descriptions of my story ....................................................................................... 113
The interviewees’ stories ................................................................................................. 114
An autonomous ethic of living in the interviewees’ stories ........................................ 114
Rich descriptions and the interviewees’ stories .......................................................... 119
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 127
Chapter Six: Analysing Mind Games .................................................................................... 129
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 129
Emphasising the constructed nature of the cabaret ....................................................... 130
Externalisation ................................................................................................................. 135
The construction of ‘Jolene’ ......................................................................................... 135
Deconstructing ‘Jolene’: the vulnerability of the vamp .............................................. 140
The breakdown of ‘Jolene’ in relation to the other characters ................................... 141
The combination of an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions ...................... 144
‘Jo’: Rich descriptions and an autonomous ethic of living ............................................... 147
Was a fixed notion of truth implied in the cabaret? ........................................................ 149
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 150
Chapter Seven: Findings ....................................................................................................... 151
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 151
Finding One: Finding a balance between provocation and empathy .............................. 151
Finding Two: The effects of my own desire for self‐empowerment within the cabaret . 152
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[xii]
Finding Three: A journey towards “self care” .................................................................. 156
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 157
Chapter Eight: Conclusion .................................................................................................... 158
References ............................................................................................................................ 164
Appendices ........................................................................................................................... 172
Appendix One on CD ROM: .............................................................................................. 172
1.1 Personal Journals (2008, 2009 and 2010) .............................................................. 172
1.2 Ethical Clearance Information ................................................................................ 172
1.3 Personal Interviews ................................................................................................ 172
1.4 Audience Feedback ................................................................................................ 172
1.5 Program Notes (2008, 2009 and 2010) .................................................................. 172
1.6 Mind Games script May 2010 ................................................................................. 172
1.7 Personal thank‐you letter ....................................................................................... 172
1.8 Analysis of audience feedback ............................................................................... 172
1.9 Collaborators and the Research Cycles .................................................................. 172
1.10 Confirmation Document (2009) ........................................................................... 172
1.11 Framing Document (2010) ................................................................................... 172
Appendix Two on DVD:..................................................................................................... 173
2.1 Work‐in‐progress showing 2008 ............................................................................ 173
2.2 Audience Feedback 2008 ....................................................................................... 173
Appendix Three on DVD: .................................................................................................. 174
3.1 Work‐in‐progress showing 2009 ............................................................................ 174
Appendix Four on DVD: .................................................................................................... 175
4.1 Performance of the Mind Games cabaret, May 2010 ............................................ 175
Chapter 1: Introduction
Discrimination on mental health grounds affects [sic.] millions because so many people fear being ‘on the wrong side of line’ and go to such pains to make it clear – not least to themselves – that, even when distressed, they are not ‘mad’. It is useful for anyone wishing to increase social inclusion for user/survivors to think through how they identify themselves and why. (Sayce 1999, 9)
The autobiographical and the political are interconnected. Who speaks? What is spoken? What sorts of lives are represented, contested, imagined? The vast majority of autobiographical performances have been concerned with using the public arena of performance in order to ‘speak out’, attempting to make visible denied or marginalised subjects, or to ‘talk back’, aiming to challenge, contest and problematise dominant representations and assumptions about those subjects. (Heddon 2008, 20)
Introduction
This project represents the results of my attempt to make sense of my personal
experiences of depression, and the way I think about my own personal experiences,
through the form of cabaret. I came to this research project with the aim to discuss
mental illness, specifically depression and bipolar disorder, within the public realm
through cabaret. As the study developed I articulated this further as the aim of
applying the principles of Michael White’s narrative therapy to the creation of a
cabaret on depression and bipolar disorder.
How do we think about mental health and mental illness? How is our thinking
affected by therapeutic concepts? How can therapeutic concepts be discussed
within popular culture? Can entertainment draw attention to our own thought
processes and the games that occur within our own minds? I have been exploring
these questions in relation to Michael White’s narrative therapy and White’s
application of Michel Foucault’s concept of “games of truth” (Foucault quoted in
Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 1), and have aimed to create a cabaret
performance that presents games of truth to an audience.
[1]
My investigation of Foucault has allowed me to investigate different kinds of truths
and to view an individual’s life as a complex, multi-faceted, constructed narrative.
My research into contemporary cabaret encouraged me to think more consciously of
the tools I am using to create a cabaret performance, and how each of these tools
impacts on the kind of truth presented at each moment. This project has been an
examination of the way I tell my own story to myself and to others, and the way I
witness myself and present myself as a witness of others.
Bringing together cabaret and mental illness
The popularity of cabaret and its emphasis on an intimate connection with its
audience makes this form well suited to discussion of mental illness, a health
concern within Australian society (Department of Health and Ageing 2010).
In the last ten years cabaret has experienced a huge resurgence in popularity in
Australia and the United Kingdom (Scott-Norman and Crotty 2002; Pollack 2010;
Brownell 2008). Scott-Norman and Crotty (2002) describe cabaret as a “thriving
movement in performance culture” and Evelyn Richardson, CEO of Live
Performance Australia, comments that the “number, variety and quality of cabaret
performances in Australia have grown significantly over the past decade, alongside
the establishment of cabaret festivals, new cabaret venues and cabaret
programming in many of the major theatres and events around the country” (quoted
in Pollack 2010). London cabaret artist Dusty Limits believes that the resurgence in
cabaret’s popularity is a response to the highly produced nature of most
contemporary entertainment, stating that:
It's a reaction to how overly produced, thoroughly edited and fundamentally contrived most popular entertainment is... We are so sick of the plastic iPod universe that we are forced to inhabit, we are excited to be in a room with a living breathing human being who is opening his heart and soul. (Quoted in Brownell, 2008)
According to the National Mental Health Report, mental illness is common in
Australia, with 20 percent of the population experiencing mental illness each year,
and thus “mental health issues reach into the fabric of Australian society, and for
many, into our own families” (Department of Health and Ageing 2010, 16). This
comment draws attention to personal experiences of mental illness as they affect
individuals and family members. The report states that the most common illnesses
are “anxiety, affective (mood) and substance use disorders” with “low prevalence”
[2]
conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia “estimated to affect another
2-3 percent of the adult population” (Department of Health and Ageing 2010, 16).
The Australian National Health Report acknowledges that mental illness “is widely
recognised as a major health concern in Australia” and, in 2008, mental illnesses
“accounted for almost one-quarter (24 percent) of the total disability burden for all
diseases” (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008, 219, 224). The report
also noted that mental illness is associated with stigma in Australian society, “which
often leads to isolation and discrimination for those affected” (Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare 2008, 219).
This research project has focussed on using the “living”, “breathing” form of cabaret,
as described by Dusty Limits, to present therapeutic concepts and provoke
discussion about mental illness. The Mind Games cabaret has attempted to play
games of truth in the realms of personal identity and personal storytelling using the
cabaret form to present therapeutic concepts.
A background to the study
In 2003 I had a therapeutic session with therapist Margi Brown Ash. In this session
we discussed my tendency to apply very harsh judgement to myself and my actions.
Within this session, Brown Ash asked me to name this tendency and I called it my
‘inner critic’. Through a series of exercises, Brown Ash engaged me in the act of
personifying this inner critic and I drew a picture of a tall thin woman with an
accusatory pointing finger. In the session we explored other possible ways of
viewing and relating to my inner critic, and ways to adjust ‘her’ power within my life.1
I later found out that these were principles of narrative therapy as discussed by
Australian psychologist Michael White (1989, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2007). Brown
Ash is a therapist and creative practitioner working in a social constructionist
framework who has been strongly influenced by the work of Michael White (Brown
Ash 2009). From 2003 to 2008 I engaged in further sessions with Brown Ash that
combined creative expression and therapy. Chapter Two will include a discussion of
Brown Ash’s practice.
1 References to Margi Brown Ash in this exegesis are approved by Brown Ash following a process advised by the QUT Ethics committee. See Appendix 2.1 for further details.
[3]
In 2003 I also produced a performance Black Christmas, a pantomime-inspired
cabaret in which I explored the darker side of Christmas. I was captivated by
cabaret’s highly performative approach, by the use of popular song forms and direct
address to the audience, and by this form’s ability to discuss potentially polemic
issues in an entertaining format.
I first experienced depression in 2006. Previously, I had considered myself to be a
happy and optimistic person. I found the experience of depression to be a shock – in
the experience itself, and also in the way that it affected my own self image. I
experienced a strong sense of self-stigma (that is a sense of personal shame in
relation to feeling abnormal or inadequate) and found relief in: sharing my story with
others; hearing other peoples’ experience of depression; and through the techniques
of narrative therapy.
The decision to do this research project has given me the opportunity to engage with
public and personal perspectives on mental health, and to explore techniques of
autobiographical research and performance within the field of cabaret.
During the first year of this study I experienced a number of episodes of depression.
These episodes often made me feel isolated, and it is this sense of isolation that
motivated me to interview other individuals for this study. The interviews allowed me
to connect with other people suffering depression, and even to ‘compare notes’
about our experiences.
These experiences have been the motivating force behind this research. As a
cabaret writer and performer I was interested in using the form of cabaret to
represent issues of mental health, and present my own personal story in relation to
others’ stories.
In this project I have investigated the ways in which the principles of White’s
narrative therapy can be applied to the creation of a cabaret performance on
depression and bipolar disorder. This therapy uses the principle of externalisation,
enabling me to explore a dialogue between myself and my ‘inner critic’. This
therapy also focuses on developing an autonomous ethic of living and rich
descriptions of life stories (White 1989, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2007).
Through this research project I have had the opportunity to more fully reflect on my
experience of having depression and my personal strategies for working through
[4]
depression. I have also met individuals who have suffered from both depression and
bipolar disorder. These individuals generously shared their personal experiences
with me and had a huge impact on the development of the research project.
As a cabaret writer and performer this study has given me to the opportunity to
delve into my own experience to explore new methods of performance making and
to interrogate my own creative process. Specifically, I have investigated my process
in response to the field of contemporary cabaret performance, ethical
considerations, and theoretical concepts regarding the construction of truth.
The field of cabaret
The term cabaret is currently used to refer to a broad range of performance styles
including: circus, burlesque, stand up comedy, magic shows and singing. For the
purposes of this research project I have chosen to focus on cabarets in which
performers sing songs and directly address their audience in a musical and comic
performance. This choice reflects my own performance style and my background as
a singer/songwriter. Thus my definition of cabaret is: a performance that combines
comedy and song performed in intimate settings and that directly addresses its
audience (Friedman 2008; Appignanesi 2004; Harrington 2000). Furthermore
cabaret is a form that focuses on a sense of playfulness and emphasises the use of
popular song forms. The use of direct address within cabaret exaggerates the
‘performativity’ of this form. In directly addressing their audience, a cabaret
performer acknowledges that they are presenting a constructed performance
created for a specific audience rather than pretending to portray ‘reality’. Within this
form, however, some cabarets do aim to present a sense of truth to their audience.
Two major trends can be observed within contemporary cabaret. I describe the first
as personal cabaret and the second as provocative cabaret. Both forms use music
and comedy, popular music forms, direct address with the audience and
performance personas. Personal cabarets are created when a performer strings
together well known songs around a theme, and links them through telling personal
anecdotes. In this style of cabaret the performer aims to create an atmosphere of
intimacy or closeness with an audience. My descriptions of this form of cabaret have
largely been drawn from Bob Harrington’s The Cabaret Artist’s Handbook (2000).
This is a ‘how to’ book for cabaret performers, and as such clarifies the
characteristics of this style. The term provocative cabaret describes cabaret that is
marked by intellectual, political and/or sexual provocation. This style involves a more
[5]
dynamic performer-audience relationship, in which performers are constantly
moving between a sense of distance and intimacy with their audience. Both
personal cabarets and provocative cabaret have influenced my show.
White’s narrative therapy
Narrative therapy, as discussed by Australian psychologist Michael White, is a
technique designed to allow individuals to ‘re-author’ their own stories and overcome
dominant normative discourses that have affected their interpretation of their life
stories. In other words, this therapeutic method focuses on individuals finding new
ways to tell their own stories. This process moves truth from a fixed notion, into a
‘state of flux’, and allows an individual to overcome a sense of ‘spoiled identity’. This
approach is based on a post-structuralist and social constructionist approach to
therapy. In his discussion of epistemologies in therapy, Dickerson (2010) describes
post-structuralist therapy as viewing a ‘person’ as “ ‘constituted’, rather than as
essential, as dependent on context, and as having access to multiple identities”
(355). Furthermore therapists working within this epistemology “consider ‘problems’
as constructed in response to, or as supported by dominant discourse, as not fitting
what is considered “normal,” and as therefore somehow aberrant. And they think of
‘change’ as a collaborative endeavor [sic.] with therapist and client in conversation
with possibilities and preferences” (Dickerson 2010, 355).
In articulating his method, White refers to Michel Foucault’s discussions of truth and
power within discourse. I have further related Michael White’s concept of spoiled
identity to Foucault’s discussions of the pathologisation of mental illness and to
Foucaut’s “ethics of care” (Foucault 2005). In addition, I have linked White’s concept
of spoiled identity with Erving Goffman’s discussions of the stigma that can occur
within one’s own ego identity (Goffman 1963). I have termed this kind of stigma as
self-stigma. A sense of self-stigma, or personal shame, is related to feeling
abnormal or inadequate in relation to cultural norms. These concepts are discussed
in detail in Chapter Two.
The scope of narrative therapy within this study
In the early 1980s, influenced by Jerome Bruner’s theories of narrative, Michael
White developed his own style of narrative therapy with collaborator David Epston
(Angus and McLeod 2004a, ix). Narrative-based therapies have been developed in
North America, Europe and Australia, often incorporating narrative concepts into
existing forms of cognitive and constructivist approaches and psychotherapy (Angus
[6]
and McLeod 2004b, 367). These include the combination of narrative and cognitive
therapy (Gonçalves 1994) and the use of narrative techniques within psychoanalytic
therapy (Luborsky 1984, Hermans and DiMaggio 2004). Luborsky (2004) uses a
narrative approach to understand “the theme of the patient’s wishes, needs, and
intentions in regard to the main people, including the therapist, with whom he or she
interacts during the psychotherapy” (Luborsky 1984, 6 ), while Hermans and
DiMaggio (2004) use narrative approaches to explore the “multivoiced” nature of the
self, and the way that this “multiplicity of voices ... and their mutual relationships
characterize the self as a ‘society of mind’” (2). The approaches of these theorists
are a sample of the many traditions within narrative-based therapies, and
demonstrate that Michael White’s narrative therapy is by no means the definitive
style of narrative therapy. The choice to exclusively focus on White’s narrative
therapy within this study reflects my own personal experiences with this therapeutic
method, and my personal interest in this approach.
White developed much of his early work in collaboration with David Epston and was
also strongly influenced by Cheryl White (Denborough 2009, 95). As a movement,
narrative therapy emphasises collaboration and White acknowledges the influence
of others on his practice, including fellow practitioners and his ‘clients’ (White 2007,
292). The term ‘White’s narrative therapy’ has been used within this study for the
purposes of clarity and brevity.
I have used three specific principles of White’s narrative therapy: externalisation, an
autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions (White 1989, 2003, 2004a, 2004b,
2007). White discusses other principles that are not a part of this research project.
Within each therapeutic session White uses a series of questioning techniques to
enact these principles (White 1989, 2003). My cabaret has applied the principles
behind these questioning techniques, not the questioning techniques themselves.
These principles are discussed in Chapter Two. It should also be acknowledged that
I did not use any of these questioning techniques when interviewing my interviewees
as I am not a psychologist, and my intention with the interviews was not therapeutic.
Rather, the interviewees offered to share their stories for performance in a cabaret,
with no expectation of experiencing a therapeutic outcome.
[7]
The research questions
This study has explored the question: What are the implications of applying White’s
principles of narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret performance about
depression and bipolar disorder?
This question has been explored through the creation and performance of the
cabaret Mind Games and a written exegesis. There is a 50 percent weighting on the
creative work and a 50 percent weighting on the written exegesis. The Mind Games
cabaret explored female experiences of depression or bipolar disorder with a focus
on the characters of ‘Jolene’, a personification of my own inner critic, and ‘Jo’ the
representation of myself within the cabaret performance. Five other characters in the
cabaret performance were created from interviews that I conducted with four women
who had experienced depression, or have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
The sixth character, ‘the mother’ was drawn from research information on individuals
who have cared for people with depression.
In order to tackle the research question, the following sub-questions were addressed:
1. What is the benefit of applying White’s principles of narrative therapy to the
creation of a cabaret performance?
2. How can the aesthetic forms of cabaret be harnessed within this process?
3. What research methods can be utilised to enact this process?
4. What are the tensions within this process, and how can these tensions be
managed?
5. What are the challenges of using an autoethnographic method within this
process, and how can these challenges be managed?
Sub-questions 1 and 2: White’s principles of narrative therapy and cabaret
A goal of this research was to create a self-revelatory cabaret that questioned fixed
notions of truth. White’s narrative therapy helps individuals to re-author their own
stories and address dominant normative discourses. This process moves truth from
a fixed notion, into a state of flux. In other words, White’s narrative therapy allows
individuals to play games of truth. The form of cabaret is marked by a heightened
sense of performativity through its use of direct address and exaggerated
performance persona. This performativity draws attention to the form’s constructed
and artificial nature. These characteristics make cabaret well suited to the
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exploration of the constructed and artificial nature of truth, and the act of performing
a ‘truth in flux’.
I have observed two major trends in contemporary cabaret and have termed these
personal cabaret and provocative cabaret. Personal cabaret features a solo
performer revealing aspects of their lives to an audience through personal
anecdotes. This style of cabaret uses self revelation to portray the concept of a
single, unitary truth. I applied techniques from personal cabaret without taking on the
identity position implied in this style. In contrast, provocative cabaret uses
techniques of parody and persona to challenge notions of a single, unitary truth but
does not emphasise personal revelation. The application of principles of narrative
therapy to the creation of a cabaret performance has allowed me to combine acts of
personal revelation with the performance of a truth in flux. The characteristics of
personal and provocative cabarets will be explored in detail through a contextual
review of contemporary cabaret in Chapter Four. My application of the stylistic
features of these two forms is discussed in Chapters Five and Six.
Sub-question 3: The research methods
This project is based in the methodologies of autoethnographic research, practice-
led research and action research. Autoethnography has been used as the primary
research method in order to reflect a focus on subjectivity and personal revelation.
Auto ethnographic research is characterised by close investigation of assumptions,
attitudes, and beliefs(Reed-Danahay 2007; Richardson 2000; Ellis 1999; Spry 2001;
Etherington 2005).This research project follows the method of ‘evocative narrative
autoethnography’ as described by Ellis and Bochner (2000). According to Ellis and
Bochner (2000) “evocative stories activate subjectivity and compel emotional
response. They long to be used rather than analysed; to be told and retold rather
than theorized and settled...” (744). The mode of the personal narrative requires
social scientists to “take on the dual identities of academic and personal selves to
tell autobiographical stories about some aspect of their experience with daily life”
(Ellis and Bochner 2000, 740). Further explanation of this mode of autoethnography
will be outlined in Chapter Three. This research method has allowed me to
investigate and articulate my own personal experiences and relate these to
theoretical concepts of the construction of truth. In order to capture my own acts of
self-reflection and to ensure that my voice is highly visible within the research, I
have included extensive quotes from my personal journals. These quotes have been
placed in italics in order to differentiate them from other references in the study.
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Within an autoethnographic approach, techniques of practice-led research have
placed the focus on artistic practice as the site of exploration. Due to the use of the
personal material within the performance I have related my creative practice to
theories of autobiographical performance, verbatim theatre and documentary
theatre. The combination of autoethnographic and practice-led research has allowed
me to bring together research into therapeutic techniques, social attitudes and public
discourses about mental illness and contemporary cabaret to facilitate the creation
of a one-woman cabaret performance entitled Mind Games. The nature of the
methods most suited to the nature of the project means have compelled me to be
honest about my own assumptions and changing thought patterns, and how they
have impacted on the findings represented in the show and exegesis. The
performance Mind Games has made personal experiences public. The cabaret has
been based my own experiences and the experiences of individuals, and creative
expression has been used to develop these stories into a cabaret performance. In
this way, the non-fictional inspiration for the performance and has been extended in
fictive ways. Within this research project there has been a productive relationship
between the real and the fictional and a complex relationship between the personal
and the public. These elements of the performance will be discussed in Chapters
Five, Six and Seven. Finally, action research has been used to facilitate a cyclic
approach to the research reflection. I have used three cycles within the research.
Within each cycle of the research, action has been taken followed by reflection on
the results and re-framing of the central concepts towards the next cycle of the
development. These cycles will be discussed in Chapter Three.
Sub-question 4: The tensions within the process
Two major tensions within this research project have arisen from the practice-led
methodology, and conflicting epistemologies within the process.
Practice-led research is experimental and likely to produce unexpected results. In
the third year of the study there was a mismatch between my theory and my
practice. This mismatch required a detailed analysis of and reflection on the creative
work and my own creative process. This required me to put aside ideas of what I
had been trying to create, to appraise the reality of the creative work, and to explore
“the double articulation between theory and practice” (Bolt 2006, 4). This process is
discussed in Chapter Three.
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As I journeyed through the research, I struggled to articulate an epistemologically
clear position. Within the research cycles, my attempts to communicate a
performative outcome and to achieve personal understanding of the material led me
through many interpretative frames, perspectives and speaking positions. The
process of exploring many epistemologies within this research project involved
playing many different games of truth and identifying the games of truth within my
own mind. A major epistemological tension arose from two potentially conflicting
intentions within the work. This tension has had a major impact on the project. I
began the project with an interest in telling my own story and presenting the
experiences of others in an empathetic manner. At the same time I was researching
the history of cabaret and studying the work of contemporary cabaret artists. I fell in
love with the unsettling, edgy nature of this art form. This is a form that began in
France in the late 1800s as a challenge to bourgeois norms, thrived in Weimar
Germany, challenging the political norms of the times, and continues to unsettle the
spheres of politics, sexuality and identity to this day. The history of cabaret,
discussed in more detail in Chapter Four, suggests cabaret is an art form that asks
questions and provokes discussion rather than providing solutions. On the one
hand, I wanted to utilise the intimate space of the cabaret to tell my own story and
the interviewees’ stories in an empathetic and supportive fashion. From this
viewpoint I was creating a kind of verbatim cabaret intended to create a sense of
intimacy and personal revelation. On the other hand, I wanted to be a part of the
tradition of cabaret and create an edgy, provocative work that encouraged audience
discussion. I experimented with a number of solutions to this central tension. These
epistemological tensions will be discussed further in Chapter Three.
Sub-question 5: The challenges of the autoethnographic method
The challenges of the autoethnographic method within this study relate to the telling
of my own story and its presentation with the stories of others.
To tell my own story required honest and rigorous self reflection and the courage to
share my personal stories of depression.
Following an autoethnographic methodology, I aimed to examine and scrutinise “the
connection, intellectual and emotional between the observer and the observed”
(Spry 2001, 191). This quote in Spry’s article is taken from Ruth Behar’s The
Vulnerable Observer (1997), and Spry quotes the following section: -
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Efforts at self-revelation flop not because the personal voice has been used, but because it has been poorly used, leaving unscrutinised the connection, intellectual and emotional, between the observer and the observed. (quoted on Spry 2001, 191)
Through a process of self-examination and reflection I was able to draw a number of
conclusions about my autobiographical performance method. The unexpected
findings of the research project forced me to examine my own personal views and
beliefs, and the performance I created became a reflection of my thought processes.
I noted in my personal journal:
It has suddenly occurred to me that my methodology became embedded in my practice! My performance became an autoethnographic performance. In my theoretical writing I was privileging my own experience as an autoethnographic researcher – and was trying in the show to allow the “researched” to have their own voice and present a different perspective. (Personal Journal 14th July, 2010)
Through personal reflection I was able to observe the way autoethnography, as the
foundational method of the research project, was reflected in the creative outcome
of the research.
Throughout the project I have had a strong interest in White’s principles (especially
the principle of externalisation) and researching White led me to Foucault’s games
or truth. I did not fully articulate my application of White’s principles until May 2010,
within the third cycle of development. In retrospect I understand the integration of
White’s principles within my work as a reflection of my engagement with the work of
Margi Brown Ash (whose workshops and therapeutic methods are based on White’s
principles). In this way the cabaret performance became a reflection of my own
personal understandings of life, a reflection of the autoethnographic foundation of
the study. Practice-led research allows the intuitive to become manifest, for it is
through creative processes that intuition and foundational understandings are
expressed, often in unexpected ways. This process occurred in the way the Mind
Games cabaret reflected my own meaning-making processes. These observations
are further discussed in Chapters Three, Five, Six and Seven.
A major personal challenge within the project was my reticence about telling my own
story in relation to the stories of other people. I have identified this reticence as
arising from a sense of self-stigma, or in other words, my sense of shame and
inadequacy in relation to cultural norms. In response to my experience, self-stigma
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became a motif that was explored within the cabaret performance. The experience
of self-stigma is discussed in detail in Chapter Two, with further explanations of this
experience in relation to the creation of the cabaret in Chapters Three, Five and Six.
An additional personal challenge within the project was to relate my personal stories
to the stories of my interviewees in an ethical fashion to present games of truth. A
major concern in the presentation of verbatim and autobiographical performance is
that these forms are often associated with “telling the truth” about a life story
(Heddon 2008, 151). As this research project is focussed on creating games of truth
rather than presenting a singular truth, the use of verbatim material is highly
problematic. In addition, the illusion of presenting a truthful life story of other
individuals raises a number of ethical concerns. My approach to handling these
concerns is discussed in detail in Chapters Three and Five. I found a useful
approach to this challenge in Rokem’s (2000, 2002) concept of the “witness”, and
particularly his notion that the presence of an onstage “witness” to the action
enhances a sense of theatricality within the performance. The sense of theatricality
in the performance draws attention to the artificial or constructed nature of the
performance and the presence of the witness draws attention to the tension
between the ‘real’ and the ‘fictive’. Thus, the onstage witness can enhance the
acknowledgement of games of truth being presented within the
performance.Rokem’s concept of witnessing is discussed in further detail in Chapter
Three, and will be related to the Mind Games cabaret in Chapters Five and Six.
Contribution to knowledge
The contribution to knowledge of this research project is the application of
therapeutic principles to the creation of a cabaret performance. This process has
focussed on creating a self-revelatory cabaret that questions notions of a fixed truth
through combining elements of existing cabaret forms in new ways. Two major
forms in contemporary cabaret, the personal cabarets and the provocative cabaret,
use the performer- audience relationship in distinctive ways. Through combining
elements of these two forms, I have explored ways to create a provocative cabaret
focussed on the act of self-revelation.
This research has focussed on the illustratration of therapeutic principles through a
cabaret performance in order to play games of truth The performance’s primary
focus has not been on a therapeutic outcome for myself or the interviewees within
the study, but rather on the illustration of therapeutic principles through the telling of
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personal narratives. While the primary outcome is not intended to be therapeutic,
there has arguably been some therapeutic benefits for myself and the interviewees
throughout the process. As I am not a psychologist, these benefits were unintended,
and can be seen as unexpected bonuses of the project. Some discussion of these
benefits will be touched on throughout the exegesis in Chapters Three and Seven.
The research project investigates ways of telling my own story in relation to other’s
stories, through three of the re-authoring principles of Michael White’s narrative
therapy (externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions).
Previously, narrative therapy has been combined with dramatic elements in the form
of narrative theatre (as in the work of Sliep 2005), and with forms of musical therapy
(as in the work of Denborough 2008). Sliep and Denborough have been combining
narrative therapy with theatre and with music respectively, for applications within
social work and therapy. These practitioners have both been strongly influenced by
the narrative therapy of Michael White and David Epston (Sliep 2005, 49;
Denborough 2008, 2).
Yvonne Sliep has worked as an international consultant on training programs in
Africa, using a “narrative theatre” approach within “counselling, development
projects and psychosocial programs” (Sliep 2005, 47-48). Sliep’s work has been
created “as a means of strengthening the social fabric in dislocated communities”
(Sliep and Meyer-Weitz 2003, 45). She combines practices of narrative therapy with
techniques of forum theatre (as developed by Augusto Boal) to explore “key issues”
that a community has identified (Sliep 2005, 49). Sliep’s process begins with the
construction of a drama “from people’s own stories” (Sliep and Meyer-Weitz 2003,
49). This drama is then performed for the community, and the community is involved
in responding to and adapting the performance to develop problem solving
strategies (Sliep 2005, 50 – 51). Sliep and Meyer-Weitz (2003) state that narrative
theatre fosters “the critical consciousness necessary to promote a sense of social
responsibility and action” (54).
David Denborough is a practitioner of narrative therapy who uses songs as one
technique within his practice “to enhance therapeutic and community practice”, and
describes this process as developing “songlines of sustenance” (Denborough 2008,
163, 1). This approach is based on his experience of the “sustenance” and “solace”
that music can provide, and he comments that:
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In my life, at times of profound sorrow, it has been music that has provided the greatest sustenance. It has been songs that have carried me through. And I know for many others, local folk culture provides rich meaning, comfort, celebration and solace. (Denborough 2008, 162)
Denborough describes his work as that of a “community songwriter” and states that
he uses song writing to contribute to “rich story development” and to develop and
co-author “alternative songlines... within narrative practice” (Denborough 2008, 167,
165). The songs created within this process are “double-storied” in that they aim to
express “both the effects of hardship and an alternative storyline of dignity, skills,
values, and local knowledge” (Denborough 2008, 167). Denborough states that this
process of writing, sharing and recording songs is focussed on “inclusion” rather
than “perfection”, and on creating songs that are “resonant with people’s
experiences of life” (Denborough 2008, 170). This approach is based on
Denborough’s belief that therapeutic gain can be found when individuals “feel as if
they are making a contribution to the lives of others” (Denborough 2008, 3). He
refers to this process as “enabling contribution” (Denborough 2008, 3), and aims to
create contexts “in which individuals and communities who are going through hard
times can make contributions to the lives of others who are going through similar
difficulties” (Denborough 2008, 4). Denborough concludes that this use of song is
part of “transforming anguish to art” and of establishing “contribution” (Denborough
2008, 175).
My work differs from the work of Sliep and Denborough in that it is focussed on
illustrating therapeutic concepts, rather than enacting a therapeutic or transformation
experience for the participants. Within this study, I have been applying principles
from narrative therapy to the performative realm in order to discuss these concepts
within the public domain. As an artist rather than a therapist, I have utilised my own
work as a site for the discussion of personal issues and experience. If the work of
Sliep and Denborough can be said to bring artistic expression to the world of
therapy, then my work brings therapy into the world of artistic expression.
Key Terms
Depression and bipolar disorder
This research comes from a personal perspective, as an individual who has
experienced depression meeting other individuals with depression or bipolar
disorder. It is important to clarify that I have been exploring depression and bipolar
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disorder from a social perspective, not a clinical perspective. However, in order to
establish the key terms of this study it is useful to refer to clinical descriptors. Beck
and Alford (2009) define depression in terms of a change in mood (“sadness,
loneliness, apathy”), a “negative self concept”, “regressive and self-punitive
wishes”, “vegetative changes”, and a “change in activity level: retardation or
agitation” (Beck and Alford 2009, 8 ). The American Psychiatric Association (APA)
defines both depression and bipolar disorder as forms of “mood disorders”, and
states that in depression “there is no history of manic or hypomanic episodes” and in
bipolar disorder “there is such a history” (Beck and Alford 2009, 9). It is this
relational definition that informs this study. By including depression and bipolar
disorder within this study I have explored two kinds of common mood disorders. This
study points to the similarities and differences between these two mood disorders
from a social perspective, with a focus on exploring personal experiences of these
conditions. One common feature of personal experiences of depression and bipolar
disorder is the experience of stigma associated with these conditions.
Self-stigma
A sense of self-stigma, or personal shame, is related to feeling abnormal or
inadequate in relation to cultural norms. This definition of self-stigma has been
informed by Foucault’s (2005) discussions of subjectivity and truth in relation to
“self-care”; and Goffman’s (1963) concepts of stigma and self-stigma. These
concepts are discussed in detail in Chapter Two.
Persona
Persona is an exaggerated form of a theatrical character that is often based on
aspects of the performer’s own personality. Performance persona is often used
within cabaret performances to enhance the sense of performativity. Harrington
(2000) advises creators of the personal cabaret style that the “stage persona comes
from you and is part of you, but it’s a creation that’s developed and tailored to evoke
a certain reaction in an audience” (117).
Personal cabarets often emphasise one aspect of a performer’s own personality
within in a heightened performance style.
Within provocative cabaret, great emphasis is placed on an exaggerated
performance persona, as demonstrated in the work of Meow Meow and Tim
Minchin. Meow Meow, the creation of Australian Melissa Madden Gray, is a
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melodramatic vamp who is by turns seductive and comic, outrageous and sweet.
Power (2009) describes this as “the riddle wrapped in an enigma that is her stage
persona”. Tim Minchin’s onstage persona is a kind of crazed concert pianist. With
wildly teased hair, black kohl around the eyes and wearing tuxedos (or black pants
and a white button up shirt) and manic expressions, he has been described as “a
cross between a concert pianist and Igor, the mad retainer from the Frankenstein
movies” (Woodhead 2006).
The persona is the vehicle for the cabaret performer. Meow Meow states that her
shows are “often historionic”, but that this melodramatic form can present “some
truth because you give yourself and the audience some room to move with fantasy"
(quoted in Lawes 2009). Provocative cabaret performers often use a performance
persona to make a point to their audience or to present an aspect of their truth to an
audience.
I have observed two major trends within performance personas in provocative
cabaret, and have described these as the personas of the provocateur and the
vamp. The provocateur presents political and social critiques through musical
humour, and the vamp presents constructed femininity and the vulnerability of the
diva. Tim Minchin is a provocateur, while Meow Meow is a vamp.
Parody
Parody references artistic or cultural forms for comic effect. During my creative
process I have experimented with the use of parody to create a distancing
relationship with the audience, along the lines of Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt
(Willett (ed) 1964). In other words I have used parodic humour as a way to make a
subject seem strange or unfamiliar and to provoke thought about an issue. However,
parody also works to create a sense of familiarity or intimacy with an audience by
referencing popular cultural forms. This ‘push-pull’ effect of distance and intimacy is
a characteristic of provocative cabaret.
Chapter Summary
This exegesis has been structured to explain the theoretical foundations of the study
and relate these to my own creative processes. Chapter One has introduced the
research questions that have motivated this project and the key terms of the study.
Chapter Two discusses the concept of games of truth and the understandings that
frame this research in relation to the theories of Foucault, White and Goffman.
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These theories will be explored with reference to my personal experience of
depression and to the practices of creative arts therapist Brown Ash. Chapter Three
provides a detailed account of the autoethnographic, practice-led, action research
methodology of the study. This methodology is discussed in relation to ethical
considerations, creative practice as a research tool, and the cyclical nature of action
research. Chapter Four, the contextual review, compares the styles of personal
cabaret and provocative cabaret, focussing on six provocative cabaret performers in
Australia and the United Kingdom. Chapters Five and Six focus on the creation and
analysis of the Mind Games cabaret through a discussion of the principles of
Michael White’s narrative therapy in relation to concepts of distance and intimacy.
Three inter-related findings of the study are discussed in Chapter Seven. The first
finding is that the application of principles of White’s narrative therapy was able to
successfully combine provocative and empathetic elements within the cabaret. The
second finding is that the personal agenda of addressing my own self-stigma within
the project reduced the effective portrayal of a truth in flux within the cabaret. The
third finding presents the view that the cabaret expressed ‘Jo’ playing games of truth
in order to journey towards her own “preferred identity claim” (White 2004b) through
an act of “self care” (Foucault 2005). Chapter Eight provides a summary of the
discussion within this exegesis and relates this discussion to the research question
and sub-questions.
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Chapter Two: Framing the research
This whole experience has made me interested in examining the thought processes in our minds that hold us back. The awful inner critic, that voice inside our head that criticises us interminably and screams out our worst fears. (Personal Journal, Saturday 21st of June 2008)
* * *
Depression, mental disorders, identity confusion, and loneliness in contemporary society seem to me to be connected to the way we distance ourselves from others and from ourselves, and I’m interested to explore these concepts in performance.(Personal Journal, 18th February 2008)
* * *
Introduction
As stated in Chapter One, this research project has been inspired by my personal
experiences of having had depression, and my attempts to make sense of my own
experience through the form of cabaret. This chapter elaborates on the theoretical
concepts that have informed my exploration of Michael White’s narrative therapy
and grounds these concepts in my personal experiences. The theoretical concepts
of this study explore notions of games of truth.
In the early stages of this research project I came across a quote from Michael
White that related an individual’s perceptions of their own problems to cultural
constructs:
many of the people who seek therapy believe that the problems in their lives are a reflection of their own identity or the identity of others. When this is the case, their efforts to resolve problems usually have the effect of exacerbating them instead...[because] the habit of thought that constructs these internal understandings of people’s lives is significantly a cultural phenomenon, many of the problems that people consult therapists about are cultural in nature. The history of this cultural phenomenon has been traced by a number of historians of thought, including Michel Foucault. (White 2007, 24- 25)
This quote provided an entry point into the theoretical landscape of this research
project, leading me to explore the theories of Michel Foucault. The following chapter
is a review of literature to illuminate the working definitions of my study as grounded
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in my personal experience. As stated in Chapter One, my experiences of working
with the techniques of Michael White with therapist Margi Brown Ash led me to
explore White’s academic writings on the principles behind his therapeutic
techniques. White’s discussion of Michel Foucault’s concepts of truth and power
then led me to explore Foucault’s concept of pathologisation and Erving Goffman’s
concept of spoiled identity. Through looking at the works of Foucault and Goffman I
began to identify my own experience of self-stigma, and to explore ways to perform
my experience of this. I found Michael White’s narrative therapy, and the revelation
of my own personal stories, a useful way to work through my sense of self-stigma. In
my cabaret show I proceeded to theatricalise, or more appropriately ‘cabaret-ise’,
principles of Michael’s White’s narrative therapy.
The theories of Foucault, White and Goffman form a foundation for this study. This
chapter will discuss Foucault’s approach to the construction of knowledge and truth,
the pathologisation of mental illness and the ethical formation of the subject. These
concepts will then be related to Goffman’s theories on stigma and self-stigma and
Michael White’s concept of spoiled identity. These foundations form the basis for
discussions of the stigma of mental illness and self-stigma. Finally, this chapter will
introduce principles of Michael White’s narrative therapy in relation to performative
concepts of distance and intimacy, and will connect these principles to the work of
Margi Brown Ash.
Foucault’s games of truth
A major inspiration in this study has been Foucault’s perspective that truth about
mental illness is a constructed notion, and that the construction of truth can serve
different dynamics of power. Foucault has termed this process games of truth. For
Foucault, truths are constructs that society uses to categorise and control social
interactions between individuals and institutions, and thus truth is not a universal,
pre-ordained quality but is instead a notion constructed by discourse (Danaher,
Schirato and Webb 2000, 21- 22). In The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault
(1989) explains that his work aims to explore sets of concepts within discourses in
order to work out what kind of “schemata” (organising principles) link the statements
together. According to Foucault:
One stands back in relation to this manifest set of concepts; and one tries to determine according to what schemata (of series, simultaneous groupings, linear or reciprocal modification) the statements may be linked to one another in a type of discourse. One
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tries in this way to discover how the recurrent elements of statements can reappear, dissociate, recompose, gain in extension or determination, be taken up into new logical structures, acquire, on the other hand, new semantic contents, and constitute partial organizations among themselves. (Foucault 1989, 60)
Foucault argues that these organising principles are linked to “centralising powers”
within society and cites the example of the discourse of science that is constructed
as a truth. In order to overcome the power of this dominant discourse of science, he
argues for a process of “genealogy”:
We are concerned... with the insurrection of knowledges that are opposed primarily not to the contents, methods or concepts of a science, but to the effects of the centralising powers which are linked to the institution and functioning of an organised scientific discourse within a society such as ours... for it is really against the effects of a power of a discourse that is considered to be scientific that the genealogy must wage its struggle. (Foucault 1980, 84)
By “genealogy”, Foucault is referring to an historic examination of events in relation
to discourses and states that his work “follows a refusal of analyses couched in
terms of the symbolic field or the domain of signifying structures, and a recourse to
analyses in terms of the genealogy of relations of force, strategic developments and
tactics” (Foucault 1980, 114). One of Foucault’s tactics within this genealogy is to
look for the “minor knowledges” or the points of rupture or discontinuity within
discourses in order to disrupt notions of “unitary truth” that are set up by the
dominant discourses:
It is based on a reactivation of local knowledges – of minor knowledges, as Deleuze might call them – in opposition to the scientific hierarchisation of knowledges and the effects intrinsic to their power: this, then, is the project of these disordered and fragmentary genealogies. (Foucault 1980, 85)
Foucault makes it clear that in examining discourses and the construction of truths
he is not aiming to find the ‘great truth’ that lies underneath everything. Instead he
places the focus firmly on the discourses themselves. His work aims to remain
within the discourses and examines the links between discourses. As O’Farrell
(2005) states:
Foucault consistently maintains that he is not interested in spelling out for the reader what the concrete content of ‘the truth’ might actually be, instead he is interested in looking at the way rules are set up historically to grant or limit access to something called the truth. (84)
[21]
In Foucault’s words,
One is not seeking, therefore, to pass from the text to thought, from talk to silence, from the exterior to the interior, from spatial dispersion to the pure recollection of the moment, from superficial multiplicity to profound unity. One remains within the dimension of discourse. (Foucault 1989, 76)
These analyses have relevance to the way individuals use discourse. Foucault asks
individuals to look within their own consciousness to determine the rules that are in
place, to examine their own use of discourse, and relate this to larger structures
within society. In the final chapter of The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault
rhetorically acknowledges the difficulty in this process, and the “unease” that this
examination may cause.
I understand the unease of all such people. .. they prefer to deny that discourse is a complex, differentiated practice, governed by analysable rules and transformations, rather than be deprived of that tender, consoling certainty of being able to change, if not the world, if not life, at least their ‘meaning’, simply with a fresh word that can come only from themselves, and remain forever close to the source. (Foucault 1989, 210-211)
It important to note that for Foucault these truths and power relations are not ‘fixed’,
but are instead “changeable, reversible and unstable” (Foucault quoted in Bernauer
and Rasmussen 1998, 12). This fluid, changeable and unstable construction of truth
is a notion that has influenced the creation of my cabaret. In an interview later in his
life, Foucault defined his work as playing games with truth, and summed up his
career in the following way:
I have tried to discover how the human subject entered into games of truth, whether they be games of truth which take on the form of science or which refer to a scientific model, or games of truth like those that can be found in institutions or practices of control. (Foucault quoted in Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 1)
Foucault goes on to clarify that by a “game” he means “an ensemble of procedures
which lead to a certain result, which can be considered in function of its principles
and its rules of procedures, as valid or not, as winner or loser” (Foucault quoted in
Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 16).
Identifying games of truth about mental illness
This concept of games of truth that occur within our own belief systems is
particularly relevant to the way that mental illness is viewed within society. Foucault
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examined the history of thought in Western society in relation to madness and
observed the way the “mad” subject was viewed within the medical game of truth,
and asked the question:
how is it, for example that beginning at a certain point in time madness was considered a problem and the result of a certain number of processes – an illness dependent upon a certain medicine? How has the mad subject been placed in this game of truth defined by knowledge or a medical model? (Foucault in Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 9-10)
In Madness and Civilisation Foucault noted the changes in the way madness was
viewed in Europe from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. He observed that
in the fifteenth century there was a celebration of madness and madmen in
literature, and these characters were often used as catalysts for finding truth.
Foucault suggests this celebration of madness arose within a curiosity about the
experience of madness. Foucault proposed that “[i]f folly leads each man into a
blindness where he is lost, the madman on the contrary, reminds each man of this
truth” (Foucault 1991a,14).
Foucault argued that from the eighteenth century onwards madness came to be
institutionalised. He linked this phenomenon to matters of economics in which there
was a new emphasis on the ‘utility’ of individuals. Due to the rise of the industrial
age, “the biological traits of a population become relevant factors for economic
management and it... [became]...necessary to organise around them an apparatus
which will ensure not only their subjection but the constant increase of their utility”
(Foucault 1980, 172). Within this system individuals began to be categorised and
objectified:
The great eighteenth-century demographic upswing in Western Europe, the necessity for co-ordinating and integrating it into the apparatus of production and the urgency of controlling it with finer and more adequate power mechanisms cause ‘population’, with its numerical variables of space and chronology, longevity and health, to emerge not only as a problem but as an object of surveillance, analysis, intervention, modification etc. The project of a technology of population begins to be sketched: demographic estimates, the calculation of the pyramid of ages, different life expectations and levels of mortality... .(Foucault 1980, 171)
Within this new culture, madness became “a condition that was in opposition to
reason, and various forms of madness were identified and classified” leading to the
establishment of the “great houses of confinement” for the mad, the poor and the
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sick (Danaher, Schirato and Webb 2000, 126). In this way, madness became
separated from the broader society, a quality deemed unsuitable to be associated
with. In his introduction to Madness and Civilisation, David Cooper sums up the
author’s argument as follows:
Foucault makes it quite clear that the invention of madness as a disease is in fact nothing less than a peculiar disease of our civilisation.... Above all, in reading this book, one is awakened to a tragic sense of the loss involved in the relegation of the wildly charismatic or inspirational area of our experience to the desperate region of pseudo-medical categorization from which clinical psychiatry has sprung”. (David Cooper in the preface to Foucault 1991a, viii)
In The Birth of the Clinic, Foucault examined the way that modern medicine
objectifies its subjects, discussing the way conditions became objectified and
pathologised. Foucault describes the medical gaze as one of aiming to ‘master’ all
that it beholds; for within this ‘rational’ process the patient becomes the ‘object’ for
analysis:
The gaze is passively linked to the primary passivity that dedicates it to the endless task of absorbing experience in its entirety, and of mastering it ...By acquiring the status of object, its particular quality, its impalpable colour, its unique, transitory form took on weight and solidity. No light could now dissolve them in ideal truths; but the gaze directed upon them would, in turn, awaken them and make them stand out against a background of objectivity. (Foucault 1991b, xiv)
Madness had changed from being a quality potentially within all of us to being a
‘sickness’, a quality to be objectified, confined, and examined. Foucault describes
this process as the ‘pathologising’ of madness:
In a space so arranged, madness will never again be able to speak the language of unreason, with all that in it transcends the natural phenomena of disease. It will be entirely enclosed in a pathology.(Foucault 1991a, 196-197)
It is important to note while Foucault’s theories of mental illness refer to the full
spectrum of mental illness, I am using these theories as a way of exploring the way
just depression and bi-polar disorder are ‘distanced’ from normal life.
The stigma of mental illness
I have personally experienced stigma relating to mental illness, a phenomenon that
has been discussed by Healy (1998), Sartorius and Schulze (2005) and Sayce
(1999). Healy (et al. 1998) states that there is a substantial amount of “stigma and
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suspicion” surrounding mental illness within contemporary society that can cause
“isolation and discrimination” (5, 9). Sartorius and Schulze (2005) argue that stigma
is one of the major obstacles facing individuals with a mental illness (xii- xiii). Sayce
(1999, 9-10) relates her personal experience to her own research and observes that
many individuals with a mental illness have a fear of seeking help or admitting their
condition to work colleagues due to a fear of discrimination. Sayce goes on to state
that individuals often find the experience of being diagnosed with a mental illness as
‘frightening’; that they have a fear of being rejected if they reveal their condition; and
that they can go to great lengths to conceal their condition (1999, 69- 70).
Faced with stigma and prejudice from both the public and mental health professionals, it is no surprise that people with psychiatric illnesses begin to view themselves as inferior to others. They may accept the image that others hold of them as being dangerous and unpredictable. The impact on their self-image is then disastrous, leading to social withdrawal and lack of motivation to achieve their goals. (Leff and Warner 2006, 4)
Leff and Warner’s notion of ‘inferiority’ being an effect of stigma around mental
illness articulates an important component of what I am terming ‘self-stigma’. Both
‘inferiority’ and ‘shame’ are important operating principles in my defining the
theoretical framework of my study.
Goffman on stigma and self-stigma
My own sense of self-stigma has included feelings of shame and inadequacy. The
term self-stigma is based on Goffman’s description of the stigma that occurs within
an individual’s ego identity. Goffman describes stigma as a situation in which an
individual does not experience full social acceptance: “He [sic.] is thus reduced in
our minds from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one. Such an
attribute is stigma...” (Goffman 1963,12). In this way stigma has the effect of making
a person ‘tainted’, ‘discounted’ or spoiled rather than ‘whole’, ‘usual’ or ‘normal’.
The person sees themselves as ‘normal’ but realises that this image does not match
up with society’s view:
Earlier it was suggested that a discrepancy may exist between an individual’s virtual and actual identity. This discrepancy, when known about or apparent, spoils his social identity; it has the effect of cutting him off from society and from himself so that he stands a discredited person facing an unaccepted world. (Goffman 1963, 31)
It is this process that ‘spoils’ the identity, and ‘discredits’ the individual. Goffman
states that within this phenomenon shame can become a ‘central possibility’ (1963,
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18). Goffman defines stigma as affecting three types of identity for an individual: a
social identity, a personal identity and an ego identity, each having a different
relationship to stigma (1963, 129). Social identity concerns the way in which the
individual presents him or herself to the world at large, comprising people who do
not know him or her. Personal identity is the recognition of the individual by the
circle of people who know him or her. Ego identity, on the other hand, “concerns
what the individual feels him – or herself to be and, hence, is a personal, self-
reflexive experience” (Leff and Warner 2006, 19). Goffman states that “ego identity
is first of all a subjective, reflexive matter that necessarily must be felt by the
individual whose identity is at issue [and that] the idea of ego identity allows us to
consider what the individual may feel about stigma and its management” (Goffman
1963, 129- 130). A central tenet of Goffman’s argument is that the stigmatised
individual is likely to hold the same set of values as the general community, and thus
is acutely aware of their own ‘spoiled identity’. This is then likely to lead to a sense
of shame:
The stigmatized individual tends to hold the same beliefs about identity that we do; this is a pivotal fact......the standards he has incorporated from the wider society equip him to be intimately alive to what others see as his failing, inevitably causing him, if only for moments, to agree that he does indeed fall short of what he really ought to be. Shame becomes a central possibility, arising from the individual’s perception of one of his own attributes as being a defiling thing to possess, and one he can readily see himself as not possessing. (Goffman 1963, 17- 18)
Goffman goes on to say that this discrepancy between the society’s norms and the
individual’s characteristics “spoils his [the individual’s] social identity...[and] has the
effect of cutting him off from society and from himself so that he stands a discredited
person facing an unaccepted world” (Goffman 1963, 31). For the purposes of this
research I have termed the experience of stigma within ego identity as ‘self-stigma’.
From the viewpoint of ‘pathologisation’, individuals suffering from depression or bi-
polar disorder become patients and objects for analysis, separated from wider
society, and marked as ‘spoiled identities’.
Michael White and spoiled identity
Michael White’s narrative therapy is based on helping his patients to re-think their
spoiled identity. White links concepts of spoiled identity to the Foucaultian notion
that power is constructed by discourses of truth/knowledge. White states that in
contemporary life people tend to judge themselves by “socially constructed norms”
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and that this can lead to a sense of “inadequacy” (White 2004, 168). In the sense
that spoiled identity is created when an individual negatively judges themselves in
relation to social norms, spoiled identity has a strong relationship with self-stigma.
Using a Foucaultian approach, White attributes the phenomenon of spoiled identity
to “dividing practices” of “scientific classification” that lead to individuals considering
themselves “incompetent” or “inadequate” (White 2007, 25-26). White states that
this sense of inadequacy or spoiled identity is created when individuals believe their
identity to be ‘fixed’: that is, not subject to change. White describes this process as
one in which individuals believe that their problems are internal to themselves, and
thus they – the individual – are the problem. In this way, individuals identify with their
problems, believing that the problem is innately a part of their identity. In White’s
words:
people come to believe that their problems are internal to their self or the selves of others – that they or others are in fact, the problem. And this belief only sinks them further into the problems they are attempting to resolve. (White 2007, 10)
White’s solution to this phenomenon has been to create a form of therapy “that
sponsors possibilities for the remanufacture of identity” (White 2004, 187). White
proposes that through the practice of narrative therapy, it is possible to subvert the
power operations of contemporary society, and move society into a state of ‘flux’
where meaning is not fixed and individuals can participate in their own meaning-
making processes. Using the terms of this study, White’s therapeutic approach
encourages individuals to play games of truth with the narrative of their own lives in
order to overcome a sense of self-stigma.
My personal experience of self-stigma
My own experience aligns with the feelings of inferiority and shame identified with
self-stigma. As stated in Chapter One, I have defined self-stigma as an experience
of shame in relation to feeling abnormal or inadequate in relation to cultural norms. I
have often felt ashamed to be depressed, and have tried to put on a ‘brave face’ for
the world. I experienced some relief in discussing my experience with friends and
finding common ground. However, this occasional sense of relief through personal
disclosure has often been negated with a sense of shame or self-stigma. I journalled
my own personal experiences of self-stigma within this research project and, in the
second year of the project, noted my own struggle with the act of self-revelation:
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When I look back on my research last year, I feel that I was not ready to undergo a process of deep inner reflection... [to bring] these reflections in[to] a public realm. Even though while I am writing these reflections they are purely personal, I am of course aware that these reflections form part of my PhD and will become ‘public property’. I feel that this has definitely contributed to my reticence in telling my full story, and exploring my personal responses within this research. (Personal Journal 25th May, 2009)
At the time I related my own dilemma to Etherington’s (2004) comments that “there
is a real risk that others might pathologize us if we expose our vulnerabilities in
writing and research” (142). This point relates to Foucault’s theories of the
pathologisation of mental illness, and White’s theories of spoiled identity.
Etherington then balances this risk of pathologisation with the comment that writing
about personal experience could be a “affirming”, “encouraging” and “strengthening”
(143). Taking these comments on board I attempted to a write more openly in my
journals, and found this to be a very challenging process:
[I] don’t like [the] feeling of vulnerability this brings. [It] makes me feel less ‘in control’, and actually when I reflect on it less ‘smart’, and less ‘rational’...I feel like I associate being an academic with being ‘rational’ and thus with not being emotional or vulnerable. Telling about my own vulnerabilities makes me feel less capable within the world of ideas and intellect. (Personal Journal Monday 25th May, 2009)
This journal entry shows my own discomfort in sharing my own story: I was
interested in talking about my experiences of depression, but at the same time felt
deeply uncomfortable when doing so. This discomfort created a tension within my
research. Later in my journal I reflected that:
Every time I tell someone about the show I always start with “it includes interviews from people with depression and bipolar disorder” - I use this as a disclaimer because I’m very self-conscious about writing a show about ‘my depression’ and telling people that I have had depression. I still feel a sense of shame, self-consciousness, or at best awkwardness with revealing this information, and often feel compelled to state that I was never “seriously” or “clinically” depressed... The ‘demons’ in the work are for the me the self-stigma that I associate with this area and with revealing myself as having had depression. (Personal Journal, 18th January 2010)
These feelings of discomfort, shame, and embarrassment are central to my
experience of self-stigma.
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Foucault, the ethical formation of the subject and games of truth
Late in his career, Foucault discussed notions of truth in relation to subjectivity and
“self-care”. In The Hermeneutics of the Subject (2005), Foucault discussed the ways
in which a subject comes to find truth in relation to self-care or “care of oneself”
(Foucault 2005, 2). This work explored “the movement in ancient thought, from the
Hellenistic and imperial period, by which reality was thought of as the site of the
experience of the self and as the opportunity for the test of the self” (Foucault 2005,
486). According to Foucault this view of life as a “test of the self” can be understood
in two different ways: firstly in the sense that “the world is recognized as being that
through which we experience ourselves”, and secondly as “an exercise... through
which, in spite of, or thanks to which we form ourselves, transform ourselves,
advance towards an aim or salvation, or head towards our own perfection” (Foucault
2005, 486-487). Foucault favours the second option of ‘self-transformation’
(O’Farrell 2005, 113), and advocates for conscious ‘self-formation’ of the subject in
relation to games of truth, commenting that it is “...an exercise of self upon self by
which one trie[s] to work out, to transform one’s self and to attain a certain mode of
being” (Foucault quoted in Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 2). It is interesting to
note that Foucault’s suggested method for achieving this conscious self-formation is
through artistic practices. For Foucault, art is associated with ethics and the ways
that we represent ourselves to ourselves and others, and thus:
Foucault’s point [is] that what lies behind the effort involved in taking care of the self, applying techniques of the self, and crafting one’s life as a work of art is the relation between freedom and power… Foucault writes, the idea of aesthetics can be used as a metaphor for the self, can provide a set of practices in and by which to take care of the self. (Danaher, Schirato and Webb 2000, 163)
“Self care” is thus the subject’s conscious formation of their own truth, and constant
attendance to their life as a work of art. Following on from this, “self care” is a
subject’s conscious use of games of truth that define their life.
Principles of White’s narrative therapy
Foucault’s description of “self care” as a subject’s conscious formation of their own
life as a work of art had strong impacts on Michael White’s principles of narrative
therapy. White refers to Foucault’s statement that “self care” is an “exercise of the
self by which one attempts to develop and transform oneself” (Foucault quoted in
White 2004a, 192), and states that this “exercise of the self” leads to the perception
“that the human subject is not a ‘substance’ but a ‘form’” (White 2004a, 193). In
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other words, an individual’s identity is not a predestined quality but is subject to that
individual’s choice and action.
Narrative therapy involves processes in which individuals examine the workings of
their minds and their perspectives on life, and work to unravel their own negative
conclusions. Through this process, individuals are able to “reveal the history of the
‘politics’ of the problem that bring people to therapy ... and that have shaped their
negative conclusions about their life and their identity” (White 2007, 27). This
process asks individuals to challenge their own conclusions of truth, and to re-write
their lives on their own terms. White (2004a, 2007) provides examples in which his
patients have used his techniques in order to overcome a sense of personal failure
and inadequacy, and finding new ways to tell their life story that align with their own
personal values and ethics. White’s therapeutic processes challenge individuals to
transform the way they see the world, and their own actions in relation to their own
sense of personal ethics.
White’s process of asking individuals to define their own life in relation to their own
values and ethics is a technique of intimacy or of valuing and connecting with their
own sense of subjectivity. Narrative therapy challenges individuals to examine their
own negative conclusions, to explore “neglected aspects” of their lives, and to move
into a state of flux and flexibility, where many perspectives are possible. White
describes this as a process of “unravelling”:
It is quite common for this unravelling process to reveal the history of the “politics” of the problem that bring people to therapy. This is a history of the power relations that people have been subject to and that have shaped their negative conclusions about their life and their identity. This unravelling deprives these conclusions of a “truth” status and calls them into question. As an outcome, people find that their lives are no longer tied to these negative conclusions and this puts them in a position to explore other territories of their lives. (White 2007, 27)
This refers back to White’s use of Foucault’s theories of truth. For White, narrative
therapy offers a way for individuals to challenge their concepts of truth, to question
their concepts of certainty. White argues that a narrative approach is able to
achieve this because “[t]he narrative mode leads not to certainties, but to varying
perspectives... [and in] this world of narrative, the subjunctive mood prevails rather
than the indicative mood” (White and Epston 1990, 78). In order to expand on this
concept, White refers to Bruner’s theories of effective storytelling and quotes
Bruner’s theory that:
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the triggering of presupposition, the creation of implicit rather than explicit meanings … The second is what I shall call subjectification: the depiction of reality not through an omniscient eye that views a timeless reality, but through the filter of consciousness of protagonists in the story… The third is multiple perspective: beholding the world not univocally but simultaneously through a set of prisms each of which catches some part of it. (Bruner quoted in White and Epston 1990, 79)
In this way narrative therapy allows individuals to move away from a fixed view, to
explore their experience from many different perspectives, taking them “out of a
fixed and static world, a world of problems that are intrinsic to persons and
relationships, and into a world of experience, a world of flux” in which they “find new
possibilities for affirmative action, new opportunities to act flexibly” (White and
Epston 1990, 42).
As mentioned in Chapter One, this study has focussed on three principles from
White’s narrative therapy: externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living, and rich
descriptions of life experience. The principle of externalisation separates an
individual’s problem from their identity, an autonomous ethic of living is the
identification of core values and beliefs, and rich descriptions focus on a sense of
multiplicity and encourage individuals to view their lives as “multi-purposed and
“multilayered” (White 2004b, 32). I employed these three principles of White’s
narrative therapy to create dynamic relationships between distance and intimacy in
the Mind Games cabaret and to create the effect of a truth in flux, or, to use one of
Foucault’s phrases, to play games of truth. The following sections will discuss these
therapeutic principles in relation to the performative concepts of distance and
intimacy. Performatively speaking, distance and intimacy relate to the relationship
between the performance and the audience. A relationship of distance estranges the
audience from the performance, while a relationship of intimacy draws the audience
into a more empathetic connection. In applying these performative terms to a
therapeutic process, the individual in therapy is both the performer and audience for
their own life story.
Principle One: externalisation
The principle of externalisation objectifies and separates an individual’s problems
from their identity; “this makes it possible for people to experience an identity that is
separate from the problem [so that] the problem becomes the problem, not the
person” (White 2007, 10). Externalisation allows individuals to examine the way they
tell their life story and to “separate [their story] from the dominant stories that have
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been shaping their lives and relationships” (White and Epston 1990, 40 -41). This
process is achieved through an objectification of the problem (rather than an
objectification of the person) allowing individuals to separate their own identity from
the problem. Through this process, the problem no longer represents the truth of
someone’s identity allowing for easier resolution of the problem. White relates that:
Externalizing conversations can provide an antidote to these internal understandings by objectifying the problem. They employ practices of objectification of the problem against cultural practices of objectification of people. This makes it possible for people to experience an identity that is separate from the problem; the problem becomes the problem, not the person. In the context of externalizing conversations, the problem ceases to represent the “truth” about people’s identities, and options for successful problem resolution suddenly becomes visible and accessible. (White 2007, 10)
White comments that externalisation “undermines the sense of failure”, “opens up
new possibilities for persons to take action to retrieve their lives…” and “ presents
options for dialogue, rather than monologue, about the problem” (White 1989, 6).
For purposes of clarity I will describe an example of the externalisation process as
given by White. ‘Sarah’ had a history of cutting and depression, and believed that
she was ‘hateful’. In response, White’s therapy focussed on an inquiry into her
‘self-hate’ as an external object for examination, or a kind of personification of self-
hate:
We were soon engaged in an inquiry into what self-hate had persuaded Sarah to believe about her identity (“I am worthless and useless and I deserve my lot in life”), about what it required her to do to her body “treat my body in rejecting and punitive ways”), about its agenda for her relationship with others (“to isolate me from others”), and so on. (White 2007, 26)
Through this process, ‘Sarah’ then reflected on what her ‘self-hate’ would say in
relation to certain situations, and this gave ‘Sarah’ the opportunity to link her self-
hate with people from her life experience, and examine the way that her thought
processes had been influenced by things others had said to her. Thus
the externalizing conversation that facilitated the unravelling of
these conclusions also created space for the development of a re-
authoring conversation... The development of these conversations
was associated with a rapid diminution of the cutting and of the
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depression that had maintained such a strong presence in Sarah’s
life. (White 2007, 27)
I have had personal experience of these techniques through my therapy sessions
with Margi Brown Ash. Brown Ash is a practitioner of narrative therapy and applies
this technique to her creative arts therapy. Within my therapeutic process with
Brown Ash, I externalised and creatively personified my inner critic. As noted in
Chapter One, a vivid memory I have of working in this way is a session in which I
personified my inner critic as a tall thin woman, and then re-worked (or re-authored)
this story to make my inner critic a more productive force in my life.
This externalisation process can be seen to relate to the performance personas
developed in cabaret. When an aspect of the individual is externalised in narrative
therapy, it becomes exaggerated and stylised. The externalised persona is not
intended to be a realistic persona; rather, it is one aspect of a personality
exaggerated and streamlined into the essence of an idea. The process of
externalisation is a playful and theatrical process. In White’s own words, this
process encourages a “lighter, more effective and less stressed approach to “deadly
serious” problems” (White 1989, 6). The process encourages individuals to see their
situations from new perspectives, find other ways to approach their own problems
and “...provides people with avenues of possibility for addressing the predicaments
and problems of their lives in ways that they wouldn’t have imagined” (White 2007,
5).
Within therapeutic sessions, White uses a number of different questioning styles to
externalise the problem, including “relative influence” questions, “unique outcome”
questions and the technique of “mapping relative influence” (White 1989). “Relative
influence questioning” invites individuals to create two descriptions of their
relationship with the acknowledged problem. The first describes the influence of the
problem in relation to their lives, and the second describes the influence the
individuals have in relation to the problem (White 1989, 37). Both of these
descriptions help individuals to externalise their problems, as their problems are
seen as separate from themselves. The second description leads to “unique
outcome” questions, inviting individuals to “locate exceptions to the influence of the
problem in their lives and their relationships” (37). White states that these type of
accounts “usually possess a richness and a complexity that the old accounts,
descriptions, and possibilities lack” (White 1989, 39). The approach of “mapping
relative influence” is based on a series of questions that ask individuals to draw
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together experiences in which they have resisted the problem’s oppression or “to
map their influence in the life of the problem, to select out “facts” which are at
variance with their experience of the problem’s oppression of them” (White 1989,
72). These three questioning techniques work in a sequence to externalise the
problem, and draw attention to an individual’s ability to influence and respond to the
problem within their life.
The process of externalisation can be seen as a technique of distancing in that it
exaggerates personal experience in playful and sometime comic ways, encouraging
new viewpoints to emerge. In performative terms, externalisation can be seen as a
process of distancing: that is, a way to see a situation differently through playful
processes of exaggeration and dialogue, or to use a Brechtian term, to ‘make
strange’.
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Principle Two: an autonomous ethic of living
The principle of an autonomous ethic of living invites individuals to move towards
their own ‘telos’, that is, “the goal or the end-point that one seeks to arrive at in one’s
identity project” (White 2002, 56). This principle encourages individuals to define
their own core values. Intimacy is found as individuals explore their own core beliefs
and create their own sense of identity in opposition to normative discourses. The
term autonomous ethic of living is drawn from Foucault’s discussion on personal
ethics and the constitution of the self as a moral agent, involving four aspects:
‘ethical substance’, ‘mode of subjectification’, ‘aesthetics’, and ‘telos’ (White 2002,
53). The first aspect, ‘ethical substance’ focuses on one aspect of life that the
individual considers “of primary relevance to ethical judgement” (White 2002, 53).
The second aspect, ‘mode of subjectification’, is “the mechanism through which
people are encouraged or required to recognise their moral obligations in regard to
the management of the relevant ethical substances” (White 2002, 54). The third
aspect, ‘aesthetics’ or ‘ascetics’ involves an individual’s lifestyle and specifically “the
self- and relationship-forming activities that one elaborates an identity and a life that
can be considered ethical” (White 2002, 56). The final aspect, ‘telos’, is the end
point or goal of the lifestyle choices one is making. These concepts are explained
using Ancient Greek and early Christian lifestyles as examples (White 2002, 53 –
58). In Ancient Greek culture it can be seen that, ethical substance is that pleasure
has to be managed well, the mode of subjectification is aesthetic values, the
ascetics are the techniques through which pleasure is managed, and telos is self
mastery in relation to pleasure. In early Christianity, ethical substance is that
personal desire needs to be managed through the subjectification of divine law and
the techniques of deciphering and modulating one’s desires towards the telos of
salvation or purity of being. As a therapeutic principle, White uses the concept of
autonomous ethic of living in order to help individuals choose the values they wish to
live their life by. The principle of an autonomous ethic of living invites individuals to
choose their own core values and beliefs and to structure their life around these
choices.
An inquiry into an autonomous ethic of living encourages individuals to identify
aspects of their life “that people judge to be of primary relevance in regard to how
they live their lives” (White 2004a, 198). For example, for one individual this was
“integrity” and another “self-preservation” (White 2004a, 198). White bases this
principle on overcoming normalising processes in which people judge themselves
“according to socially constructed norms” and hence perceive their own actions as
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reflecting “degrees of inadequacy, abnormality, insufficiency, incompetency,
hopelessness” (White 2004a,168). These normalising judgements often induce a
sense of personal failure (White 2004a,169). In response to normalising
judgements, White encourages individuals to be “active mediators and negotiators
of life’s meanings and predicaments” and to live “...their lives according to intentions
that they embrace in the pursuit of what they give value to in life” (White 2007, 103).
Some questions that White uses to discuss an autonomous ethic of living include:
“If you were to name what is important to you that is a foundation for this interest
and these steps, that is one of those bottom-line things, what words would you come
up with?” and “What are you expressing in your interest in.... ?”(White 2004a, 198).
An example of this shown by one of White’s patients, who White describes as
having “successfully abandoned the pursuit of adequacy” in favour of “a strongly
ethical position informed by integrity and by specific values and beliefs that he held
precious” (White 2004a, 167). White uses questions within this therapy that
encourage individuals to identify aspects of their own individuality and “challenge the
subjugation of normalising judgement” (White 1989, 54). Two examples of these
questions are: “What do you think this might tell you about your ability that you
wouldn’t have otherwise known?” and “What do you think it tells me about you that I
can appreciate?” (White 1989, 54).
One situation that shows the principle of an autonomous ethic of living in practice is
White’s treatment of ‘Paul’, a therapist who was ashamed of being overly “sensitive”
in relation to his work, for extreme sensitivity didn’t fit his perceived norms of a
therapist (White 2004a, 61 – 66). ‘Paul’s’ sensitivity was in response to counselling
couples and he related this sensitivity to what he termed “unresolved issues” in
relation to his abusive father (White 2004a, 62). Through extended conversation
with White, ‘Paul’ identified this sensitivity as a skill in relation to addressing
“intimidations and disrespect” and “developed some specific ideas about how he
might give expression to this sensitivity and to these knowledges, and about how
this could open space for conversations about that which usually cannot be spoken
of” (White 2004a, 66). In this way White encouraged Paul to rethink his “weird”,
abnormal qualities, in order to see them as unique skills and abilities. Through the
techniques of narrative therapy, individuals are able to rewrite their life on their own
terms. White believes that the investigation of a sense of “personal failure” is a
useful way to explore an individual’s beliefs. His use of the phrase the “phenomenon
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of personal failure” refers to way an individual may consider themselves a failure in
relation to the established norms of society (2004a, 152-3).
White believes that this sense of personal failure has increased in recent times, and
he believes it is now rare for him to meet anyone who has not experienced a sense
of personal failure. He clarifies that failure refers to “a sense of inadequacy,
incompetence, insufficiency, deficit, backwardness, and so on” (White 2004a, 153).
As influenced by Foucault, White believes that the concept of failure is linked to
”operations of modern power” and to “normalising judgements’’ (White 2004a, 168);
White has created a list of “modern failures”, or actions that are perceived to result
in labelling the self as a failure. These include “simple mistakes and errors of
everyday life”, “unsatisfactory performances of one’s assigned social role”, and
“general backsliding on the established purposes of one’s life” (White 2004a, 172-3).
White’s approach to therapy involves an examination of the origin of an individual’s
sense of failure, and how it can be related to a list of ‘shoulds’ in the person’s own
mind. An example of this is given in his patient ‘Judy’ who upon examining her own
sense of failure commented: “I am just so tired of having to go ‘THERE’, to achieve
‘THIS’, and to make ‘THAT’ of my life!” (White 2004a, 181, original emphasis).
In response to normalising judgements, White encourages individuals to be “active
mediators and negotiators of life’s meanings and predicaments” and to live “...their
lives according to intentions that they embrace in the pursuit of what they give value
to in life” (White 2007, 103). An example of this process is shown in the specific
case of ‘Max’ who was unhappy at work and feeling inferior and incapable. White
relates that through narrative therapy, ‘Max’ was able to unpack his own
assumptions about the world, and realise that he was striving for adequacy; and that
Over a period of two months in which we had four meetings, Max successfully abandoned the pursuit of adequacy. In this time his apprehension was progressively unpacked. This was an apprehension that represented a strongly ethical position informed by integrity and by specific values and beliefs that he held precious, and that fitted with what he eventually names as his life’s aspiration: ‘ to achieve a life of goodness’. (White 2004a, 167)
In this way ‘Max’ articulated his own sense of ethics and worked to re-author his
own story in alignment with his own values. White describes ‘Max’ has having
“successfully abandoned the pursuit of adequacy” in favour of “a strongly ethical
position informed by integrity and by specific values and beliefs that he held
precious” (White 2004a, 167).
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White uses a series of questions that challenge individuals to examine the
underlying values that inform their own sense of personal failure. This process helps
individuals to identify the normative power structures that have informed the way
they tell their life story. After identifying these underlying values the individual can
then make more conscious choices on the kinds of values that they would like to
base their lives on. This technique asks individuals to see their life situation in a
more empathetic way. That is, the individual is encouraged to explore their own
unique subjective experience and personal ethics and to create a personal life story
that reflects this subjective experience. The principle of an autonomous ethic of
living encourages individuals to explore their own unique subjectivity and to
empathetically connect to their own subjective viewpoint of the world. In this way,
personal ethics can be seen as a technique of intimacy.
Principle Three: rich descriptions
A third principle of White’s process is rich descriptions (White 1989; White 2004a;
White 2004b). White’s re-authoring process aims to create a “rich” or “thick”
description of people’s lives as opposed to “thin” descriptions (White 2004a, 126). In
this way the re-authoring process generates “a wide range of possibilities for action
in the world that were not previously visible... [allowing] people to step into other
experiences of their identity” (White 2004a, 126). White’s concept of “rich” or “thick”
descriptions was influenced by the “interpretative turn” in social science, led by
cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz (White 2004b, 24). Geertz argued against
“reductionist conceptions” of identity and asserted that individuals’ realities were a
production of historical and social factors and “negotiated in and between
communities of people” (White 1989, 40; White 2004b, 24). In his therapy, White
aims to encourage “personal agency” through a “rich description” of intentional
states (White 2004b, 25). These “rich descriptions” focus on a sense of “multiplicity”,
and allow “people’s lives to become multi-intentioned” (White 2004b, 31). White
contrasts “internal state psychologies”, in which identity is seen as fixed, with ‘rich’
descriptions of life that are able to “throw people’s expressions of life into a
multiplicity of different lights” (White 2004b, 31- 32). Through these understandings
individuals can view their lives as “open to renegotiation”, “multi-purposed” and
“multi-layered” (White 2004b, 32). Rich descriptions of life encourage individuals to
move between a sense of distance and intimacy with their own stories through
connecting with one version of their own story and then opening up the possibility to
investigate other stories. This process allows the development of “multiple
authenticities” in which individuals are able to engage in multiple “tellings and
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retellings” of their own stories (White 2004b, 33-34). For White, authenticity is not
about an inner truth being revealed, but rather “authenticity is regarded as a public
and social achievement in which a person’s preferred identity claims are
acknowledged” (White 2004b, 34). Through using rich descriptions individuals are
able to “creatively engage” with their past, and engage in the “generation and
regeneration of meaning” (White 2004b, 35). This experimentation with meaning is
focussed on exploration of an autonomous ethic of living.
An autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions in practice
The principles of an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions can be
demonstrated through White’s technique of “double storied conversations” (White
2003). This technique moves between a sense of distance and intimacy, through
relating one side of a story and then exploring the story from another perspective.
This principle has been used in community projects in which stories are shared
within a community setting for therapeutic benefit. In these settings White worked
collaboratively with other therapists and communities. These community projects
included projects about health concerns (such as HIV/AIDS) and work with specific
Australian Indigenous communities (White 2003, 19). Within a community setting,
individuals express their experiences of “psychological pain and emotional distress”
in a manner that is “honoured and joined with by others”, which encourages a
response of “compassion” and “evokes a sense of solidarity” within the community
(White 2003, 43). The technique of double storied conversations begins with the
concept of “double listening” in which the opposite side of an account is “made
visible” (White 2003, 30). For example, when one individual recounted her
experience of “shattering events”, this experience revealed the core values she held
as “precious”, and her intention towards these values in her life (White 2003, 40).
After this individual had shared her story, other community members were invited to
share stories of their own which resonated with these core values (White 2003, 40).
White relates that one outcome of this process was that the individual experienced
“a very significant lessening of her felt experience of psychological pain, and the
dissolution of the sense of helplessness and personal inadequacy” (White 2003, 40).
The principle of “doubly listening” uses the technique of “contrasting ...some
experiences with other experiences through description” in order to attribute
meaning to experience (White 2003, 30). In these community settings, a space is
created in which people use discussion of trauma to point to their own “intentional”
values, and to express a personal “legacy” in which “the trauma that they and others
have gone through will not be for nothing” (White 2003, 43-44). This process
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encourages individuals to incorporate experiences of trauma “into the storylines of
their lives, and to allocate these to history as events with beginnings and endings”
(White 2003, 44). White asserts that through this process individuals “are provided
with a foundation for knowing how to proceed with their lives” (White 2003, 44). In
terms of distance and intimacy, double storied conversations invite a sense of
intimacy with each story as it is told, and then encourage a sense of distance to
explore the themes within each of these stories and relationships between people.
In this way double storied conversations are an example of White’s principle of rich
descriptions that encourage a flux between a sense of distance and intimacy.
The work of Margi Brown Ash
Margi Brown Ash works as a theatre maker, educator and psychotherapist with
“artists and those wanting to live more creatively” (Australasian Association for
Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies 2009, 45). She facilitates workshops
“aimed at developing resilience and understanding of self using the arts” (Brown Ash
4change.com, 2010). Margi Brown Ash is both a therapist and creative practitioner
working in a social constructionist framework who is strongly influenced by the work
of Michael White (Brown Ash 2009, 25-26). She is specifically influenced by White
and Foucault’s discussion of power relations within discourse that can “be regarded
as repressive, limiting, containing and denying, shaping our lives and creating truths
around which we construct our day-to-day communication” (Brown Ash 2009, 26).
She states that social constructionist counselling “helps the client reconstruct their
own reality and develop a stronger sense of personal agency” (Brown Ash 2009,
21).
She applies this framework to creative therapy and to her own practice as a director.
Within the therapy sessions/workshops she focuses on “the transformational role of
language... and how it can be seen as creating the reality of the individual”, the
concepts of “multiplicity, including ideas of multiple realities and multiple stories”,
and “the role of power in the construction of self” (Brown Ash 2009, 23). Brown Ash
applies White’s discussions of multiple selves/multiple stories in her work and in
reference to White (2004a) states “this multi-authored framework is an alternative
idea to the one true self or the essential self that sits within a more evidenced-based
psychological framework” (Brown Ash 2009, 25). It is important to note that Brown
Ash’s work is influenced by a range of social constructionist theorists. However, it
can clearly be seen that her work has links with White, and the concept of
“multiplicity” has a strong relationship with the three principles of narrative therapy
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discussed in this study. Through working with Brown Ash I was introduced to these
principles in action and they became an important part of my own meaning-making
processes.
Conclusion
My exploration of the work of Foucault, White and Goffman has informed my
exploration of personal identity in relation to concepts of truth. Foucault, White and
Goffman’s discussions of the pathologisation of mental illness, spoiled identity and
self-stigma articulate a number of games of truth that have arisen about mental
illness. In response to these issues, it can be helpful to explore new perspectives to
situations, (that is, to play games of truth) and to search for a sense of personal
ethics, and new ways to approach the world through “self care”. White’s principles of
externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions can be used to
play games of truth with personal identity. I have been engaging with these
principles for a number of years through my work with Margi Brown Ash. These
principles can be described in the performative terms of distance and intimacy.
Techniques of distance can allow individuals to explore new perspectives to a
situation, while techniques of intimacy encourage individuals to connect to one
subjective viewpoint. A dynamic relationship between distance and intimacy works
to create the effect of a truth in flux. I applied these techniques of distance and
intimacy to the creation of a cabaret performance. My methods for this application
are described in Chapter Three. Chapter Four, the contextual review, relates the
terms of distance and intimacy to the field of contemporary cabaret and the forms of
personal cabaret and provocative cabaret. Chapters Five and Six then relates
principles of White’s narrative therapy and the techniques of distance and intimacy
to the creation and analysis of the cabaret Mind Games.
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Chapter Three: A method in the madness
In the first year of my PhD I decided I wanted to do autoethnography. Now in my second year I realise that I am still not telling my story. Without realising it, I am still working in an ‘objective mode’ trying to present story without featuring my own bias, asking for others to tell me their story without coming out of my own comfort zone and sharing my own. (Personal Journal, 25th May, 2009)
* * *
Introduction
My investigation of mental illness and my own experience of self-stigma led me to
experiment with the theatricalisation of a therapeutic paradigm. In order to do this I
combined the techniques of autoethnographic research, practice-led research and
action research. The overarching approach of this study is autoethnographic. I have
chosen to foreground this realm of the study in order to focus on my own life
experience and draw attention to the ways my life experience affected the
development of the research project. In this chapter I will discuss autoethnographic
aspects of this study in light of my research identity and my performative application
of this methodology. I will then discuss ethical considerations of this methodology
and my process of transforming interviews into a performance. Within an
autoethnographic process I have used the method of artistic practice. This is the
medium through which I have chosen to explore the area of mental health, and it is
the artistic area of cabaret that has affected the research tools used in the process.
My practice-led research journey has been characterized by collaborations with my
supervisors and artistic partners. I chose action research as the ‘nuts and bolts’
approach of this study. Action research provides a systematic way of recording and
analysing my results while at the same time allowing for flexibility and openness
within the research cycle. Action research is based on the notion of the participant
researcher who researches their own actions in progress. The combination of
practice-led research and action research has allowed new learning to be integrated
into the study. All of these factors are discussed in reference to the risks, benefits
and challenges of my chosen methodology.
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My research identity
For the purposes of this project, my research identity can be defined in terms of my
personal experience with depression and my performance experience. After
experiencing an episode of depression in late 2006 and meeting others with similar
experiences, I became keen to investigate approaches to discussing, commenting
on and addressing the issue of mental health through my performance work. As
discussed in Chapter One, this project represents my attempt to make sense of my
personal experiences through the form of cabaret. It has emerged from my own
desire to connect my work as a cabaret writer/performer with issues of mental health
in the wider community. When interviewing individuals with depression I
encountered individuals with bipolar disorder. In some medical views, bipolar
disorder or manic depression is seen as a form of depression. The inclusion of
bipolar disorder in this cabaret works to broaden the scope of the performance and
the relevance of the show for a wider community. This research is based on an
amalgamation of my multiple identities and roles as a researcher as:
• an individual who has experienced depression (autoethnographic research)
• a cabaret writer and performer (practice-led research)
• a participant researcher (action research)
My work in cabaret is informed by my background in theatre (as an actor, devisor
and director) and in writing and performing original music (as a singer/songwriter).
The previous cabaret shows I have created (Black Christmas in 2003 and Dr
Mandi’s 9 easy steps to Romantic Bliss in 2007) piqued my interest in cabaret as a
form of social commentary. In pursuing this interest I have sought to develop an
approach to my research that: is connected to personal stories and experience;
encourages discussion of depression and bipolar disorder; and is informed by
contemporary practice in cabaret.
Autoethnography
This research is based on an autoethnographic model in that it is centred on my
personal experiences (Reed-Danahay 2007; Richardson 2000; Ellis 1999; Spry
2001; Etherington 2005). Using the mode of ‘evocative narrative autoethnography’
(as described by Ellis and Bochner, 2000), my personal experience, motivations,
reflections, process and insights form the foundation for this research project. The
research is based on my reflections of my experiences, on my experience of
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interviewing other individuals with depression or bipolar disorder, and on research
on public discourse of mental illness. I have obtained ethical clearance for the
interviews through the QUT Human Ethics Application Processes (reference
number: 0800000384). Full details of the ethical clearance information are
documented in Appendix 1.2. In addition, I have integrated other personal stories
from the public domain2. These stories were from publications of personal
experiences of depression or bipolar disorder. Reed-Danahay (2007) defines three
forms of ethnography. The first is “native”, the second “ethnic” and the third kind is
“autobiographic ethnography” (407). In the first form, former subjects of
ethnographic studies become authors of their own studies, and in the second form
the ethnic or cultural identity is fore-grounded within a personal narrative (Reed-
Danahay 2007, 407). Reed-Danahay describes autobiographical ethnography as
that “… in which professional researchers incorporate their own personal narratives
into their ethnographic texts” (Reed-Danahay 2007, 407). Autoethnography extends
to the inclusion of creative texts such as poetry, drama, and conversations
(Richardson 2000, 9); and as such produce practices that “are both creative and
analytical” (Richardson 2000, 10). As stated, autoethnography privileges the
incorporation of creative texts in the collection of data. Ellis (1999) provides a
definition of autoethnography by reporting on a creative text in the form of a
personal dialogue with one of her students:
“Auto ethnography? What’s that?” she asks, writing the word on her notebook as she looks at me.
“Well, I start with my personal life. I pay attention to my physical feelings, thoughts, and emotions.
I use what I call systematic sociological introspection and emotional recall to try to understand an experience I’ve lived through. Then I write my experience as a story. By exploring a particular life, I hope to understand a way of life……”
“So if I understand you correctly, the goal is to use your life experience to generalize to a larger group or culture”
“Yes but that’s not all. The goal is also to enter and document the moment-to-moment, concrete details of a life. That’s an important way of knowing as well”. (Ellis 1999, 671)
2 For example, Journeys with the black dog: inspirational stories of bringing depression to heel (Wigney et al. (eds) 2007).
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In this way, autoethnography foregrounds personal, subjective experience in order
to understand a larger issue. This approach can reveal the details, contradictions
and inconsistencies within human experience, or, as Spry (2001) states, “auto
ethnographic texts reveal the fractures, sutures, and seams of self interacting with
others in the context of researching lived experience” (712). Within the field of
autoethnography I have chosen to use “evocative autoethnography” as described by
Ellis and Bochner (2000), rather than “analytic autoethnography” as described by
Anderson (2006). Analytic autoethnography aims to “truthfully render the social
world under investigation” and then “transcend... that world through broader
generalization” (Anderson 2006, 388). In this way, analytic autoethnography can be
seen to move from the specific to the general. In contrast, evocative
autoethnography explores a specific individual narrative for the purpose of exploring
subjective experience of a social phenomena. Evocative autoethnography is
informed by other research and theories but moves from general to the specific.
Ellis and Bochner (2000) discuss the need for authors “to feel the moral dilemmas”,
to “think with” the story, and “join actively in the decision points that define an
autoethnographic project” (735). Evocative autoethnography “displays multiple
layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural. Back and forth
autoethnographers gaze, first through an ethnographic wide-angle lens, focusing
outward on social and cultural aspects of their personal experience; then, they look
inward, exposing a vulnerable self that is moved by and may move through, refract,
and resist cultural interpretations” (Ellis and Bochner 2000, 739). The authors
define four categories of evocative autoethnography: reflexive ethnographies, native
ethnographies, personal narratives, literary autoethnographies (Ellis and Bochner
2000, 740). This research project falls under the category of a personal narrative in
which “social scientists take on the dual identities of academic and personal selves
to tell autobiographical stories about some aspect of their experience with daily life”
(Ellis and Bochner 2000, 740).
The evocative nature of representations produced in this method allow for “multiple
ways of thinking about a topic, reaching diverse audiences, and nurturing the writer”
(Richardson 2000, 5).
With its focus on subjective experience, autoethnography has been criticised as
being potentially “self-indulgent, introspective, and individualized” (Duncan 2004, 2).
Therefore, when using this method it is important to establish clear criteria for “good
auto ethnography”. Richardson has created five such criteria: “contribution”,
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“aesthetic merit”, “reflexivity” (that is self-awareness of the researcher),
“impactfulness” (on an emotional and/or intellectual level) and the capacity of the
research to “express a reality” (Richardson 2000, p. 16). These criteria are
supported and extended by Spry (2001), who states:
Writing must be well crafted…. Emotionally engaging, as well as critically self-reflexive of one’s socio-political interactivity…[and it] strives to use relational language and styles to create purposeful dialogue between reader and author… [in] a provocative weave of story and theory. (713)
In this research project I have applied the method of autoethnography in order to
develop my own sense of critical self-reflexivity, to combine theory with my own
personal experience, and to research in a manner that is both creative and analytic.
Autoethnographic performance and autobiographical performance
My performance is autoethnographic in that I am performing my own story while also
presenting my interpretation of other peoples’ stories. My personal experience thus
becomes the frame for the performance. In this way I am creating a kind of
autobiographical performance. According to Heddon, autobiographical performance
provides the opportunity to “talk out, talk back, talk otherwise” about an issue (2008,
3). It can have transformative power due to its ability to “story” our lives and the
performance space provides a liberating space where people are “free to rebel
against the values and practices of a dominant culture” (Henke quoted in Heddon
2008, 4). Autobiographical performance can provide a site in which an individual can
stage resistance, spark debate and offer possibilities: “In many examples,
autobiographical performances represent the already lived in order to beckon us
towards, urge us to image or compel us to create the yet to be lived” (Heddon 2008,
20).
In the context of this research, autobiographical performance provides the site for
the re-authoring process of my story and other people’s stories following principles
of White’s narrative therapy.
Autoethnography within this study
As indicated in Chapter One, I have implemented autoethnography in this research
project to focus on my own experience and meaning-making processes as a frame
for the study. I interviewed individuals with depression in the first cycle of this study.
The connections that I made with these individuals led me to interview others with
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bipolar disorder and I became fascinated by the resonances between these two
conditions. It is important to note that this study has not had a clinical focus, but has
instead focussed on my personal experiences of connecting with the personal
experiences of others. The interviews in this study were taped and then transcribed.
(Full documentation of these interviews can be found in Appendix 1.2.) These
transcriptions were then freely used within the creative development of the study,
working from an intuitive basis. There has been no formal analysis of the interviews.
Rather, the interviews served as creative points of departure for the development of
the performance. Throughout the rehearsal process I kept a journal of my process
and reflections on this process and as the research project developed my personal
reflections alerted me to the extent to which I have been reticent to tell my own story
of depression within this study. Through the autoethnographic process, I have linked
this reticence to my own sense of self-stigma, White’s concepts of spoiled identity
and Foucault’s concept of the pathologisation of mental illness. In this way,
personal reflection has greatly impacted on both the theoretical and creative
material I have produced and reviewed. Further discussion of these points can be
found in Chapter Five. For me, the challenges of using autoethnography within this
project have been associated with sharing my personal story. I have found it
personally challenging to include self-revelatory material in my performance work
and to be honest about my personal responses to the material on a theoretical level.
Each stage of my research project has led to a stronger communication of my own
subjectivity as a researcher and creative practitioner. In this way I feel that one of
the greatest challenges I encountered within the research project has transformed
and strengthened my research. There have been many other benefits of the
autoethnographic approach that point to the appropriateness of this methodology for
the project. As the therapeutic method at the heart of the research is focussed on
the re-authoring of personal stories, it makes sense to have a methodological
foundation that foregrounds personal experience. In addition, the fact that
autoethnography often includes a compilation of many different writing styles has
been appropriate as my research work integrates many different methods within the
frame of my own experience, and autoethnography has provided a way of ‘drawing it
all together’. Within autoethnography, the research tools I have used are a personal
journal and interviews with individuals suffering from depression or bipolar disorder.
As discussed in Chapter Two, I also used research on theories of Foucault, White,
Goffman, and the stigma of mental illness in order to articulate my own experience
of self-stigma.
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Ethical considerations
The ethics of personal stories
Given that the practical component of this research project drew extensively from
information gained in personal interviews combined with my own story, the creation
of Mind Games involved many ethical considerations that relate to verbatim theatre,
documentary theatre and autobiographical performance. In Autobiography and
Performance, Deirdre Heddon notes that autobiography and biography has
traditionally been associated with “telling the truth” about a life story. She argues
that this point of view is “problematic”, because “such a ‘self’ – an individual,
autonomous subject – is itself a discursive construct” (Heddon 2008, 151). In
examining my process, a major question for consideration was why I initially wanted
to interview other people and tell their stories within the show. Upon reflection, at the
start of the research project, I was looking for a community of people to support me
in my own story. My interviewing of other people was an act of reaching out, of not
wanting to feel isolated in exploring this area. I felt that having the interviewees’
stories around me provided me with strength and helped me to examine my own
story, and find a new ways to tell it. In this sense, I was also witnessing other
women’s stories and then sharing my own versions of these stories. In reflecting on
the process of collecting information and conducting interviews, I felt like I created a
mini-community of women within the theoretical boundaries of the cabaret
performance itself. Each interview took place in an informal setting, either in a coffee
shop or at the interviewee’s home. This setting enhanced the amount of personal
revelation that took place, and allowed extremely personal information to be
divulged. In each interview I also revealed personal information about myself and
my experiences of depression, and felt that this generated a feeling of commonality
between the interviewees and myself. All the interviewees came to see the first
work-in-progress of the work and I had informal chats with them afterwards. One
interviewee – who was going away for the weekend – was unable to attend the first
formal work-in-progress showing, and so I invited her to a rehearsal run through of
the performance during production week. Out of the four interviewees whose
material was used in the show, all four came along to the first showing and were
involved in the post-show discussions. Afterwards, two interviewees continued to be
involved in the process. The other two interviewees were invited to all the showings
and performances, but didn’t attend. I am unsure as to why. Perhaps it didn’t seem
relevant to them anymore? Perhaps they were interested but too busy? Perhaps
they were content with my use of their interview material within the show? The other
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two interviewees remained closely involved with the project and I had discussions
with them about the way the show was progressing, and we met for coffee after
each show to debrief and discuss the show.
At the start of the research project I was seeking a sense of community through the
interview process. As the research progressed, I found it useful to consider my use
of personal and interview material in relation to concepts of witnessing as informed
by Etchells (1999), Schaefer (2003), Wake (2008) and Rokem (2000, 2002). For
Etchells, to witness an event is to be “present at it in some fundamentally ethical
way, to feel the weight of things and one’s own place in them, even if that place is
simply, for the moment, as an onlooker” (Etchells 1999, 17). Etchells believes that
the role of contemporary theatre is to produce witnesses rather than spectators, that
is, to event an audience, or to “leave a mark” on an audience; to make the people
matter to the audience so that they are “unable to stop thinking, talking and reporting
on what [they’ve] seen” (Etchells 1999, 18). Schaefer (2003) summarises Etchells’
view of the audience-as-witnesses phenomenon in the following way:
Whatever its ethical ramifications, according to Etchells et al. this transformation from spectator to witness is to be desired because it both spurs a spectator’s deeper connection with the world (as manifested through the subject of the performance) and creates a lasting conversation between the artist and the audience. What a witness-producing performer wants to happen to the spectator, then, is that someone who is essentially an onlooker could be so affected by an experience that it becomes a challenge for him to question her ideas, social responsibility and shared history. Essentially, the spectator would experience a soul’s (rather than a mind’s) encounter with the material. (Schaefer 2003, 6)
Wake (2008) discusses the concept of witnessing in relation to the renaming of
documentary and verbatim theatre as the “theatre of witness”, in which “the figure of
the performing witness is typically a character (based on an actual person) that
testifies to a personal, social and/or historical trauma” (Wake 2008, 188). Wake
goes further to suggest that this act consequently positions the characters, actors,
spectators and critics involved with a piece of such theatre as ”performing
witnesses” (Wake 2008, 188). Freddie Rokem discusses the use of characters as
witnesses in a performance, and argues that these characters add “a dimension of
theatricality on the basis of which the spectator begins to interpret the performance”
(Rokem 2002, 168). For Rokem this device provides a “filter” through which “the
‘truth’ about the past can be examined and critiqued”(Rokem 2000, 203). Rokem
defines three modes of this kind of witnessing which each have their own theatrical
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effects. The first mode of the “performance-within-the performance” places
emphasis on the “aesthetic dimension of witnessing”; the second mode of the
“eavesdropper” places focus on “psychological aspects” and the third mode of the
“omniscient” witness “emphasizes the metaphysical aspects of viewing” (Rokem
2002, 171 ). Rokem asserts that these different forms of witnessing “draw our
attention to the theatrical medium” by “showing the spectators what it means to
witness, to watch, to look and to overhear in the particular context established by a
specific performance” (Rokem 2002, 169). Or, in other words, by viewing a witness
onstage and observing the way that this witness watches other stories in the
performance, the audience develops a heightened awareness of their own act of
witnessing. The idea that an onstage witness enhances a sense of theatricality
within a performance has been helpful within my analysis of the Mind Games
cabaret, and will be further discussed in Chapter Six.
In the creation of Mind Games I assumed the role of spectator as witness. I actively
witnessed the interviewees’ stories I gathered through interviews, and then
performed my own version of witnessing their story: responding to the way that their
stories had affected me. Within the performance the interviewees’ stories had a
strong impact on the characters of ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’ (two aspects of myself within the
show), as discussed further in Chapter Six. Within the cabaret ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’
show strong reactions to the interviewees’ stories, and share these reactions with
the audience, thus positioning ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’ as witnesses rather than spectators
– for, to rephrase Etchell’s words, the interviewees left their mark on the characters.
In the performance I invited the audience to act as a witness to my own story and to
the stories of the interviewees; in enacting the way I (that is, ‘Jo’, the representation
of myself with the show) witnessed the interviewees’ stories, I invited the audience
to become aware of their own act of witnessing.
The concept of witnessing, however, can also be problematic when a performer is
both a witness of other stories and a witness performing their own story. Wake
(2008) discusses performers as witnesses in relation to a verbatim theatre piece on
asylum seekers in Australia entitled Through the Wire. In this production one of the
actors was an asylum seeker speaking his own words:
Significantly, one of these actors, Shafaei, is playing himself. This moment manages to incorporate several witnesses simultaneously: the asylum seekers who first said the words; the director who first heard the words; the actors who now repeat these words; and the audience members who sit watching and listening to these various
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witnesses, some of whom are instantly visible to them and some of whom are not. (Wake 2008, 188)
Wake draws attention to the way actors who are presenting other people’s stories
related to the experience of being an asylum seeker are grouped with an asylum
seeker presenting his own story and posits that “this lack of self-reflexivity invites the
audience to conflate every actor with his/her character” (Wake 2008, 190). This
conflation effect is also described by Schaefer (2003) in her discussion of the
performance Binlids. In this performance, women in the IRA performed their own
stories, and they also performed the stories of other people in the IRA. Thus it could
be seen that there was a conflation effect between the two types of stories. Schaefer
notes that the sense of “historical reality” within the performance is “heightened by
the fact that the women acting these monologues live and work alongside the
characters they play” (Schaefer 2003, 12). Schaefer (2003) also notes another
complication of “performing witnesses” (that is, performers playing themselves) is
that the performer’s “desire for self-empowerment” may complicate the audience
response to the performance (Schaefer 2003, 8). In her words:
What witnesses search for are answers, not questions... in testimonial drama there is less room for the audience to find their own interpretation of the event. Essentially, the characters are undertaking the interpretive work for them. (Schaefer 2003,17)
In Mind Games, I was a performing witness presenting my own story in conflation
with the stories of others. This presents an ethical complication within the
performance and is discussed in Chapter Seven in relation to the findings of the
study.
Ethics of verbatim and documentary theatre
The act of transferring interview material into a performance can open up a
Pandora’s box of ethical concerns for the creator. My use of interview material to
help to construct the performance draws on techniques of verbatim theatre and
documentary theatre. These terms are nebulous, but, generally speaking, the term
documentary theatre is used in the United States, and verbatim theatre is used in
the United Kingdom, to describe theatre based on factual information and
interviews. Martin (2006) creates what she terms a “useful” definition of
documentary theatre, stating “it is useful to understand it as created from a specific
body of archived material: interviews, documents, hearings, records, video, film,
photographs” (9). Heddon (2008) states that “the practical methodology of verbatim
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performances, though it might vary in detail, generally includes the conducting of
interviews by performers, which are often recorded” (129). In discussing
documentary theatre’s problematic representations of truth, Martin (2006) argues
that documentary theatre can “both foreground and problematize the nonfictional” in
its mix of fact and fiction (10) and suggests:
No doubt the phrase “documentary theatre” fails us. It is inadequate. Yet at present it is the best phrase available. In the U.K., documentary theatre is known as “verbatim theatre” because of its penchant for direct quotation. However, verbatim theatre does not necessarily display its quotation marks, its exact sources. “Verbatim” can also be an unfortunately accurate description of documentary theatre as it infers great authority to moments of utterance unmitigated by an ex post facto mode of maturing memory. Its duplicitous nature is akin to the double-dealing of television docudramas. (Martin 2006, 13-14)
Here Martin acknowledges the interchangeable uses of the terms “documentary”
and “verbatim”, and draws attention to the problems inherent in the forms. For the
purposes of this research, I will refer to these processes as a combination of the two
forms, represented through the term, verbatim/documentary theatre. From Martin’s
point of view documentary theatre gives the illusion of truth (through aesthetic
devices that mimic behaviour) but is always fictitious, and thus “[d]ocumentary
theatre creates its own aesthetic imaginaries while claiming a special factual
legitimacy” (Martin 2006, 10). She further comments that documentary theatre
emphasises some aspects of its data, and hides others; in this way it can be viewed
either as “getting at the truth” or “telling another set of lies” for “performed stories
invite repetition, revision, and reconfiguration”(Martin 2006, 14).
These points are supported by Heddon who acknowledges that the subjective
version of the story told through verbatim plays is inevitable due to the choosing of
a select amount of interview material from all the data available, and the way that
the plays do not provide the full context of the interview process itself (Heddon 2008,
130-131). Heddon notes that the use of “meta-theatrical gestures” (such as
introductions explaining the amount of interviews done, who the interviewees were
and the timeline over which the interview were conducted) appears to make the
construction process “more transparent” but still doesn’t make the interviewing
“conditions” transparent; for “meta-theatricality does not lessen the appearance that
stories are simply being told and simply being ‘caught’” (Heddon 2008, 132). The
ethical dilemmas associated with this kind of performance delivery are clearly
complex and finding solutions is imperative to the intention of my research.
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Bottoms (2006) and Heddon (2008) offer some constructive possibilities for
navigating this terrain. Bottoms (2006) advocates a self-conscious approach in
which attention is drawn to the construction methods in the play and the way a
“collage” has been created (op cit). Bottoms provides an example of this in Moisés
Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (Bottoms 2006, 61).
Bottoms states that this play foregrounds the sources of all of the performance
material within the performance and is “highly self-conscious about its own status as
a collage of appropriated historical texts” (Bottoms 2006, 61). In Gross Indecency:
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Bottoms is suggesting that foregrounding and
acknowledging the source of all texts within the play is a more ethical way of
producing documentary theatre. By engaging in processes of reflexivity to make
obvious the means of creation can, as Bottoms suggests, allow a self-conscious
incorporation of documents by rigorously documenting their origin and the authorial
voice within.
In summary, verbatim/documentary theatre presents a combination of fact and
faction that can be misleading. This misleading characteristic could be mitigated (as
suggested by Bottoms) through a self-conscious presentation of the production
processes of the performance.
Addressing ethical concerns within the project
In discussing ethics of verbatim works, Heddon (2008) refers to the work of feminist
philosophers Margaret Walker and Diane Elam and their discussions of: being
“sensitive to cultural determinants” (Walker ); embracing “undecidability”, that is to
make a decision in response to each specific situation (Elam ); and “expressive
collaboration” with a focus on communication and negotiation (Walker) (Heddon
2008, 152-153).
In these ways it is important for the practitioner to be sensitive to the cultural
determinants of each individual situation so that a unique decision can be made
each time with a focus on collaboration, communication and negotiation. For
Heddon, the potential of work based on personal stories makes the risks associated
with performing witness worth taking: “In my opinion, the potential at least makes the
risk worth taking; but the risk is lessened by an informed and thoughtfully critical –
self-conscious – practice” (Heddon 2008, 158).
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In my research I felt that I was connected to the specificity of the situation by
remaining in contact with the interviewees, by inviting their responses, and by
ensuring the interviewees were included in the process. Throughout the process I
constantly checked in with the interviewees to ask for their feedback on the
development of the show, and provide opportunities for them to express any
concerns. In this way I intended to demonstrate sensitivity to the “cultural
determinants” of the situation, and I based my interactions on a sense of
“collaboration, communication and negotiation”. A positive outcome for one of the
interviewees was a sense of feeling validated, or ”affirmed”, in relation to society as
a whole. In a personal letter to me written reflecting on her experiences of viewing
the final performance she commented:
I just want to tell you how edifying it was for me to watch your cabaret performance “Mind Games”. Whilst it was somewhat confronting to “see myself” in your character, it was also a confirmation at my worth in living with a profound mental illness. I felt affirmed in the real world. (Personal Letter 2nd October, 2010)
The process of using interview material in a performance includes risks of giving a
false sense of truth; hiding the interview process and context; and misrepresenting
the interviewees. Within Mind Games, I acknowledge my personal potential to have
committed all three of these offences to a greater or lesser extent. However, Mind
Games was able to work through these risks through the use of stylistic choices,
and by a constant process of collaboration, communication and negotiation. These
ethical considerations will be further discussed in Chapter Six.
The benefit of using interviewee material within this process is that the research is
connected to people’s stories, and I have felt supported by a ‘mini-community’ within
the research process. I also felt that the fact that the words of interviewees were
used within the show, and made clear to the audience, made the audience more
interested in the show.
In the development of Mind Games, there were various benefits associated with
incorporating interviewee material. The research became intrinsically and explicitly
linked to individuals’ personal stories and the structuring of these external texts
became, necessarily, the backbone of a community that I created – that of the
storytellers. By acknowledging the contribution of the various sources in the show to
the audience, I intended to deepen audience interest in the content, and the
audience connection to story.
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The Process of Transforming Interviews to Cabaret Material
My process of working with interview material was highly personal and focussed on
creative expression. Using my own experiences as a frame for the research I chose
parts of interview material that related to my own experiences and used verbatim
extracts as springboards for the writing of songs and dramatic monologues.
The first part of this process involved conducting interviews with six individuals who
had suffered from depression, or who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I
contacted these individuals through a variety of means. The process began with
meeting individuals with depression. One interviewee is a close friend of mine who
has suffered depression during her adult life. I met another interviewee at a social
gathering. I met two other individuals with depression through a mental health
support group. Through this mental health support group I was introduced to two
individuals with bipolar disorder and decided to include their stories within the study.
I conducted the interviews following the requirements of the QUT Human Ethics
Application Processes (reference number: 0800000384: see Appendix 1.2). Within
this group of interviewees, two were male and six were female. I used a standard
interview process of audio-taping the interviews and transcribing them verbatim. The
individual’s name and other identifying information was then removed from the
transcript. In the transcribed interviews I identified the gender of the interviewee and
termed the interviewees Female Interviewee One, Male Interviewee One and so on.
I used the interview transcripts as a creative springboard for the rehearsal process
in cycle one (September 2008). The work-in-progress showing in cycle one
presented a series of songs and monologues developed from the verbatim material,
and a series of songs inspired by my own experiences. Within cycle two I added
more information from my own experience through research of material in the public
domain, and presented a second round of creative material to audience. In the third
round, I identified gaps in the perspectives, added extra research from the public
domain and integrated this into the final performance. Within the third cycle of the
creative process, director Sandro Colarelli noted that there was an unequal
representation of the male interviewees within the show (at this time, only one
stanza of one song included interview material from a male interviewee). This was
possibly due to the fact that I had not connected in the same way with the interview
material from male interviewees, and could also be related to the fact that the
interviews with males were conducted in less intimate settings, and I found it more
difficult to establish a quick rapport with the male interviewees. When creating
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performance material from the male interviewees I wrestled with one particular
scene in the creative developments in 2008 to 2009, and found it difficult to present
this scene within a cabaret format, so the scene was cut from the show, leaving the
said one stanza of a song to represent male experiences of depression and bipolar
disorder. Through discussion with Colarelli, I decided to cut this stanza from the
performance, and thus to consciously focus the performance on female experiences
of depression and bipolar disorder rather than to present a disproportionate
representation of men within the performance. In these ways the use of interview
material within this study was personally rather than scientifically motivated, and
was adapted as the project progressed.
Practice-led Research
Reflecting the fact that creative practice has been the primary means of
investigation, a practice-led research methodology has been an essential
component of the project. Gray defines practice-led research as research that is
carried out through practice and is based on the needs of the practice and the
practitioner (Gray 1996, 3). Haseman supports Gray’s definition and comments:
This is a radical and bold innovation, for it not only affirms the primacy of practice in the research process, but it proclaims that the techniques and tools used by the practitioner can stand as research methods in their own right. (Haseman 2007, 151)
Following Gray’s and Haseman’s definition, this research project was based on my
needs and process as a practitioner from the field of cabaret, and used my creative
process as cabaret practitioner as the central focus of my research. Furthermore,
within this study my artistic process and product was used as a distinctive form of
knowledge. Scrivener (2002, 1) argues that “art research performs an equally
important but complementary function to that of the knowledge acquisition research
domains”. The concept of the art itself being the knowledge of the study is supported
by Stock, who states “embodied practice engenders ways of knowing, and therefore
is a knowledge claim in its own right with a rigorous epistemology, methods and
evaluation processes” (Stock 2007, 343). The knowledge of the research project has
been enacted and embodied through my artistic practice. Thus, this project has
utilised the methods and evaluation processes of practice-led research to create its
own form of knowledge.
For practice-led research I have drawn from a contextual review of contemporary
cabaret in order to inform my own creative process. This creative process, as
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documented in my personal journal, has included my own creative responses to the
interview material, creative writing, solo improvisations and rehearsal processes.
Details of these processes are described in Chapter Five. Within the creative
component of this research, my collaborators have had a strong impact on the work.
My collaborators in this project are: therapist and workshop facilitator Margi Brown
Ash; directors Ben Knapton and Sandro Colarelli, supervisors David Fenton, David
Kavanagh, Bree Hadley and Christine Comans; pianists Philippe Klaus and Wade
Gregory; and dramaturge Therese Collie. A description of the impact of these
collaborators can be found in Appendix 1.9.
My contextual review of contemporary cabaret performers identified a number of
major trends within contemporary cabaret in performance persona and the use of
parody. I have used these trends as a way to develop a performance-making
method that applies the principles of narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret
performance. These trends, and my application of them, will be further discussed in
Chapters Four, Five and Six.
In my practice-led process I developed forms of rehearsal practices to apply these
processes to devising a cabaret performance. More detailed information on
narrative therapy and the way I applied this to the rehearsal process is in Chapter
Five.
Action research
Action research within this project
Action research is a research method in which the researcher is a participant in their
own research project and is engaged with cycles of development and reflection
(Somekh 2006, McNiff 1992, Hinchley 2008, Hearn et al. 2009). Because action
research is grounded in a process of change, it offers “flexible, open and eclectic
process of enquiry” with a “cyclical experimental character” (Hearn et al. 2009,
11).This aspect of action research suited the cycle of my artistic process over a
three year period. My research project involved many cycles of development,
within many different modes of research (for example, information gathering,
rehearsals, creative development and performances). The cyclical model of action
research provided a way to formalise the cyclic nature of my research, to
systematically collect data within each cycle and relate the cycles to each other in a
process of constant development. Using an open, flexible action research cycle
allowed me to approach my research problem in many different ways, and to
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explore many different methods. The tools of action research applied within this
study include a personal journal, and the use of feedback to develop the work.
Feedback came from interviewees, audience feedback, industry experts, supervisor
feedback. I collected feedback through: feedback forms at work-in-progress
sessions; feedback forums; panels, and; documentation of meetings. I analysed this
data using techniques from “conventional content analysis” (Hsieh and Shannon
2005, 1277). In analysing data from audience feedback I focussed on the effect of
applying principles of narrative therapy to create games of truth with an audience
through exploring the audience’s engagement with the performance and
interpretation of meaning within the work.
My research journey has gone through three main phases based on a practice-led
process using the model of action research. This research project has focussed on
using the “living”, “breathing” form of cabaret, as described by Dusty Limits, to
present therapeutic concepts and provoke discussion about mental illness.
There were three feedback rounds that became more focussed as the study
progressed. This process can be described as a funnel effect. In the first cycle the
questions were very open ended, encouraging a range of responses with questions
focussed on the audience’s likes and dislikes, their interpretation of the atmosphere
of the performances, and asking for feedback on ways to develop the cabaret. In the
second cycle, the questions were focussed on the structure and meaning of the
work, and also allowed for other responses. In cycles and one and two, the work-in-
progress performances were open to the public. This allowed for a broad range of
responses. Audience responses within feedback forums were videotaped and then
transcribed, and responses from questionnaires were directly transcribed. The
public feedback sessions in cycles one and two had ethical clearance from the QUT
Human Ethics Application Processes (reference number: 0800000384; see
Appendix 1.2). The third feedback session was informal, small scale, and designed
to refine the work in consultation with a small panel of experts. The third round
allowed for open responses to the work from a select group of individuals.
The aim of using the feedback process was to gain new perspectives on the work
and to see how an audience reacted to and/or resonated with the work. Of specific
interest to me was the audience’s relationship with the work. I wanted the audience
to be engaged and thought-provoked by the performance. It was of great interest to
me which elements of the performance garnered the strongest audience responses.
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Within the feedback there was a range of different viewpoints presented, and I
observed the major themes and common views that came through the work, and
then used these to reflect on my own goals for the work. Within the feedback I
focussed on responses that were common, and on responses that gave insight into
how the show could function to answer the research question. When presenting the
data in Chapter Five, I have presented the data from the most frequent comments to
the least frequent. In 2008, I gained feedback from approximately 50 audience
members in three feedback forums, and in 2009 I gained feedback from
approximately 16 individuals in one feedback forum, with an additional 17 individuals
responding to the performance through questionnaires. Generally, if three or more
people made a comment about an aspect of the show, I took note of these
comments. Occasionally a particular comment was taken into consideration if it
strongly related to an aspect of the research question.
The feedback from cycles one and two was analysed using a qualitative content
analysis approach. According to Wilkinson (2004), content analysis “is based on
examination of the data for recurrent instances of some kind; these instances are
then systematically identified across the data set, and grouped together by means of
a coding system” (183). Hsieh and Shannon (2005) define three types of content
analysis “conventional, directed, or summative” (Hsieh and Shannon 2005, 1277).
Using Shieh and Shannon’s definitions, I have used a “conventional content
analysis”, in that my analysis has aimed to “describe a phenomenon” and to allow
“the categories and names for categories to flow from the data” (Hsieh and Shannon
2005, 1279). In contrast to this, a “directed” approach to content analysis aims to
“validate or extend conceptually a theoretical framework or theory”, while
“summative content analysis” studies the use of certain words or content “with the
purpose of understanding the contextual use of the words or content” (Hsieh and
Shannon 2005,1281, 1283). According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005), one
advantage of the conventional approach to content analysis is that you are able to
gain information from participants within the study without the imposition of
“preconceived categories or theoretical perspectives” (1279 – 1280). Content
analysis aims to produce a systematic and comprehensive “summary or overview”
of the data within the study, and involves the “coding” of the data (Wilkinson 2004,
183). This coding is developed from “recurrent instances of some kind” which can
include a word a phrase or “some larger unit of meaning” and these instances can
then be grouped into “larger units” such as “categories” or “organizing themes”
(Wilkinson 2004, 184). One means of reporting data from content analysis is a
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“thematic analysis” in which the data is presented “with the quotations integrated
into the text, rather than in tabular form” (Wilkinson 2004, 186). This is means of
data reporting that I have used within this study.
Analysing the data
In cycles one and two, I transcribed all of the information gained from the feedback
forums or questionnaires. I then made note of each individual point made in the
feedback and then summed this up in a comment that paraphrased and condensed
the point. I would often include a brief quote in this condensed version. For example,
this quote from a feedback forum in cycle one:
You know what I really liked… on that “more of the bipolar stuff”, is to actually see you go into just a raw emotion… like, you know when you were sending moans down the telephone, maybe to create another moment that deals with trying to escape because of the ups and the downs you just can’t run away from it, and how trapped you feel to be suffering that. (Appendix 1.4, 2008 Audience Feedback, Lines 151- 155)
Was summarised as:
Would like to see more “raw emotion” in order to show a “trapped” feeling, or feeling of “trying to escape”. (Appendix 1.9, Comments on 2008 Audience Feedback, Lines 151- 155)
I then grouped each of these points according to themes. For example, in response
to 2008 feedback forums I grouped the feedback according to the themes of:
variation in characters and performance dynamics; presentation of emotion in the
show; combination of contrasting elements within the show; the presentation of
sexiness; interaction between the performance and the piano player; resonance
with life experience; the use of songs; the ending of the show; clarity of meaning;
and use of space and lighting (Appendix 1.9, 2008 Thematic grouping of feedback
from Showing 1). For detailed documentation of the audience feedback and the data
analysis of this feedback see Appendix 1.9.
In feedback session three I noted all of the responses within the feedback session
and then typed up my notes after the session. I then grouped this feedback into
themes and discussed the feedback with the director Sandro Colarelli. I chose this
approach to analysing and presenting the data as it allowed me to summarise all of
the data and to group this data according to themes that emerged.
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The three development cycles
I began the project in early 2008, and performed a public version of the Mind Games
cabaret in May 2010. In this period I utilised a series of three cycles of development
following the model of action research. This cyclic approach allowed for periods of
research, writing, rehearsals, work-in-progress showings and analysis, and
continuous reflection on the process. Stages of the process that included intensive
writing and rehearsal allowed me to focus on the work with a sense of intimacy, and
work-in-progress showings with audience feedback gave me the opportunity to gain
distance and explore different perspectives to the work. In addition audience
feedback provided valuable data on the audience’s engagement with and
experiences of the cabaret. Through the two and a half years of the project I
developed a stronger understanding of my own sense of self-stigma, and the value
of including more of my own story in the cabaret, leading to my own story providing
a narrative through-line in the May 2010 cabaret performance.
Within the feedback sessions I was interested in the aspects of the performance that
engaged an audience, and how they were engaged. In cycle two I continued this
interest in audience engagement and also focussed on the meaning of the show for
an audience, or how they interpreted the work. My aim was to have maximum
engagement with the audience and to shift the performance dynamics to alter the
way the audience related to the cabaret. It should be noted that my aims were
developed and more clearly articulated through the feedback process itself. This
section will discuss the three feedback rounds and how they impacted on the
development of the Mind Games cabaret, including a discussion on the data from
feedback sessions. For purposes of clarity and brevity I have summarised the main
points from each cycle and the major findings from the feedback sessions. For a
more complete description of each research cycle see Appendix 1.9. After each
piece of data is presented, I discuss the meaning I have drawn from the information.
At the end of each section I discuss the ways each feedback round impacted on the
next cycle of development.
Cycle One
Cycle one involved experimentation with a variety of different ways into the material.
This commenced with solo rehearsals in early 2008, as informed by an
improvisation workshop with Andrew Morrisch in March 2008. In this cycle I
developed the concept of creating a cabaret performance on depression and titled
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the project Singing the blues: Transforming stories of depression into cabaret
(Personal Journal, 21st March 2008). During my personal rehearsals I undertook
solo improvisations that I taped and transcribed, and documented in my personal
journal (Personal Journal, 19th April – 26th April, 2008). In these improvisations I
developed a number of performative concepts including: the characters of ‘Hades’
(as externalisation of depression), ‘Persephone’ (a woman with depression), a “diva”
(who gained pleasure in being depressed) and a “poetic storyteller” (Personal
Journal, 26th April 2008). As I further articulated my project goals I decided to
interview other individuals who had experienced depression. Upon reflection I feel
that I was searching for connection with other individuals with similar experiences
due to my feelings of isolation. At this time in my life I was continuing to experience
episodes of depression, and in August 2008 started a course of anti-depressant
medication. As discussed in Chapter One, the interview process led me to meet
individuals with bipolar disorder and I decided to widen the scope of the project to
include interviews with individuals with depression and bipolar disorder. I taped and
transcribed these interviews, and the interview transcripts were used as the raw
material for a rehearsal process with director Ben Knapton in September 2008. I
began rehearsals with a few song ideas from my solo improvisations from early
2008. During the rehearsal process, Knapton and I did a series of readings from the
transcripts and I chose sections from the interviews that I felt a strong personal
resonance or connection with (Personal Journal 3rd September, 2008). We then
experimented with different performative styles for these verbatim sections
(Personal Journal, 10th – 23rd September 2008). As rehearsals progressed I
developed poems and song ideas from my solo improvisation notes, and created a
series of songs inspired by my own personal experience. I also created two songs
inspired by interviewees’ experiences, My therapist, My Friend and I’m Flying.
These songs were created using the technique of musical parody as discussed later
in this chapter. On 26th and 27th of September 2008 I performed the first work-in-
progress of the Mind Games cabaret. At this time, the performance consisted of a
series of songs, alternated with staged readings of sections from interview
transcripts.
A number of individuals commented that the cabaret reflected their own experiences
with mental illness – either from personal experience or in relation to a friend or
family member. Three individuals related that aesthetic choices reflected personal
experience specifically as a reflection of individuals moving between “in control”
moments and “moments of not being in control” (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines 380-
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383); the denial of any problems to other people through an “ambivalent” facade
(240 – 243); and the unease felt by the audience as a reflection of the resonances
with personal experience (179-181). In contrast one individual felt that the
performance needed to “extend the arm of universality” to show more connection
between different individuals’ experiences (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines 710-714).
These comments suggest that the audience found it important that representations
of this particular subject matter resonate with real-life experiences. This implies that
the audience wanted to be able to see the relation of this cabaret to their own life
experiences and to those of people they knew, and that they greatly valued
moments within the cabaret that made this possible for them. One theme of
particular note is related to the presentation of meaning within the cabaret. Although
this was not a highly frequent comment, I found it very relevant to the development
of the cabaret. One individual commented that they were confused by the cabaret as
it gave the impression of “a very clear narrative” at the start, but then didn’t deliver
this (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines 78-82). A second individual noted that they “didn’t
quite know how to get into the point of the story, or what to take away” (Appendix
1.4, 2008, Lines 314 – 315). This individual chose to follow up their feedback in a
detailed and lengthy email with comments that suggested: the need to clarify the
audience for the performance (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines 682- 684); the
performance could be about showing what mental illness is like from different
people’s perspectives (685 – 687); the importance of considering the responsibility
behind the show and identifying what is different about the Mind Games cabaret
compared to other cabarets (688 – 690). Another individual suggested that there
needed to be more fictionalisation of the stories so that the audience didn’t assume
all of the stories are about ‘Jo’ related to the presentation of meaning within the
cabaret (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines 168 – 174). This individual acknowledged that
audience members may be uncomfortable seeing someone’s real story on stage,
but that this aspect could still be open to experimentation (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Line
171).These comments all suggested that the audience members found it difficult to
draw a clear meaning from the cabaret, and that they were unsure of how to engage
with the performance. It also suggests that the performance of personal stories (and
the intention behind this) needs to be carefully considered in order to engage an
audience
Feedback from cycle one had a strong impact on the next cycle of development.
Specifically, the feedback highlighted the need for a dramaturge to be involved
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within the process to help me clarify my own intentions in the writing. The feedback
also led to the development of the following aspects within the performance:
• the creation of clearer characters within the performance and greater dynamic variation between these characters
• more emotional variation in the performance • a bolder use of sexuality in the performance of the songs: The Naughty Song
and So You’re Back Again • more opportunities for the piano player to be involved in the performance • converting a number of verbatim sections into songs
Cycle Two
In response to feedback from cycle one I focussed on clarifying the major dramatic
question of the cabaret. In addition, I began to explore contrasting styles,
exaggerated emotions, physicality and musical contrast, a bolder physicality and to
develop the character of ‘Jo’ (as representative of my own personal experience).
This phase of the study involved an analysis of the first round of performance
material and intensive development of the script with dramaturge Therese Collie
towards a work-in-progress showing on the 3rd and 4th of December 2009. The
audiences from these showing responded to the work through completing
questionnaires after each performance or via email. The audience for work-in-
progress showings one and two comprised of interviewees, students and academics
from the QUT community, and my own family and friends. In the second work-in-
progress performance, the first ten to fifteen minutes of the show was a scene set in
a mental facility performed in a dark, gothic aesthetic. The cabaret then moved
through the performative worlds of a carnival, a seedy nightclub and a gym. The
intention was to present the audience with multiple ‘plays within a play’ in which the
inmates of a mental facility were performing their life experiences to the audience.
To create this effect I developed the character of ‘the caretaker’ or ‘doctor’ who
functioned as a host or emcee. The cabaret opened with the ‘Jo’ character seated in
a chair as if talking to her therapist about her difficulty in creating a cabaret on
depression and bipolar disorder. The ‘Jo’ character also appeared half-way through
the cabaret and in the final scene; her appearances were intended to provide a
frame of reference through which the audience could understand or access the
cabaret.
The most common feedback from the second work-in-progress showing was a
positive response to the shifting moods within the cabaret. The audience found this
a very engaging facet of the performance, with many individuals commenting that
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they liked the combinations of contrasting moods (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 14-15,
34-35, 127-128, 250-252, 258-260, 451-458). Other comments were that
individuals liked the sudden transitions (68), and the humour and variety in the
structure (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 186- 187). This feedback supports responses
in cycle one requesting more dynamic variations, and confirms that this audience
found contrast (and especially sudden contrast) highly engaging within a cabaret
performance.
Another major theme in the feedback related to the character of ‘Jo’. There was a
high level of interest in this character, with many individuals requesting more focus
on this character’s story (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 58-59, 242-247, 482-485, 554-
582, 583- 586, 587- 589, 461-476). In other words, the audience were requesting
more of my own story within the cabaret.
The next major theme was the discussion of the presentation of mental illness as a
condition that affects many different people. Many people commented that the show
reflected that everyone was on a “continuum” in relation to issues of mental illness
(Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 20-23, 53-54, 83-85, 160-163, 316-317, 717-724). Within
this group, three individuals articulated that the cabaret reaffirmed “the normality of
depression”; showed that “depression is very common and not something to be
afraid/embarrassed by”; and could “help to strip away” the “secrecy” and “stigma” of
mental illness (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 21-22, 83-85, 316-317). This feedback
relates to the pathologisation of mental illness as discussed in Chapter Two in
relation to Foucault’s concepts. The audience responded that within the show
mental illness was not being pathologised (that is, it was not objectified or ‘othered’)
but rather depicted as a condition that is widely experienced in many different ways
and that most people sit on a continuum of mental health.
A number of people described the cabaret as a way of sharing experiences of
mental illness, with respondents commenting that the cabaret gave a “glimpse” into
the experience of mental illness and was about “raising awareness of different types
of mental illness/manic depression... [and] the difficulty of dealing with this”
(Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 239, 11-13); and that the performance gave insight into
people’s lives, “open[ing] your eyes to people you just think are weird/crazy”
(Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 239, 11-13, 18-19, 182 - 185).
An unexpected theme in the second feedback forum was a discussion of the
presentation of glamour in the cabaret. Many individuals expressed the desire for
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more glamour, including requests for high heels, feather boas and more sexiness
(Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 591-605, 606-607, 636-641). This point was supported
by arguments that more glamour in the performance could help to keep the
audience “happy” to go to the “dark places”, make the performance “feel finished”,
and place the performance more clearly in the genre of cabaret (Appendix 1.4,
2009, Lines 608-609, 591-605, 606-607). In response the comments, one
respondent asserted that she also liked the unglamorous moments, and suggested
including a mixture of both. Her full comment was as follows:
I liked the contrast of it [the cabaret] not in [high heel] shoes, and maybe not so glam, and I think it would still be good to contrast and it was interesting and brave. ... So there were so moments with the shadows that were quite dark, and I liked the mix of that... so that there could be some moments of spectacle, and I liked the kind of “this is what it is” thing as well. So I think that it would be nice not to abandon that altogether. (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 612- 616)
These comments suggested that more glamour within the performance could further
engage the audience, and that it could be interesting to experiment with a contrast
between moments of extreme glamour and unglamorous or drab moments.
Some individuals requested a stronger narrative through-line to the show.
Two individuals noted that while they enjoyed the “variety” and “choppy
structure”, they found the overall structure “unfinished” and felt the
performance left “many unresolved stories and characters” (Appendix 1.4,
2009, Lines 186-187, 87-89). One of these respondents requested more
“recycling of characters and ideas” to address this point (Appendix 1.4, 2009,
Lines 90- 91). Another respondent stated that they found the narrative
structure “too loose” and felt that this could be assisted by a narrative
“trigger” for each of the songs (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 103- 111).
This feedback suggested the need to have stronger connections between the
scenes of the cabaret and more of a sense of journey within the show. It also
suggested that this could be achieved by providing a stronger narrative through-line
and more contextual information for each song.
A number of people commented that they were more engaged by the second half of
the cabaret than the first half (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines 36- 37, 52, 134- 137). As
stated earlier, in the second work-in-progress showing the first half of the cabaret
was set in an institution and focussed on a formidable emcee character that I termed
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‘The Caretaker’. This section of the cabaret was very intense and serious in contrast
with the more light-hearted second half of the cabaret. The feedback indicated many
audience members were more engaged by the lighter and less intense second half
of the show.
It is also worth noting that there were many comments of praise for the cabaret as a
whole or for specific moments within the cabaret. Some notable comments
described the show as “absorbing” and “wonderful, brave, original and engaging”;
with other respondents stating “the creativity... blows me away” and “you have an
excellent ability to see the truthful humour in a situation” (Appendix 1.4, 2009, Lines
57, 217, 214, 217, 176- 177). These comments were of great value to me as they
reflected the audience’s engagement with the work.
This feedback from the second work-in-progress showing impacted the development
of the cabaret in the following ways:
• I maintained the sudden changes and contrasting moods and atmospheres within the performance, and investigated ways to create greater contrasts in the use of musical styles
• The character of ‘Jo’ was developed with the use of my own personal story as a connection point for the audience and to provide a narrative through-line to the cabaret
• I developed the ‘Jolene’ character to present an extreme pathologising viewpoint. This was intended to show a sharp contrast between a pathologising view of mental illness, and a more empathetic view, thus drawing the audience’s attention to the pathologisation of mental illness. The creation of the ‘Jolene’ character will be further discussed in Chapter Five.
• Glamorous elements were developed in the show, and were used to construct and de-construct the character of ‘Jolene’. (See Chapter Six for a detailed description of the use of glamour within the cabaret.)
• A stronger context was given for many songs in the cabaret. • In response to audience feedback, I cut the gothic-style opening to the
cabaret and adapted the intimidating emcee ‘The Caretaker’ into the character of ‘Jolene’. Feedback stating the intense first half of the cabaret was less engaging than the second half led me to bring a lighter, more playful style to the cabaret as a whole.
In these ways, the feedback from cycle two had a strong impact on the development
of the cabaret. Two major impacts on the cabaret were that this feedback led to a
stronger sense of narrative within the cabaret and to the development of the
character ‘Jolene’.
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Cycle three
Cycle three commenced in 2010 in script development workshops with director
Sandro Colarelli. The working script developed from these workshops was
presented to a panel of my supervisors and two dramaturges, Therese Collie and
Kathryn Kelly, in a staged reading on 16th March, 2010. The final practical stage of
the process involved intensive rehearsals culminating in the final performance of the
cabaret in May 2010.
Cycle three began with script development workshops between Sandro Colarelli and
myself, moving into a third work-in-progress showing and intensive rehearsals for
the cabaret in May 2010. The major developments during this cycle were the
development of the character of ‘Jo’ into a central narrative through-line and the
creation of the character of ‘Jolene’ (the inner critic).
At the beginning of cycle three I began to add more of my story to the cabaret
performance in an effort to explore my own self-stigma, and I likened this to a
woman “facing her demons” (Personal Journal 4th January 2010). This process was
encouraged by Colarelli during script development workshops in February 2010.
Colarelli pushed me to put more and more of my own story into the cabaret
performance. This was a development that I agreed with in theory, but found very
challenging to do in practice, and I noted in my journal:
I have been avoiding this for most of the research... [I have been] writing songs that hint at my experience... talk[ing] about my experience in metaphors, [or] through imagery, [or] talking about emotions and feelings but not the facts of the story... I have been avoiding telling my story... and this is actually at the heart of the piece (Personal Journal 23rd February 2010).
This process led to ‘Jo’ becoming the central protagonist of the cabaret
performance. Through this process I finally allowed my own experiences to be
visible within the cabaret. Further discussion of the character ‘Jo’ is presented in
Chapter Six.
The third work-in-progress showing in March 2010 was set up in an entirely different
fashion to the first two showings. By this stage of the project the cabaret had gone
through two rounds of creative development that led to refinement of the cabaret
and of my own goals within the process. At this stage, my supervisor and I felt there
was the need to receive minor, expert feedback on the process, rather than a large
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amount of general audience feedback. On Tuesday 16th March 2010 I presented a
staged reading of the cabaret to a panel of five people comprised of my supervising
team, Dr Bree Hadley, Professor David Kavanagh and Dr Christine Comans, and
two professional dramaturges, Therese Collie and Kathryn Kelly. After the reading
the panel gave feedback and I noted the points they made. I then transcribed these
notes into my journal. Due to the small amount of data, I chose not to do a data
analysis of these notes, but instead took each point into consideration when working
towards the May 2010 performance.
I will discuss each of the panel’s points in turn, and then reflect on the impact each had on the project.
Firstly, the panel asserted that there was a need to revisit the relationship between
the verbatim aspect of the show and the aim of the show to be provocative
(Personal Journal 16th March, 2010). This point encouraged me to develop more of
a provocative relationship between ‘Jolene’ and the other characters in the cabaret,
and to experiment with ways of showing how the other characters’ stories affected
‘Jolene’.
Secondly, Collie suggested the cabaret could present the points of view of family
and friends of individuals with depression/bi-polar disorder and explore the
difficulties in this area (Personal Journal 16th March 2010). In response I added the
character of ‘the mother’. This character was created from material from the public
domain relating experiences of carers and will be further discussed later in this
chapter.
Thirdly, the panel commented that there needed to be a clearer relationship
between the ‘Jo’ character and the ‘Jolene’ character (Personal Journal 16th March
2010). In response I added a number of sections in which ‘Jolene’ would castigate
‘Jo’ or ‘Jo’ would continue one of the ‘Jolene’s’ statements. In addition, I created a
clearer relational journey between ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’ in which ‘Jolene’ is reduced in
power, while ‘Jo’ grows stronger. Further information about this can be found in
Chapter Six.
The fourth piece of feedback from the panel related to projection titles that I had
planned to use to designate specific scenes. The panel felt that these projections
could give a misleading impression of a singular truth within a verbatim. In response
to these comments, I decided to cut the projections from the cabaret.
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The fifth piece of feedback was that I needed to further consider the question: “What
is driving us through the show?” (Personal Journal 16th March, 2010). This question
made me more strongly consider my intention for the cabaret and how I could lead
the audience through the cabaret and the central dramatic tension within the work.
In response to this feedback I began to experiment with showing different versions
of ‘Jo’ within the cabaret, and the way that these different versions are a response to
‘Jolene’ and the interviewee characters. A detailed description of the presentation of
‘Jo’ in the cabaret can be found in Chapter Six.
The panel made a number of comments regarding the ‘Jolene’ character stating
that: her performance of The Naughty Song needed a stronger contextualisation;
that she could represent society’s strict attitude to failure; and that the character
needed more of a journey (Personal Journal 16th March, 2010). The first two
suggestions were incorporated in the opening speech of the cabaret in which
‘Jolene’ proclaims that people must “control” their minds, and that if they do not do
this they are “weak” and “very, very naughty” (Mind Games script May 2010, 2).
During The Naughty Song she proceeds to proclaim “You’re a total failure, unworthy
of love” (Mind Games script May 2010, 3). The third suggestion was incorporated as
the deconstruction of ‘Jolene’ as the cabaret progressed. This is discussed in detail
in Chapter Six.
The panel noted that the cabaret structure felt predictable in that the first half of the
show focused on ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’ and then the second half focused on the
interviewees (Personal Journal 16th March 2010). I addressed this aspect by
incorporating more interviewees stories in the first half of the cabaret, and by
‘spacing out’ my own story within the cabaret.
The panel also made a number of comments that were not incorporated into the
show (Personal Journal, March 16th 2010). These comments were discussed with
the director (Colarelli) and some were explored within rehearsals, but found to be
either impractical in performance, or not relevant to my own goals with the work.
Chapters Five and Six will provide further description of the ways this feedback was
reflected within the cabaret development and final performance.
The action research methodology described above allowed the research to change
direction in response to outside feedback, research and personal reflections. The
feedback from each cycle had a strong impact on the development of the work.
Each stage of the research project involved conscious reflection on the stages
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undertaken, and the direction for the future, and on the best ways to proceed. In
addition, each strategy used in the research was constantly under evaluation. The
cycles of the work and feedback allowed me to move between intimacy and distance
with the work, to gain new perspectives, and to reflect on my own goals and
intentions within the work. Within each cycle valuable audience feedback provided
me with a sense of which aspects of the performance engaged the audience, and
also encouraged me to: bring more of myself to the cabaret; explore bolder
aesthetic concepts; and to clarify my own intentions within the work.
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Allowing the practice to lead the research: My epistemological journey
A central aim of my research has been to allow my creative practice to lead the
research. This process involved a struggle to articulate an epistemologically clear
position and was affected by: my focus and theoretical goals; changes in personnel
of the project; my application of White’s narrative therapy; and my concept of my
own sense of self-stigma. As I journeyed through the research, I struggled to
address the challenges of self-reflexivity and critical agency.
Cycle one of the process can be defined by search for therapeutic experience and a
lack of critical reflectivity. As discussed earlier in this chapter, during the first cycle
of the research I was experiencing an episode of depression. At this time I intended
for the cabaret to be therapeutic in focus, and pondered in my journal:
Music can transform pain into beauty. The act of transformation is the healing. What could happen if peoples’ personal stories of pain, heartbreak and loss would be transformed into art with a community focus? (Personal Journal 21st March, 2008)
At this stage, the goal of the research was to create a therapeutic cabaret that
addressed social issues. In an academic document at the end of cycle one, I stated
that the project was “based on the notion that storytelling and drama can be used as
a form of healing” (Confirmation Document 2009, 13, Appendix 1.10). At the time
was I strongly influenced by UK Drama therapist Mary Duggan’s position that drama
allows individuals to explore concepts within a safe environment, and to “move
outward from ourselves to a source of being which is not us” (Duggan and Grainger
1997, 3-4, quoted in Confirmation Document 2009, 13 – 14, Appendix 1.10). I was
also influenced by the Jungian concept of the therapeutic potential of connecting
individuals with myths and archetypes that represented “the collective archetypes of
the unconscious” (Hyde and McGuinness 1992, p. 65 quoted in Confirmation
Document 2009, 17-18, Appendix 1.10). I articulated that I was “interested in
exploring the healing potential within myths, by using myth as a point of inspiration
within the creative process” (Confirmation Document 2009, 18 Appendix 1.10).
According to Dickerson (2010) my epistemology at the time would be described as
“individualizing”, in which individuals are seen as “fixed” with an “essential” nature,
and pathologies lie “within the person” (Dickerson 2010, 351). Within this approach
“persons, problems, and change are individual concerns” and individuals should
strive towards “actualization” (Dickerson 2010, 351). Due to the fact I was
depressed at the time, I feel that I was searching for a therapeutic result for myself,
but was unsure how to find it. I hadn’t examined my own thought processes and
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was reaching out to theories entitled ‘therapeutic’. At the time I thought I wanted to
unsettle thinking about mental health issues, but was in fact using an essentialist
approach that stressed a fixed notion of identity and concepts.
The creative exploration in September 2008 (towards the first showing of the work)
was in collaboration with director Ben Knapton and pianist Philippe Klaus. In
retrospect, this phase was a series of tentative steps into the thematic terrain. As the
first time I had worked with the director Knapton and the first cabaret that Knapton
had directed, we engaged in a very open, experimental approach. As a
commissioned director Knapton was involved to help me reach my performance
goals, and because I was unclear about these goals, the rehearsal process became
fluid and tangential. The September creative development resulted in some very
interesting performance concepts and the “germs” of creative ideas, but overall was
not a clear or focussed process. As the first stage of creative development I believe
this was a very valuable stage that allowed the practice to lead the research. It also
exposed my own unclear epistemological position, and led to valuable feedback and
self reflection. In the performance songs were interspersed with sections of interview
transcripts, presenting in a fairly neutral performance style. This style was
encouraged by Knapton who argued against the show being highly emotional and
asked me to “turn down” the emotion and make the piece more “heightened,
imaginative [and] non-linear” and less connected to specific characters (Personal
Journal 23rd September 2008, Appendix 1.1). The songs were generally based on
my own experiences of depression with the exception of the songs “My therapist my
friend” and “I’m flying” which transformed verbatim interview text into song verses.
The songs based on my own experiences were kept intentionally vague. They were
not given a context, or explained to be from my own experience. The opening song
“I’m fine” sung into a child’s toy phone, actually reflected my own struggle at the
time. The chorus, “I’m fine, just fine” sung in a happy, jazzy style, gave way to
improvised verses of strange, wailing sounds (Personal Journal 5th September 2008,
Appendix 1.1). The final song, featuring the lyrics “If I can just unravel my head, and
climb right out of my mind, then I’ll be fine” (Personal Journal 20th September 2008,
Appendix 1.1) was performed as I moved the piano across the floor (with pianist
Klaus trying to keep up). This song was a powerful image of an individual fighting
their own mind, trying to push an almost immovable force. In retrospect, this was
when my own sense of self-stigma was very strong. I desperately wanted to talk
about mental health in the performance, but didn’t want to actually admit that any of
the stories were my own. Ironically, many of the audience assumed that all of the
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stories in the cabaret were my own, and this caused much confusion in trying to
make sense of the competing narratives within the show (Appendix 1.4, 2008, Lines
168 – 174).
In cycle two, I began to clarify a post-structuralist epistemology for the project, and
to explore a large-scale exploration of historical, societal forces. At the beginning of
the second cycle I was made aware through academic feedback and my own
reflections of the contradictions within the research project (Personal Journal, 15th
April, 2009), and began to put more thought and reflection into the writing and
performance of the work. This cycle was marked by a greater harmony between my
epistemology and creative choices, and by extremity in the use of contrasting
performance styles. Prompted initially by academic critique, I spent April to June
2009, examining my own motivations for the project. In my journal I noted that my
supervisor Bree Hadley asked me to “make a clearer relationship between myself
AND the material, and to draw more attention to the tension between ‘Jo’ and ‘the
stories’ ” (Personal Journal 15th April, 2009). At the time I became interested in using
performative techniques from Brecht’s Alienation effect to explore Narrative Therapy
and to use “the power of distancing to discuss melancholy and mania” (Personal
Journal, 22nd April 2009).
In early June 2009 I had a thought provoking conversation with Margi Brown Ash
about the use of ‘distancing effects’ in a performance of the principles of narrative
therapy. I related that while I was interested in combining “distancing perspectives
of Brechtian techniques... and the distancing perspectives of narrative therapy by
using ‘personas’, humour and exaggeration in performance”, I was concerned about
distancing the audience “for the entire thing [show]” (Personal Journal Monday 8th
June 2009). I noted in my journal that:
Margi spoke passionately in response that she feels that Brecht is often misinterpreted as promoting “no feeling” and that she feels this is inaccurate. She believes that Brechtian alienation is about seeing things from “multiple perspectives”, and engaging the mind, heart and spirit. She also commented that while she thinks Narrative Therapy is about distancing, this distancing is achieved through focussing on developing “multiple perspectives”. These comments have helped me to clarify what I’d like to create. They also made me reflect on Brecht plays I love and the way these have often heartbreaking moments, and can be performed with many layers… but that then these emotional moments are broken and the audience is also given a chance to reflect. (Personal Journal, 8th June 2009)
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In June 2009 I began working with dramaturge Therese Collie who helped me to
further analyse my central focus. In my journal I documented my responses to
Collie’s dramaturgical questions:
Therese’s first question: What perceptions do you want to unsettle? My ideas:
surprising an audience with their own preconceptions look at how we are expected to have a ‘strong façade’ (this is from my
own experience of trying to keep up the façade) questioning your ability to function in the world if you are affected by
mental health – look at people’s perceptions around this issue drawing attention to the inner critic inside people’s minds Being sane in an insane world? Sharing the story of an extreme experience of the mind Encouraging the audience to think
[What are the] Aims of the performance [?]…
• a process of ‘personal shaking up’ • investigate the idea that vulnerability = weakness • look at the power of the inner critic • look at the appeal of criticising others (and insecurities) • blurring truth and reality in order to…
question the audience’s judgement of stories, characters and issues playing ‘Mind Games’ with the audience. (Personal Journal 17th June 2009)
These journal excerpts reveal my interest in interrogating perceptions, thought
processes and concepts of “truth” and “reality”. At this time I was interested in using
the principles of White’s narrative therapy in order to question audiences’ pre-
conceptions, and present multiple perspectives within the work. In July 2009, I
began to read more of Michael White’s academic work about his therapeutic
process and specifically his discussion of the ‘remanufacture of identity’ and his
references to Foucault’s work on Language and Power (Personal Journal, 22nd July
2009). By August 2009, I had articulated my central research question as “How can I
create a cabaret that will unsettle/ destabilize normalising judgements about
depression and bi-polar disorder?” (Personal Journal 3rd August 2009), and had
become firmly anchored in a post-structuralist epistemology.
In December 2009 I performed a second work in progress showing of the work, with
directorial assistance from Therese Collie. The post-structuralist concepts behind
the work were expressed in four distinctive and extreme performance styles, aimed
to represent four distinctive ways of thinking about mental health. A full description
of these performative styles and details of the performance are provided in Chapter
Five. However, while appearing stylistically ‘bold’, the second work in progress
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showing still shied away from revelation of my personal experiences of depression.
Although the character of ‘Jo’ appeared in the cabaret, she only revealed her
difficulty in writing the cabaret show, rather than her personal struggles with
depression. ‘Jo’ addressed the audience at the beginning, middle and end of the
cabaret with comments including “I’m trying to write this show and it’s not going very
well... it just feels impossible to make sense of,... and I feel like giving up.... well it’s
a bit of mess actually... it just feels impossible to make sense of” (Personal Journal
30th November 2009, Appendix 1.1). These sections were intended to use the
concept of a performer struggling with putting on a show as an analogy for an
individual struggling with mental health issues. However in retrospect I feel that this
was another way for me to avoid being honest about my own experiences of
depression. It seems that my self-stigma was still a strong force in silencing my own
voice within the cabaret performance. At this time, director Sandro Colarelli had
been commissioned to direct the May 2010 version of the cabaret and he attended
the performance.... commented to me later that he interpreted the performance as
“the journey of a woman and her grappling with her demons” (Personal Journal 9th
December 2009). After the second performance cycle I reflected in my journal that I
wanted to made the show more personal, “simple and straightforward”, commenting:
I’ve been having a re-think of my approach, and feel like I need to go back to being simple and straightforward... asking what it is that my show is doing... and for me it’s about the power of cabaret to dispel stigma (Personal Journal, 27th December 2009).
In getting my head around a post-structuralist approach, I felt I had made the
performance overly- generalized, and now felt the need to move towards a personal
cabaret that shared my own experience. In cycle three, I aimed to combine the
generalized exploration of mental concepts with the expression of my own personal
story and the personal stories of the interviewees. The solution I arrived at was to
present three perspectives in dialectic:
• The perspective of trying to overcome my own ‘self-stigma’ in relation to depression.
• The perspective in which depression and bipolar disorder is ‘pathologised’ (This perspective will be represented by the character of Marlene Dietrich within the performance.)
• The multiple perspectives from other people’s personal experiences of depression and bipolar disorder. (Framing Document 2010, 9, Appendix 1.11)
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At the time I described these perspectives as “aspects of my own personal
experiences” and stated my intention to “externalize my own internal dialogue” and
explore “a range of perspectives of an issue” (Framing Document 2010, 9, Appendix
1.11). The development of the ‘Jo’ character within the cabaret is discussed in detail
in Chapter Five.
After my final show in May 2010, I realised that I had a major mismatch between the
theoretical document I had written to frame the performance, and the final show
itself. The document I had written at the time (the ‘framing document’) was
submitted to the examiners in early May 2010. This document articulated my goal to
play games of truth through presenting three different perspectives within the
performance. These three perspectives were: my attempt to overcome my own
experience of ‘self-stigma’; the pathologisation of depression and bipolar disorder;
and of the interviewees’ personal experiences of depression or bipolar disorder. I
aimed to present these three different perspectives in a dialectical relationship
drawing attention to the clashes and inconsistencies between them.
Upon viewing a video of the performance, it was clear that this aim was not reflected
in the creative work. Upon reflecting on this mismatch between my theory and my
practice, in June 2010 I returned to Brad Haseman’s article on practice-led research,
and noted the following paragraph:
Lincoln and Denzin… relish the instability created by these messy forms of research arguing they have “reshaped entirely the debates around ‘appropriate’ scientific discourse, the technical and rhetorical conventions of scientific writing, and the meaning of research itself. (Lincoln and Denzin cited by Haseman, 2006)
I commented in my journal that:
“what I’ve got now is a ‘messy’, ‘unstable’ situation. The results of the research have not fitted the intentions. Perhaps the intentions of the research inspired the artistic direction? The intentions were a leaping off point for the work”. (Personal Journal 24th June, 2010)
In trying to make sense of my situation, I was encouraged by Barbara Bolt’s
description of a PhD project by visual artist Hockney in which he used a “visual
argument” as part of his research:
Finally, and most importantly, Hockney’s visual argument demonstrates the double articulation between theory and practice, whereby theory emerges from a reflexive practice at the same time
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that practice is informed by theory. This double articulation is central to practice-led research. (Bolt 2006, 4)
The challenge for me in the final parts of my research project was to explore such a
“double articulation”; to allow the theory to inform the practice, and the practice to
inform the theory. I particularly noted the way I needed to be totally in the realm of
the practical at times, and then after the process to return to a reflexive theoretical
model. I have found the creative process to be a completely different ‘head space’,
a space where intuitive processes are privileged. I noted in my journal:
I was working in a creative collaboration with Sandro the director ....For me the creative process is a totally different head space ... I enjoy working in collaborative relationships with people – and Sandro had an enormous impact on the creative work. While in the rehearsal room we argued ideas back and forth – and I was very much empowered as a co-creator... but at this point the work had a different agenda – to do the best show we could do... and I guess to be true to the show and ‘allow the show to reveal itself to us’. Now the final product has become something different to what I intended – and I feel like this is a natural part of the creative process. You can never know what is going to happen within a creative process... it is a creative experiment. The theory I had in my framing document was a kind of ‘leaping off’ point for the work... rather than a map. (Personal Journal 1st July, 2010)
Practice-led research generates a different kind of outcome to those of more
traditional forms of research. Practice-led research is by nature an experimental
process that often has unexpected results. As Barrett states:
Rather than attempting to contort aims, objectives and outcomes to satisfy criteria set for more established models of research, I believe there is a need to generate appropriate discourses to convince assessors and policy-makers that within the context of studio-based research, innovation is derived from methods that cannot always be pre-determined, and ‘outcomes’ of artistic research are necessarily unpredictable. (Barrett 2006, 2)
Barrett argues for the notion of “materializing practices” in relation to practice-led
research. In this process there is a “dialogic relationship” between the practice and
writing of the exegesis. In her words:
Materializing practices constitute relationships between process and text – of which the first iteration is necessarily the researcher’s own self-reflexive mapping of the emergent work as enquiry. Elsewhere, (Barrett 2003), I have argued that a dialogic relationship between studio practice and the writing of the creative arts exegesis is crucial to articulating and harnessing studio methodologies for further application. (Barrett 2006, 5)
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I have employed this “materializing” approach in my own research in order to allow
the practice to inform the theory. By analysing the video document of the cabaret
Mind Games I was able to identify my application of principles of White’s narrative
therapy. This observation led me to a conscious analysis of my own personal goals
and performance making methods. A discussion of the creative methods employed
in this study and an analysis of the Mind Games cabaret is presented in Chapters
Five and Six. The unexpected results that I encountered through my practice
utilising research and theories from theoretical perspectives proved to be of major
interest.
Conclusion
Within this study an autoethnographic approach has drawn attention to my own
personal voice and subjectivity within the research process, and has allowed for
discussion and consideration of ethical concerns from a personal perspective.
Practice-led research has allowed me to foreground and privilege the artistic
practice within which I am working, and through action research I have made use of
multiple reflective cycles. In addition, the autoethnographic, practice-led, action
research methodology has allowed my own personal journey and transformation to
show itself within the research and within the performance. Through using this
methodology I was able to reflect on the unexpected results of my final performance
work in light of my own personal experiences and the way I represented myself in
the performance, and relate this back to the literature and contextual review. My
methodology has been highly compatible with White’s re-authoring process in the
following ways:
• Autoethnography allowed me to base theoretical concepts in my own
subjective experience, thus following Michael White’s approach of focussing
on one individual’s own understanding and re-authoring of their story.
• Practice-led research allowed me to see the practice for what it became (to
use the practice to inform theory), and to make sense of this in relation to my
own personal story. This process allowed me to witness myself and the way
I tell my own story.
• Action research allowed for cycles of change within the research. This
allowed the research to transform itself in response to new information and
points of view. This process allowed me to change my story.
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Chapter Four: The personal and the provocative in contemporary cabaret
Introduction
Principles of White’s narrative therapy encourage individuals to re-author their own
lives in order to play games of truth. The cabaret Mind Games performed games of
truth around personal stories through harnessing existing performance techniques of
contemporary cabaret. As mentioned in Chapter One, the terms personal and
provocative cabaret describe two forms of contemporary cabaret. Personal cabaret
creates an intimate relationship between the performance and the audience, while
provocative cabaret shifts this relationship between distance and intimacy. This
chapter will describe the forms of personal and provocative cabaret in reference to
the historical development of cabaret and the work of specific contemporary artists.
In Chapters Five and Six, the application of elements of both of these styles of
contemporary cabaret within Mind Games is discussed in relation to principles of
White’s narrative therapy.
As discussed in Chapter One, I have defined persona as a performed character that
is intentionally non-realistic and emphasises certain character traits. These
characteristics are heightened and constructed in consciously performative ways. I
have identified two types of persona within provocative cabaret: the provocateur and
the vamp. The term provocateur describes a performance persona that combines
comic music with biting, often caustic, humour; and the term vamp describes a
performance persona that emphasises constructed femininity. These personas have
strong links with the history of cabaret.
My contextual review focuses on seven contemporary cabaret artists: one artist who
works in personal cabaret, and six artists from the field of provocative cabaret. For
the purposes of brevity an extended study of personal cabaret artists has not been
undertaken. Rather, a description of personal cabaret has been used in this study to
briefly outline a major trend in mainstream cabaret, and to provide a point of contrast
to provocative cabaret. Personal cabaret artist Queenie Van der Zant is an
Australian cabaret artist who presents her own personal experiences in combination
with well known songs. A description of Van der Zant provides a contrast to the six
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provocative cabaret artists who can be described as provocateurs or vamps. In this
study, the provocateurs are Eddie Perfect and Tim Minchin from Australia, and
Dusty Limits from the United Kingdom. The vamps are Camille O’Sullivan from the
United Kingdom, and Meow Meow and Paul Capsis from Australia. The discussion
of contemporary cabaret is informed by the history of cabaret. Cabaret is a form that
pays tribute to its history, and constantly acknowledges its musical and stylistic
heritages. For this reason I include details of this history within the contextual
review. Historical discussions of cabaret are also used to explore the development
of the personas of the provocateur and the vamp. This chapter will also discuss the
importance of humour in cabaret, and will focus on the use of parodic humour by the
provocateurs and the vamps in relation to its effect on the audience. This style of
humour is used to create a dynamic relationship between the performer and the
audience that moves between intimacy and distance.
The playful form of cabaret
Appignanesi describes cabaret as creating a formula for entertainment through the
combination of “a tang of eroticism, a touch of sentimentality, music with
contemporary words, a strong rhythm, or a melody which can be whistled, and...
anything that produces laughter (1976, 129-130). This formula is clearly enacted in
the work of Perfect, Minchin, Limits, O’Sullivan, Meow Meow and Capsis.
Cabaret presents songs in direct address with an audience, often in intimate
performance spaces. A sense of playful laughter and “piercing wit” is at the heart of
the cabaret (Appignanesi 1976, 11). Since its origination in the late nineteenth
century, cabaret has brought together ‘high’ and ‘low’ art forms, intellectualism and
hedonism in a self-consciously performative art form with a focus on laughter and
entertainment (Appignanesi 1976, 11). Direct address in cabaret breaks down the
”illusory fourth wall” of the theatre (Appignanesi 1976 ,12). Audience involvement is
central to a cabaret performance, for, as Harrington says, “cabaret is participational.
Audience energy affects cabaret far more than it does any other art form... in
cabaret, audience rapport is the bottom line” (Harrington 2000, 14- 15).
With a focus on engaging the audience, cabaret erodes the distinction between
‘high’ and ‘low’ art forms with an emphasis on the use of popular song forms
(Friedman 2008, 320). This characteristic can be seen in the performances of
Australian artists Tim Minchin and Meow Meow. In his performances, Minchin
brings his virtuosic piano skills to light hearted songs, while Meow Meow will often
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interrupt an impressive performance of an ‘art song’ to give her technician directions
on the lighting state.
Personal cabaret
In what I identify as personal cabaret, a performer focuses on creating a sense of
intimacy with the audience through the interpretation of well-known songs to express
a personal connection or truth. This approach has been used by range of cabaret
acts to the point where it has become a cliché; in the words of Tedrick, “many
people think of cabaret purely as an art form for aging (mostly female) singers, or
crooners who sing retrospectives of the American Musical Theatre Songbooks”
(2006, 74). Personal cabaret generally avoids any sense of danger and provocation
to focus on creating a sense of intimacy and connection with an audience. In this
style the performer ‘opens up’ to their audience, often sharing personal anecdotes
that are related to well know songs. The personal sharing also occurs through the
singer’s interpretation of the songs and the way they “bring [their] inner self to bear
upon” a song (Harrington 2000, 96). Personal cabaret exploits techniques discussed
by Harrington and Eaker in The Cabaret Artist’s Handbook (Harrington 2000).
Harrington advises cabaret artists to create an “exchange of trust” and “feeling of
intimate communication” with their audiences (Harrington 2000, 15). He gives
examples of the “great cabaret singer” (for example Peggy Lee) who has “star
quality”, and describes this singer as “a performer whose extraordinary talent can
not only reach an audience, but can powerfully connect with it and create the illusion
of sharing a highly personal experience” (Harrington 2000, 41). Harrington
encourages cabaret performers to “deeply connect” with each song, and “share their
soul” with the audience, asserting that “to be drawn into an intimate cabaret act,
audiences must feel that they are learning something about you, that something is
being revealed” (106). For Harrington, “good cabaret” provides a “cathartic
adventure” for the performer and audience alike, and creates a sense of ‘real-ness’
or truth:
Good cabaret feels real. It connects audience and performer in a mutual embrace that can be powerfully meaningful to those able to open themselves up to the experience. It’s a heightened form of personal communication in a world where too many messages come by fax machine. (Harrington 2000, 28)
In her introduction to Harrington’s didactic volume, Eaker (2000) supports these
concepts with her statement “Cabaret is a distinctive art that requires a lot of soul
searching, risk taking, creativity, and honesty” (Eaker 2000, 7).
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One example of an artist who performs in the personal cabaret style is Australian
Queenie Van de Zandt. Van de Zandt has a career as an actor and performer in
musical theatre and cabaret. Two of her cabaret performances, No Holds Barred
(2010) and Cabaret in 12 Easy Steps (2008), are very clear examples of the
personal cabaret style in that they combine well-known songs with stories of self
revelation. In No Holds Barred, Van De Zandt shares her experience as a cabaret
artist and talks “about the highlights and the lowlights of her career” (Bhudiya
2010)3. One reviewer described her performance as a combination of “anecdotes,
beautiful songs where she sings from the heart... as well as insightful observations”
in a “no holds barred self expose” (Bhudiya 2010). In Cabaret in 12 Easy Steps, Van
De Zandt presented a mock self help seminar “with a loopy and occasionally very
funny 12-step introduction to showbiz” (Lloyd 2008). She used this format in order
to share her own experiences as a cabaret performer, “revealing the person behind
the performer” (Lloyd 2008). Van De Zandt’s combination of jokes, personal
revelation and well known songs in these cabaret shows is characteristic of the
personal cabaret style.
From a post-structuralist epistemology, Personal cabaret presents a ‘fixed’ and
‘truthful’ notion of the self. As discussed in Chapter Three, Heddon would describe
this presentation of the self as problematic as it does not acknowledge the self as a
“discursive construct” (Heddon 2008, 151). This notion of the self is also
incompatible with White’s concept of authenticity (as discussed in Chapter Two). For
White, authenticity is not a communication of an inner, fixed truth but is instead an
acknowledgement of “preferred identity claims” (White 2004b, 34). In the Mind
Games cabaret I attempted to apply performance techniques from Personal cabaret
within a post-structuralist framework. This application and my endeavour to
problematise notions of a fixed and truthful performance self is discussed in
Chapters Six and Seven.
Provocative cabaret: Pleasing and teasing the audience
Rather than a “cathartic” purging (Harrington 2006) of emotion, the provocateurs
and the vamps of contemporary cabaret enliven their audience through pleasing and
3 Page number unavailable; newspaper review. Full references for all reviews and quotes including section reference or URL are provided in the reference list.
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teasing or “stoking and striking” their audience (Perfect quoted in Rose 2005a).
Provocateurs please their audience through the use of comedy and song, and then
tease the audience through biting social and political critique. The vamps please
through sensuality and comedy, and tease through drawing attention to the
constructed nature of femininity. The vamps also draw attention to the vulnerability
of the diva persona, using the form to make a social commentary. In these ways, the
provocateurs and the vamps constantly change their relationship with the audience
between one of intimacy and one of distance. The technique of distancing, or as
Brecht terms it Verfremdungseffekt, can make an audience consciously think about
what it is they are viewing on stage (Ewen 1992, 356). In provocative cabaret, a
constant flux between intimacy and estrangement creates a dynamic in which the
audience is entertained and relaxed by the performance, and also encouraged to
think about issues. Thus, the provocative cabaret style encourages the audience to
consider issues within a relaxed and playful environment.
The history of the provocateur
For the purposes of this research I have defined the provocateur as a cabaret artist
who uses popular song forms and humour to present pointed critiques of society,
social groups or individuals. The cabaret can be seen to have originated with an
intent to provoke. The early cabarets of Paris in the 1890s were run by
conférenciers (or performing comperes) such as Rudolphe Salis and Aristide Bruant
who delighted in attacking middle-class attitudes and insulting their audience
through their songs and jokes (Appignanesi 2004, 11, 22; Senelick 1989, 24, 42). In
Weimar Germany (between World War I and World War II) this tradition of
provocation was continued in the cabaret performances of Walter Mehring and Kurt
Tucholsky. An anarchist with sympathies towards the left, Mehring “remained non-
aligned politically” (Senelick 1993, 72) and critiqued both sides of the political fence
(Appignanesi 2004, 133). Tucholsky also remained politically unaffiliated and, under
various pseudonyms, “attacked nationalism, militarism, philistinism, organized
religion, the bureaucracy, the blindness of justice, the wishiwashiness of the liberal
press, and the opportunism of the Social Democratic party” (Senelick 1993, 57).
Salis, Bruant, Mehring and Tucholsky can be seen as provocateurs in that they are
highly critical of many points of view (and often critique all sides of the political
sphere), and delight in insulting and provoking their audience. In addition, their
polemic messages are delivered through witty wordplay and popular song forms.
This technique was exemplified by Walter Mehring, who was accomplished in the
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Berlinese street dialogue of the city; his chansons “combined irreverently free
associations, jazz tempos, and a big city language of slogans and hoarding
advertisements” (Appignanesi 2004, 133).
The history of the vamp
I define the vamp as a persona of constructed femininity who combines the
vulnerability of the feminine and the figure of the diva. The vamp persona can be
seen to have originated in France in the 1880s with Yvette Guilbert (Senelick 1989,
39), and has been associated with the performers Marya Delvard, Anna Akhmatova,
and Marlene Dietrich. The vamp persona also incorporates notions of the diva.
Yvette Guilbert, one of the few female cabaret performers in the 1880s, often
performed Bruant’s songs in a performance style defined by contradictions that
enticed her audience Guilbert’s “hoarse, mournful voice with its touch of hysteria
could both bring to life Bruant’s harlots and infuse meaning into a sentimental lyric”
(Appignanesi 1976, 30). As Senelick states, Guilbert’s “nuanced, suggestive mode
of recitation… provided a model for performers in the intimate new ambiance of the
cabaret” (Senelick 1989, 39). Her performance was also characterised by
contradictions; as Appignanesi writes, “She was at once the weary, ageing, cynical
coquette, and the pure English governess longing for spiritual love” (Appignanesi
2004, 28).
Guilbert was one of the first performers to present what Ruttkowski (2001) has
termed a “prostitute song” in which a favourite topic “is the gradual decline in a
woman’s life... It is the contrast between the ‘glamour’ of the still young ‘cocotte’ and
the misery of her last years of life that moves most writers the most, a quasi-
baroque fascination with the motif of decay” (Ruttkowski 2001, 57, italics as in
original). According to Ruttkowski, the “prostitute song” presents “an ironic
exaggeration of the prostitute”, for the vamp “does not take herself quite seriously”
(Ruttkowski 2001, 59 ). This self-consciousness, revealed in the “prostitute song” is
an important facet of the vamp. In order to perform these songs, the performer
needs to “take distance” from herself, and self-consciously focus on her own self-
representation. As Ruttkowski (2001) states:
The singer-actress must be able to “step aside” or take distance from herself and to characterize herself, directly or indirectly. The prostitute song therefore cannot be an historically early form of song, like the “working song”, the “dancing song”, or the “drinking song”. It is part of a stage of cultural development in which people have already learned
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to see themselves “sociologically” – that is, to see behind their present condition a development which, under special environmental influences, has led them to their present state. (56- 57)
In Germany at the turn of the century another female in cabaret began to use a
complex, mournful performance style. Credited with being the “first stage vamp of
the century”, at Die Elf Scharfrichter (The Eleven Executioners), Marya Delvard
performed Wedekind’s Ilse – a song that tells of a young woman’s fall from grace.
I was a child of fifteen, A pure, innocent child, When I first experienced, How sweet the joys of love are ... Since that day I love them all, Life’s most beautiful spring is mine. And when I no longer please anyone, I will gladly be buried. (translated from German in Appignanesi 1976, 46, 43)
Delvard performed in a striking black dress, intoning the song in a “tired
melancholy... wearing the expression of a grand tragedienne” (Appignanesi 2004,
46 - 47).
A black dress was also the costume of choice for Russian cabaret artist Anna
Akhmatova. Performing at Brodyachaya Sobaka (The Stray Dog Cabaret), she
would “find her way through the dark, litter-filled courtyard to make a grand
entrance, regal in black silk with a huge oval cameo on her belt” (Appignanesi 2004,
101). A “great tragedienne” with a “mesmerizing” voice, Akhmatova chose to present
the darker side of life, singing songs about “unhappy carousers, sheltering from a
natural or perhaps political storm” (Appignanesi 2004, 102).
This tradition paved the way for Marlene Dietrich, arguably the most famous vamp of
all time. Dietrich began performing in the cabaret-revues in 1920s Berlin (Jelavich
1993, 193), and the Weimar influence on her performance style is clearly shown in
her portrayal of cabaret artist “Lola-Lola” in the 1929 film The Blue Angel:
Dietrich performs Lola-Lola’s femininity in the way of a grand Madame, an arch-female whose act is still played out in various pastiche forms today…[and] the kind of steely seduction Dietrich gave to the part is all Weimar. (Appignanesi 2004, 166)
During the film, Lola Lola taunts her lover and “renders him progressively more
jealous with her insolent sexuality veiling a cool impassivity” (Appignanesi 1976,
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126). Lola-Lola is both cruel and seductive, highly promiscuous and impassive,
qualities best summed up by in the lyrics to one of her songs:
Men cluster round me like moths round a flame And if they burn, I’m not to blame. (quoted in Appignanesi 1976, 128)
Through exaggerated gestures, costume and performance style, the vamp presents
a heightened self-conscious, a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ performance. The persona is
created through “witty word plays, innuendos and asides; in exaggerations, which
are not meant to be taken seriously, in pathos, which nobody believes in, neither
the performers nor the audience... the exaggerated use of stylistic elements, which
previously had been taken seriously, for the purpose of entertainment” (Ruttkowski
2001, 59).
These vampish characteristics of heightened, self-conscious performativity relate to
notions of the diva. Pope and Leonardi (1996) describe the diva as a combination of
“two conflicting” representations: “the diva as an icon of powerful womanhood” and
“a queer reading of the diva as an icon of performativity” (20). In combining these
representations “the diva makes visible the seams and fissures of a culture’s gender
and sexual ideology” and “unsettles gender oppositions” (Pope and Leonardi 1996,
20-21).
The vamp is defined by her contradictions. She is alluring, yet harsh; sweet but
sexual; the femme fatale, seductive and dangerous, fragile and steely, sentimental
and cynical, combining elements of light and dark. The vamp pleases with her
sensuality, and teases by presenting the darker side of life, or sexually provoking the
audience. It could also be said that she teases through her contradictions, as she is
impossible to ‘work out’. The vamp constructs herself as an enigma.
The contemporary provocateurs
The provocateurs delight in making pointed, provocative critiques in a comic,
musical style. Eddie Perfect, Tim Minchin and Dusty Limits can be seen to be
continuing the tradition of the provocateur in cabaret, for they are funny, musical
entertainers who use cutting humour to make pointed critiques. Perfect and Minchin
are Australian cabaret artists who write and perform their own songs, using music
and humour to entertain their audiences and to make cutting political critiques. As
Woodhead (2006) comments, “Eddie Perfect and Tim Minchin... harness the
subversive horsepower of the [cabaret] form to provide something more powerful
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and discomforting than pure entertainment”. Born in Melbourne, Perfect discovered
his song writing abilities while studying at The Western Australian Academy for the
Performing Arts (WAAPA). Since completing his studies he has worked as a cabaret
performer, composer and actor in cabaret, musical theatre and television. Minchin,
an Australian born in Perth, also studied at WAAPA, and has had a career as a
cabaret performer, composer and actor. For the purposes of this contextual review, I
will focus on Perfect’s and Minchin’s cabaret performances. Dusty Limits (the stage
name of Mark McInnes) is a UK based cabaret performer whose skills include those
of compere, singer and comedian. Originally from Australia, Limits has performed in
the UK cabaret scene since 1999. He has also performed as an actor on stage and
film, often under the pseudonym Dorian Black. Perfect, Minchin and Limits deliver
their critiques through a humorous musical form. Humour is the basis of the
provocateurs’ art form, and their style is typically biting and caustic: humour that is
sharpened to make a cutting point.
Eddie Perfect’s humour has been described as “bitingly sharp, outrageously harsh,
hilariously wrong…[calling] people's bluffs on everything from racism to detention
centres” (Mcdonald 2004). Perfect’s Drink Pepsi, Bitch toured throughout Australia
and to the Edinburgh festival. The show, a caustic critique of commercialisation,
expressed Perfect’s view that:
Every day we are bombarded with a range of consumer gimmicks, from Omo to Oprah Winfrey, and Drink Pepsi, Bitch questions how we are being manipulated and how we can maintain a sense of sanity, humanity and humour through the process. (quoted in Brown 2006)
The show merged song lyrics and stand-up material critiquing “corporations,
rampant consumerism, cynical marketing campaigns, advertising and our own
apathy” (Herbert 2005b). However, Perfect does not keep his criticisms to one side
of the political fence, also taking healthy stabs at the left wing. Herbert (2005b)
notes that:
His targets are not only high-profile companies. He slams the hippie fascists, those scruffy ferals who come from middle-class families and demand we all ride bicycles, grow dreadlocks and eat tofu.
Perfect relates that he likes the ‘immediacy’ of cabaret because “instead of standing
on a soapbox and talking politics you can do it through song and create a mood with
music while putting across a message” (quoted in Rose 2005a). Perfect’s first solo
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show Angry Eddie was performed in Chapel off Chapel in 2003, and then for The
2004 Melbourne Comedy Festival. Westwood (2004) described the show as:
heavy-handed preaching wrapped up in the palatable packaging of cabaret, but beautifully delivered thanks to Perfect’s extraordinary charm, voice and musical talents.
Perfect’s next show, with the satirical title Transcending Anger Towards Something
More Marketable (2004), was in fact continuing in the same direction, with songs
about "human suffering and human need, head-to-head with corporate greed"
(quoted in Murphy 2004).
Perfect described Drink Pepsi, Bitch as "a theatrical show that combines original
music and original songs that are satirical in nature. It's funny, dark, aggressive and
confusing all at once. It's a one-man comedy musical” (quoted in Adie, 2006).
In 2005, Drink Pepsi, Bitch had a sold-out season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival,
where a reviewer for The Scotsman described his voice as "a thing of raw beauty”
and commented that “this Australian's sense of humour is so caustic it could strip
paint" (quoted in Baily 2006a).
While Perfect intends to challenge, he prefers the approach of “stroking and striking”
the viewers by combining entertainment with hard-hitting messages (Perfect quoted
in Rose 2005a). He utilises the combination of music and comedy in order to
challenge the audience, encouraging them to “leave their comfort zone and get the
deeper joke” (Burchall 2005). He notes that sometimes it is difficult to get this
balance right:
[It] takes a lot of skill and experience, to get angry at a gig and let the audience be angry with you, rather than feel like you're attacking them…Sometimes you can just completely f--- it and have an audience turn on you. (quoted in Rose 2005a)
Perfect has related that after performances of The Big Con, some audience
members complained to him that they “don’t come to the theatre to be insulted”
(Rose 2005a). In response to this sentiment Perfect reflected that "People are most
offended when you hold certain truths up to them. If it rings true, that's usually the
most offensive” (quoted in Rose 2005a).
Tim Minchin’s songs, stand up comedy and poems confront and provoke his
audience, satirising everything from religion to the new age, capitalists to
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psychology, homophobia and attitudes towards romance. Gadd (2007) describes
Michin’s performances as “slick and often bordering on obscene” and Ferguson
(2006) warns that his performance could easily offend “the faint hearted” or “the
religious” . His show Are you Ready for This? (2009) started by warming the crowd
up with some light self-deprecating songs. He then assumed a tone of mock
seriousness, introducing a song about discrimination. This song was a clever play
with audience expectations, turning a song that might be expected to be about
racism into one about the pain of being a red-head. Later in the set, he put on one
boot to play a rollicking country parody of religious fundamentalism, followed by a
mock R&B ballad sending up irrational romanticism and a beat poem that
mercilessly critiqued hippy culture. In a review for The Scotsmen, Cox described
these songs as offering respectively “a prolonged assault on American religious
right”, “a spoof R&B song in which he replaces the usual genre platitudes with some
cold hard facts about relationships, and... a nine-minute beat poem in which he tears
intellectual strips off a hapless hippy called Storm” (Cox 2008).
So Rock and Dark Side, two of Minchin’s previous cabaret shows, have included
mock solutions to the Middle East crisis (Wareham 2006); critiques of zoos that
teach bears to dance for the entertainment of humans, and a satirical “impromptu
ditty to a woman who had the gall to go to the toilet before the interval” (Gibson
2008).
Michin’s song Fuck the Poor, created for the 2007 Melbourne Comedy Festival
Gala, demonstrates his tendency to walk “the fine line between comedic gold and
pushing the limits of good taste that little bit too far” with reactions ranging from
“sincere belly laugh” to audience members who “stared blankly in protest” (Gadd
2007). In an interview with Michael Gadd, Minchin related that he wanted to give
the audience the benefit of the doubt, and credit their intelligence as opposed to the
way people are treated by the Australian government:
In this country our leaders are constantly patting the community on the head. I'm not a political radical, I tend to be fairly moderate because I tend to have a 'yeah, but ...' to most arguments, but this government is a demagoguery which plays on our fears, the littlest part of us. Commercial TV is the same, and it'd be nice if our intelligence wasn't insulted occasionally. (Quoted in Gadd 2007)
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This quality is also shown in his ‘earnest’ songs about canvas shopping bags and
his own dark side, which Ferguson describes as “hilarious and yet honestly moving
at the same time” (Ferguson 2006). Minchin pleases and teases his audience by
placing his harsh, satirical (and often offensive) words in a charming, light and self-
deprecating package: “Knowingly cheesy, he subtly utilises his soft-voiced
sensibility to mask the more risqué material” (Wareham 2006). Minchin uses these
qualities to great effect as he confronts and provokes his audience.
McInnes, in the onstage persona Dusty Limits, sarcastically critiques both public
figures and the crowd who come to see him perform. Described as “beautifully
bitchy” and “blessed with a wicked comic tongue”, in his performances Limits attacks
politicians, public figures and audiences alike, “teasing, flirting and haranguing” his
audience (Three Weeks and The Stage quoted in McInnes 2010; Randall 2009).
In a way similar to the one in which Rudople Salis insulted his audience in 19th
century Paris, Limits plays the part of the ‘provocative emcee’, teasing and
haranguing his audience. A true conferencier (he comperes, he sings, he tells
jokes, adapts lyrics and writes his own songs), with a sharp tongue, Limits could be
described as a contemporary Bruant or Salis. Limits has compered a wide range of
events including The Club at Edinburgh Fringe, and burlesque, circus and cabaret
acts. He uses his skills in vocal delivery and physical comedy to draw diverse acts
together (The Skinny quoted in McInnes 2010). Limits critiques his targets while at
the same time keeping the audience amused with his musicality and humour
(ThreeWeeks and The Stage quoted in McInnes 2010). Limits would like to see
more cabarets following his lead, stating:
I would love to see more cabarets that are very satirical and critical of [politicians] because we are sleepwalking into another age of governments abusing their power with such impunity. (Limits quoted in Brownell, 2008)
His skill as a conferencier lies in his ability to combine the beautiful with the
confronting as he pleases and teases his audience. Eaton (2007) describes Limits
as “sharp, erudite, occasionally withering, with bags of charisma and an odd,
inscrutable mix of gentle generosity and black, black humour”. In a discussion of his
performance at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Eaton celebrated the way the
compere “chose to close the opening night's proceedings with a song about hoping
someone's children die of cancer”.
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The cutting statements of the provocateur are delivered in sweet, popular song form.
In this way, the provocateurs draw their audience into a sense of intimacy through
their use of popular music forms, while at the same time distancing the audience
with critical comments. The provocateurs please through their use of music, and
tease through their cutting commentary. Central to the ‘pleasing’ effect of the
provocateurs is the parodic use of music, as is discussed later in this chapter.
The features of the contemporary vamp persona
The vamps of contemporary cabaret emphasise a sense of constructed femininity
that proves to be essentially vulnerable.
Camille O’Sullivan, Meow Meow and Paul Capsis present their own versions of
femininty, but each portrayal draws attention to the performed nature of femininity,
and the highly constructed notion of femininity itself.
O’Sullivan’s performance persona draws together a range of feminine attributes in a
contradictory and strange blend. The effect of this juxtaposition is to draw attention
to the range of conflicting descriptors of the feminine. Three different critics have
described O’Sullivan in the following ways: “Gutsy, ballsy, risque, old style glitz,
glamour, drama, seduction, stilettos, blood, sweat and tears” ; “Alternating between
being vampish and kittenish, vocally and dramatically”, and; “at times acting drunk,
at other times as a lost child” (Cadden 2009; Walker 2008; Ellis 2005). Allen (2009)
noted that “there is something of the affectedly ker-azy actress about her – bunny-
hopping across the stage and requesting the crowd miaow because it makes her
happy... [and] a little madness helps the bleak illusion”. These descriptions are
supported by Mansfield (2007) in his comments:
Her versatile voice is matched only by the broad emotional range of her performance. She can be coquettish or menacing; playing for laughs hamming up the Irish drunk, or wittily reworking Bette Midler's In These Shoes? in a pair of sparkly red stilettos. Moments later, she can be reduced to anguish by the very words she's singing.
O’Sullivan states
I'm completely schizophrenic and mad on stage. I can be quite enigmatic and create a distance between myself and an audience in order to climb all over them. (Swarbrick 2009)
Meow Meow has constructed her own persona as a pastiche of the contradictory
aspects of the ‘vamp-diva’. She relates that her favourite songs are Surabaya
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Johnny and Ne Me Quitte Pas, because “both are about high romanticism and
complete desperation” (quoted in Barclay 2009). Meow Meow’s performances are
contradictory and unpredictable, offering up a plethora of possibilities rather than
making any clear statements. Power (2009) describes her stage persona as a
“riddle wrapped in an enigma... [that is] ... equal parts beguiling, hilarious and
bemusing”. In 2008, Meow Meow created a show called “vamp” in which she played
different femme fatales. The show was an homage to these females who are both
seductive and terrifying, beautiful and destructive. Meow Meow wrote all the songs
for the performance, presenting a range of “alluring seductresses” (Butler 2008)
including Medea, Salome, the Biblical Judith, Marlene Dietrich, Sarah Bernhardt ,
Louise Brooks, Mata Hari, Lola Montez and Madonna (Gill 2008; Blake 2009; Litson
2008). In her portrayals she “[brought] to life the voracious women who are ’fabulous
or terrifying or both’” (Gill 2008). Her performance honoured the persona of the
vamp, which “celebrates the cult of the man-eating femme fatale and revels in her
tragedy” (Blake 2009). She explores two sides of the vamp: “the dangerous
seductress who is both avenging angel and tragic victim” (Litson 2008).
Paul Capsis’ cabaret career has focused on reinterpreting famous female singers,
reworking and commenting on their performances. Capsis has been described as
“best known as a high-camp singing impersonator” (Shand 1997) and a “wicked
mimic” (Simmonds 2001) who has “spent a good chunk of his career channeling
divas” (Harari 2008).
Capsis had some success as a drag queen early in his career:
Having long been rejected for parts because of his high voice, here he was putting on a dress to accompany it, and it seemed to make all the difference as he belted out hits by Joplin and Garland, Holiday and Dietrich. "From then on," he says, "I got noticed". (Harari 2008)
Ultimately Capsis felt that drag was not for him, commenting “I just got bored with
drag. I wasn't connected to it at all” (quoted in Bela 2006), and after a few years he
found his niche in cabaret (Bela 2006). By 1997 he had been impersonating singing
divas for nine years and had brought together these impersonations in the cabaret
Burning Sequins. Not content to frock up in his ‘impersonations’, Capsis created
cabaret in which he morphed between different performers with minimal costume
changes, nailing each singer’s vocal style in parodic tributes.
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In enacting impressions that are not reliant on costumes, Capsis reveals the
constructed nature of his performance, and of gender itself. He becomes the
women through taking on the on-stage persona and voice of each, rather than
attempting to replicate their exact appearances. Capsis can thus be seen to be
engaging in gender as a performative act as described by theorist Judith Butler.
Butler’s writing discusses ways that perceptions of gender can “delimit” our
perceptions of what it is to be human (Butler and Salih 2004, 99). Butler argues that
acts of drag are able to subvert this reality because they show gender as an
“illusion” and something that is not fixed (Butler and Salih 2004, 101). By choosing
not to don a frock, Capsis shows himself both to be the female singers and a male
performer, taking on feminine performance and vocal styles without needing to look
overtly feminine. In discussing Butler’s work, Lloyd links Butler’s theories of drag to
concepts of parody in relation to gender. Lloyd states of Butler’s work:
It implies that when parody is at its best, the actions themselves, and the radical responses and appropriations it inspires, may lead to the performative production of new groups; that is, groups which do not exist prior to these (re-citational) practices. (Lloyd 1999, 208)
Capsis could be seen as a performer who is creating a new genre of performance
that works within the “gaps” of fixed gender identity. Lloyd sums up Butler’s work as
raising the possibility “that occasional gaps open up within contemporary culture
where norms (both dominant and annihilating) can be mimed, reworked, re-signified
and, of course, reincorporated” (Lloyd 1999, 209). Throughout his performances,
Capsis shape-shifts between gender identities and challenges audience concepts of
gender identity.
While female performers O’Sullivan and Meow Meow exaggerate the contradictory
nature of feminine qualities through their exaggerated onstage personas, Capsis
performs shifting gender to draw attention to the fluid nature of gender identity.
The persona of the diva figures in the work of each of the contemporary vamps
discussed here. The vulnerable nature of the diva is represented through a
‘stripping back’ of glamour or by showing the star’s fall from grace.
In Camille O’Sullivan’s The Dark Angel and Meow Meow’s performances the
stripping back of glamour occurs literally through the shedding of costumes.
O’Sulivan’s Dark Angel is an exploration of the “shadowy side of the human psyche”
(Walker 2008); O’Sullivan comments that she likes to mix darkness with comedy: “I
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have a lot of humour but tend to go into a dark world full of art, melancholy and
French drama” (quoted in Swarbrick 2009).
In The Dark Angel O’Sullivan began wearing a large black overcoat, and then
gradually took off layers of costumes until she was only wearing a black leotard and
red high heels. Interacting with audience members throughout the show, she then
began “stroking front-row punters, sitting on laps, making people equally
uncomfortable and excited” (Allen 2009).
Camille O’Sullivan self-deprecatingly undermines her own glamour. When she
begins performances she is polished and glamorous, with her hair carefully styled
and every piece of clothing in place. Then, throughout her performances she strips
off her layers and messes up her clothes and hair until she appears as a dishevelled
mess: “At the start of my shows I'm quite well-kempt but by the end I look like I've
climbed out of the back of a bush” (Swarbrick 2009).
Meow Meow literally throws herself into her audience during performances. She
relies on her audience to lift her up, move around the stage, hold her lights, hold her
music, share their drinks with her and throw roses at her. She doesn’t give her
audience any choice in the matter and “holds the audience in the palm of her hand,
calling the shots like a theatrical dominatrix. She orders men on stage and when she
expects more applause she tells us so” (Litson 2008).
Meow Meow is the star being adored and is also the victim, heightening awareness
of her own need for the audience and her vulnerability. Pickard (2009) states that
her “brilliance is the force of her wit and the way she plunges herself into the
audience”. She presents herself as the star being adored, and being the victim of
her own need for adoration. This is a vamp on the point of collapse or disaster. For
Blake (2009), the artist “flirts with disaster... and that is what makes her so
compelling. Collapse is her forte and she gives herself further to fall than usual”.
Meow Meow strips down the facade of the diva – and often does this quite literally
by having the audience undress her. In Beyond Glamour (2007) and Feline
Intimate (2009), Meow Meow had a number of costume changes, calling on various
audience members to take her clothes off or help her to assemble her next costume.
This is a performer who demands that her audience get up close and personal, and,
she has asked audience members to unzip her skintight pants and jacket, has straddled shoulders singing with legs and arms spread
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and used others as music stands or microphone holders. (Lawes 2009)
In a recent performance at the Opera house, she even had her costume
repossessed, and her band stripped down to their underwear:
Lured to the Opera House with promises of lavish production budgets and sumptuous hospitality, the cabaret artist Meow Meow is confronted with the hard truths of the global financial crisis: her dress is repossessed after the opening number. Then her band members are stripped to their underwear to save on dry-cleaning bills. She even has to stump up for her own dream sequence. (Blake 2009)
Meow Meow’s performances confront audiences with the constructed nature of the
vamp persona, heightening awareness of the performer’s need for the audience.
In his portrayals of famous divas, Capsis draws attention to their vulnerability. In his
self-titled Brisbane performance in 2006 he became a drunk, confused Judy Garland
unsure of which city she was performing in. His performances caricature these
women in an empathetic way, combining satire with emotional connection. On
(2005) stated “Capsis's honeyed voice was tempered with a grit that spoke volumes
about the vulnerability of these faded stars”. Herbert (2005a) notes that Capsis is
able to accurately mimic other singers voices, but that “it is more the spirit of these
damaged women that he captures” (Herbert 2005a).
This focus on vulnerability was perhaps strongest in Capsis’ Boulevard Delirium, a
show written and directed for Capsis by Barrie Kosky. Boulevard Delirium explored
the singers’ “mental instability, shattered dreams and haunted love affairs” (Sheridan
2005) thus “heightening the implicit theatricality of his portrayal of each woman”
(Shand 2002).
Woodhead (2007) felt that this performance extended the form of cabaret,
describing the show as:
part rock concert, part theatrical tribute to fame's siren call... [that] punched well above the weight of most cabaret, and turned into something altogether more mesmerising, subversive and grotesque. (Woodhead 2007)
Hallet (2004) commented on the show’s fragmentation of the conventional music
theatre narrative and described Capsis as “a vocal-stretching, gut-wrenching force
of the theatrical gods who is risky and raw, sentimental and hard, hidden and
exposed” (Hallet 2004). Capsis exposes vulnerabilities in his performances,
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stripping back celebrities to reveal their frailties. Vulnerability, it seems, is at the
heart of the vamp persona.
The use of parody in contemporary cabaret
The provocateurs and the vamps both make use of parodic humour in their use of
musical parody, celebrity parodies and parodies of cultural types. In addition, the
provocateurs use familiar musical forms to present critical material and the vamps
use parody to draw attention to the constructed nature of femininity. I have drawn
my definitions of parody from the theories of Hutcheon (1985), Kreuz and Roberts
(1993), Dentith (2000) and Rose (1993). Hutcheon (1985) contends that “parody is
one of the major forms of modern self-reflexivity … [and] is a form of inter-art
discourse” (2). Hutcheon posits that modern parody has a “range of intent – from
the ironic and playful to the scornful and ridiculing” (ibid, 6). Parody does not
necessarily denigrate the original text and, as discussed earlier, “is an integrated
structural modelling process of revising, replaying, inverting, and ’trans-
contextualizing‘ previous works of art” (ibid, 11). According to Kreuz and Roberts,
“the parodist makes his or her familiarity with original work obvious… rather than
expose ignorance, parody criticises or flatters” (1993, 103). Dentith expands this
definition to include imitations of cultural practices, stating that “parody includes any
cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another
cultural production or practice” (Dentith 2000, 9). Dentith clarifies his use of the term
“relatively polemical” to include a wide spectrum of imitation from the “contentious”
or “attacking” texts to texts that “just playfully... refer to elements of the
contemporary world” (Dentith 2000, 9). From the highly polemic Eddie Perfect to the
playful parody of Paul Capsis, the cabaret artists chosen for this contextual review
are representative of this range.
In addition, parody can create humour through contrasting the parodied text and its
original. Rose (1993) discusses this in relation to written texts, but this theory can
also be applied to performance texts. Rose (1993) notes that:
In some parodic changes to other texts, the controlled discrepancy or incongruity between the parodied text and its new context is also one of the chief sources of the comic effect which distinguishes the parody from other types of literary criticism as well as from forgery and plagiarism. (Rose 1993, 32)
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Rose notes that this often occurs by “contrasting the serious with the absurd as well
as the ‘high’ with the ‘low’, or the ancient with the modern, the pious with the
impious, and so on” (Rose 1993, 33).
It can be argued that parody relies on the way the text is received by its audience.
The theories of Jonathon Culler (as discussed in Hutcheon, 1985) draw attention to
parody as “an act of communication between encoder and decoder” (Hutcheon
1985, 108). Hutcheon continues:
Parody, by this definition, becomes an ultimate act of co-opting, a making sense of the unintelligible by the imposition of the code of parody. This stress on the importance of the interpretive act of the receiver of the text has been reinforced by postmodernist views of parody as performance, as involving an increase in the work and participation of the decoder, forced to draw extensively on his or her artistic memory. (Hutcheon 1985,108)
This definition of parody points to the need for the audience to ‘get the joke’ for
parody to be effective. It can be seen that this act of getting the joke can make the
audience feel included in the performance and even draw them together to create a
temporary audience community, who are unified by the fact that they understand the
joke.
These theories of parody have strong relevance to contemporary cabaret
performance. In cabaret performances, parody is often used to create a sense of
familiarity, humour and/or a sense of play within the performance, allowing difficult
and/or unsettling ideas to be discussed in an entertaining format. These pleasing
aspects draw an audience into a sense of intimacy with the performer. Parody can
also tease an audience by playfully, or polemically, mimicking cultural forms,
stereotypes or social groups. Through presenting these discourses for mockery,
parody has the potential to disrupt normative discourses embodied in specific
cultural forms. This use of parody can have a distancing effect on the audience. In
highly polemic parody, such as that of Eddie Perfect, the teasing can become a
scathing attack, distancing the audience from the performer. On the other end of
the spectrum, Paul Capsis’ use of parody becomes a playful homage, creating an
interplay between the forces of intimacy and distance. The six artists in this
contextual review use parody in a variety of ways including musical parody, the
parody of celebrities or the diva persona, and the use of polemic parody.
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Musical parody
The performances of Minchin, Perfect, Limits and O’Sullivan place an emphasis on
musical parody. Eddie Perfect uses parodic versions of different musical styles,
ranging from operatic rock, bossa nova, and Broadway musicals, in order to sugar
coat the political messages of his songs (Rose 2005b, Hanusiak 2004).Tim Minchin
also milks different musical styles for their comedic value - including country and
western, R&B, beat poetry and ‘Jamie Callum’ jazz styles in his shows (Cox 2008,
Wareham 2006). Dusty Limits pays parodic homage to the style of Weimar cabaret
by taking on the image and musical style of this period (Hoggard 2008). Limits
performs in a carefully tailored black suit with short perfectly coiffed hair and white
make-up, evoking images of the Weimar conferenciers. His vocal style is
reminiscent of the Wiemar period, and his repertoire draws heavily from Kurt Weill.
In addition, Limits draws influences from Jacques Brel and Cole Porter: performing
his own translations of Brel’s songs, and rewriting and updating lyrics to Cole Porter
tunes (Finkle 2006, Randall 2009). Camille O’Sullivan performs contemporary songs
in the Weimar musical style. Her use of parody is subtler and more about an
appreciative audience getting the aesthetic joke. This kind of parody draws links
between the Weimar musical style and the lyrics and concepts in dark,
contemporary music. This could be defined as Hutcheon’s ”honorific parody” (op
cit). O’Sullivan’s Weimar influences are clear in choice of narrative songs that are
often harsh and thought provoking (Allen 2009; Swarbrick 2009). One critic likens
her performance to that of Liza Minnelli performing Sally Bowles in the musical
Cabaret (Gillard 2008). Using the Weimar performance style as a through-line she
assembles an eclectic combination of songs, including pieces by Kurt Weil, Jacques
Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, David Bowie and Radiohead (Gillard 2008; Lee 2009).
Parodic versions of celebrities and divas
Meow Meow and Paul Capsis use parodic humour to refer to famous divas of the
past.
Meow Meow’s performances make continuous references to divas from cabaret
history, including songs by Weill and Brel, clearly showing “a direct link... [to] Berlin's
sinful, decadent nightlife circa 1930s” (Dow 2010). As discussed earlier in this
chapter, Meow Meow’s show Vamp played homage to famous femme fatales from
history. In this performance, Meow Meow uses the technique of honorific parody to
celebrate the foibles of these women.
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Paul Capsis’ cabaret career has focused on reinterpreting famous singers,
reworking and commenting on their performances. Capsis’ cabaret uses parody to
celebrate other singers’ style, eccentricities, and personas. Capsis uses parody
within his performance personas in order to both send up and celebrate the female
singers he embodies. In his ‘impressions’ of famous female singers, Capsis shifts
between the identities of performer and fan. There is a warmth to Capsis’
impressions. In his performances, send up is balanced with an emotional
connection in performance; Litson described his channeling of divas as being
“emotionally charged (Litson 2007). Capsis develops a relationship with his
audience as ‘co-conspirators’ and relies on the audiences knowledge of performer’s
work. In some ways his performances feel like a nostalgic dinner party where the
host shares his favourite records.
In these different ways, Meow Meow and Capsis use parody to playfully celebrate
cultural icons of the past.
Polemic parody
In Perfect’s cabarets, it seems that no societal group is safe from attack. He has
parodied Kevin Rudd’s political campaigning in the song Howard 2.0, racist white
Australians in Some of my best friends are Aboriginal and middle class liberals in
the songs Stop being so damn September 10 and Poor little middle class me. In the
song Cirque du Soliel Perfect manages to parody the musical form favoured by the
company, the company’s rampant consumerism and “non-specific universality” and
the middle class audience who are “trying to extract meaning” from the show
(Hughes 2006). Each of these parodic songs are performed in mock sincerity,
making the views presented appear naive and simplistic.
Tim Minchin’s cabarets also include highly polemic parody. One of his most cutting
parodies is a nine-minute beat poem called Storm, in which he parodies the new
age views of a young hippie woman. Minchin’s poem Angry (Feet) also presents a
cutting parody of a man with anger issues who is not being helped by his quack
doctor. Minchin also uses self-parody. He mocks himself through self-deprecating
parody during his performances by caricaturing himself, exaggerating his nerdiness,
sexual inexperience, and onstage awkwardness (Ann Low 2007, Ferguson 2006,
Woodhead 2006).
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Conclusion
Personal cabarets present concepts of personal verity and truth based on an
intimate relationship with the audience. In contrast, cabaret performers in
provocative cabaret favour highly stylised performances that draw attention to the
constructed nature of the performance. In the former style, truth is presented as an
individual’s expression of emotion, and personal interpretation of songs; in the latter
truth is presented as a concept in flux through changing dynamics of distance and
intimacy with the audience. The provocateur persona can be seen to relate to the
inner critic, that is, a critical voice inside one’s mind. The constructed nature of the
vamp can be shown to relate to the constructed nature of the externalised aspect of
oneself. By this, I mean that White’s process of externalisation draws attention to
the way that voices in our minds have been constructed by our experiences. The
use of the vamp as a performance persona can draw attention to the constructed
nature of a persona within the mind. The vamp’s emphasis on showing the
vulnerability within this persona can also be used in a similar way. These points will
be explained in detail in Chapter Six. Also of interest to the creation of my cabaret
performance is the cabaret artist’s use of parody as a technique to create push and
pull of the forces of intimacy and distance between the performer and the audience.
The use of parody can be seen to draw the audience together in knowing and
understanding comic references within a performance. It can also be used as a way
to comically parody situations and personality. The applications of these points are
discussed in Chapters Five and Six.
Chapter Five: Creating Mind Games
Introduction
Inspired by the principles of Michael White’s narrative therapy and by the
provocateurs and vamps of contemporary cabaret, the creative development of the
Mind Games cabaret investigated ways to create a performer-audience relationship
that moved between distance and intimacy. As discussed in Chapters One, Two and
Three, my application of White’s principles within the work reflects my own meaning
making processes. Through the autoethnographic, practice-led methodology I was
able to express these processes in a creative form. The action research method
allowed me to experiment with ways to express my own meaning making processes,
to gain audience feedback, and to reflect on the work through three cycles of
development.
This chapter focuses on the specific creative techniques used to transform personal
stories into cabaret. The creative techniques used are three principles of White’s
narrative therapy (externalisation, an autonomous ethic of livingand rich
descriptions), the performative concepts of distance and intimacy, and parodic
humour. I have defined intimacy as a sense of empathy with another’s story or the
appreciation of one’s own subjective experience of an event. In contrast, the
distancing process encourages shifts in viewpoint by presenting material as strange
or alienated.
This chapter will refer to journal entries, performance scripts, and transcripts from
feedback sessions. Where possible I have chosen performance concepts that have
spanned the three-year process to show the development of my performance
making method, and to point towards the experiments I undertook toward creating
this method.
Creative Processes
Transforming personal stories to cabaret
The cabaret used my own personal stories as a frame of reference for the stories of
others. As the creative development progressed I began to integrate more of my
personal stories into the cabaret. The cabaret also featured parts of the interview
material that I had a strong personal resonance with. Some characters in the
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cabaret were based on specific interviewees, and at other times interview material
was used to create composite characters. In addition interview material was used to
flesh out the characters of ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’. In these cases interview material
provided a way to enrich my own perspectives with other individuals’ ideas on the
same themes. In addition, material from the public domain was used to flesh out
themes within the script, or to explore other perspectives. These personal stories
were adapted into a cabaret performance via the principles of White’s narrative
therapy.
Principles of narrative therapy, distance and intimacy
As discussed in Chapter Two, narrative therapy encourages individuals to
investigate different ways of retelling, or re-authoring, their stories. This process
asks individuals to examine the politics behind their own thought processes and
concepts of truth and to re-write their lives on their own terms. I have focussed on
three principles of White’s narrative therapy (externalisation, an autonomous ethic of
living, and rich descriptions) and have described these principles in terms of the
performative concepts of distance and intimacy. I applied principles of narrative
therapy in the creation of the cabaret Mind Games in order to play games of truth in
retelling my own personal story in relation to others. In creating the cabaret I used
the principle of externalisation to perform aspects of my own thoughts, and used the
principles of an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions to experiment with
different ways of telling and re-telling my own story. Through connecting with the
stories of others, I was able to explore different perspectives and approaches to life,
and to experiment with ways of re-authoring my own story. I used the interview
process as way of connecting with others. As my own experiences were used as a
central frame for the cabaret, I chose themes from the interviews that connected
with my own personal experiences. These themes provided the basis for many
scenes within the cabaret. For the purpose of clarity I will firstly describe each of
three principles in relation to performative techniques. I will then describe how each
of these principles and performative techniques was applied in relation to specific
scenes within the cabaret.
Externalisation
White’s principle of externalisation is a process of distancing individuals from their
problems, encouraging them to see their problems in a new light through playful
exaggeration and personification (White 2004a, 2007). The technique of
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externalisation is used to present an extreme viewpoint of the world (one that is
causing problems for the individual). In order to present externalisation in my show I
used forms of exaggerated and abstracted stylisation. Presenting the technique of
externalisation in performance seems suited to exaggerated caricature rather than a
subtle, realistic approach. In addition, externalisation is a playful form, intended to
be light and fun, another factor that makes it compatible with the cabaret art form.
When illustrating externalisation in the cabaret I used parody and personas as a
means of creating distance between the performer and the audience. ‘Jolene’, the
externalisation of my inner critic, was performed as a scathing parody of Marlene
Dietrich. This character also utilised aspects of the personas of the provocateur and
the vamp as described in the contextual review in Chapter Four.
An autonomous ethic of living
The principle of an autonomous ethic of living encourages an individual to develop
their own sense of ethics in relation to their personal values (White 2004a). As this
principle is based on an empathetic connection to an individual perspective it can be
seen in terms of the performative concept of intimacy. When performing scenes
intended to illustrate an autonomous ethic of living I utilised stylistic techniques from
personal cabarets in order to create a sense of intimacy. A style of heightened
realism was utilised in the cabaret for scenes in which I desired the audience to feel
empathetic towards the characters. As discussed in Chapter Four, personal
cabarets aim to express a sense of truth. Harrington (2000) describes this as a
“feeling of intimate communication” between the performer and the audience
achieved when the performer “create[s] the illusion of sharing a highly personal
experience” (15, 41). In personal cabarets the performer focuses on achieving an
emotional connection with the material in order that the performance “feels real”
(Harrington 2000, 28). In order to create an effect of intimacy during some scenes in
the cabaret I applied these principles, performing in a style of heightened realism
with a focus on emotional connection with the material.
Rich descriptions
White’s principle of rich descriptions encourages an individual to explore multiple
possibilities within their identity through creating many rich descriptions of intentional
states (White 2004b, 25). This principle encourages individuals to see their life in “a
multiplicity of different lights”, to be “open to renegotiation” with their life stories and
to see their life as “multi-purposed” and “multi-layered” (White 2004b, 31- 32). Rich
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descriptions of life encourage individuals to move between a sense of distance and
intimacy with their own stories through connecting with one version of their own
story and then opening up the possibility of investigating other versions of their
stories. This encourages individuals to move between realms of distance and
intimacy. By alternating between distance and intimacy my aim was to shift
audience perspectives and create rich descriptions of life’s possibilities. I used
techniques of parody as a way to create a sense of distance in some scenes,to
provide another perspective in the investigation of depression and bipolar disorder.
Parody
I used parody as a performance-making technique when converting some material
from my own story and interviewees’ stories into scenes in the cabaret. As
discussed in Chapter Four, parody is a strong feature of contemporary cabaret
performances that can be used to create a push/pull effect of distance and intimacy
between a performer and an audience. Intimacy is created through familiarity with
performance styles and parodic tributes to celebrities, while distance can be created
when parody is used to make pointed critiques of social groups or celebrities. The
following is a description of my use of parody in the creative development process.
Within my creative process I have found parody a very useful creative technique that
allowed me to find different ways into the work, and to experiment with matching
form and content. As a singer/songwriter, I tend to write in my own distinctive style
– a style I would describe as ‘jazzy folk’ – and the use of parody as a creative
technique allowed me to experiment with new ways of writing and performing my
original songs with the aim of expressing the concepts of the piece, and different
voices within the show.
The process of externalisation aims to deal with serious problems in a lighthearted
way. White states that through his therapeutic techniques serious, and often
chronic, problems can “be approached in playful, lighthearted and joyful ways”
(White 2007, 24). Through this approach, White asserts that he routinely
experiences “delight and fascination” in his therapeutic sessions (White 2007, 7).
This playful therapeutic approach can be seen to be compatible with the form of
cabaret, with its focus on humour and fun. White’s playful approach to therapy is
well matched with the playful style of cabaret. Two elements of cabaret that involve
a sense of play are the use of parody and personas. I found these two elements to
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be useful ways of applying a therapeutic method to the cabaret form. I used parody
and play to ‘cabaretise’ White’s technique of externalisation.
Sharing my story
Externalisation: creating ‘Jolene’
In reflecting on my creative process, I have been using techniques of externalisation
since early 2008. I used this as a performance-making technique in order to
theatricalise my ideas and to give them a greater dramatic scope. In a way, I was
finding a way to perform thoughts: exploring ways to transform an internal
phenomenon into an external form.
In April 2008, through my solo improvisations, I started to develop ideas around the
mythical figures of ‘Persephone’ and ‘Hades’ as a way to enact the relationship
between an individual and their depression. The antagonistic love-hate relationship
between the characters of Persephone and Hades became the seeds for the
relationship between ‘Jo’ and ‘Jolene’ in the final cabaret performance. When
developing the characters of ‘Persphone’ and ‘Hades’, I noted in my journal that in
these improvisations an individual’s “relationship with depression is enacted as an
abusive relationship... [that is] Persephone is having an abusive relationship with
Hades, and Hades represents her depression” (Personal Journal, 26th April, 2008). I
continued to develop the character of ‘Hades’ and work with the idea of personifying
thoughts in workshops with Brown Ash and with director Knapton in
August/September 2008. In an early meeting with Knapton I related my experiences
of narrative therapy and Knapton commented that he liked the way this therapy
physicalises “something that is inside your head”. During rehearsals he commented
that we were trying to find “the language of thoughts” and “the aesthetic and the
music of thoughts” (quoted in Personal Journal, 1st September, 3rd September,
2008). With these concepts in mind I modified the character of ‘Hades’ as a
personification of depression in relation to a concept I created within a workshop by
Margi Brown Ash. In this workshop, I created the character based on an image of
James Dean, who languidly smokes a cigarette, and then plays violin on his arm
with the cigarette. I combined this character with the concept of ‘Hades’ and used
my improvisation ideas to write the song So you’re back again featuring the lyrics:
So you’re back again How could you think that you could leave? So welcome back my friend And you thought you were so strong
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You may be able to pretend Fool yourself for a while Scrape your way back again But soon you’re back, back where you below
I know you think that you Can live without my voice But you know I’m part of your soul So you’ll never have that choice. (Personal Journal, 3rd September, 2008)
In retrospect, this was my first experimentation with externalisation as an approach
for developing material for the cabaret show. In September 2008, inspired by this
process of creative externalisation, I wrote a poem from the point of view of the inner
critic (Personal Journal, 1st September 2008). During rehearsals I developed this
further to create a song. The development of this song came from a desire to show
an extreme version of the way we unfairly criticise ourselves (Personal Journal, 10th
September 2008). This song was inspired by my own experience and interviewees
comments. A number of interviewees discussed the extreme negative thinking that
occurs within depression or bi-polar disorder. For one interviewee this involved
feelings of self-hatred, and thoughts of being “useless” and “unloveable” (Female
Interviewee 2, Line 759, Line 905). She also related that “there’s a big degree of
shame and embarrassment. I always felt embarrassed to be me... and unable to
appreciate or value anything that was actually positive” (Female Interviewee 2, Lines
906 – 916 ). Another interviewee related that she felt “hopeless, despairing... like
there’s no way I’m ever going to get out of it” (Female Interviewee 4, Lines 124-5).
One interviewee even related that in her lowest moments she felt that she was “evil”,
and when asked about this commented “yeah, I’m not really sure why but I just think
that I’m a bad person like I just generally do” (Female Interviewee 1, Lines 694 -
706) . I found a strong sense of resonance with these ideas, specifically in relation to
my experience of my inner critic as a critical voice inside my mind. This common
theme inspired me to write the poem called The Inner Critic that was developed into
a song including the following lyrics:
You’ve been a bad, bad boy You’ve been a bad, bad girl You’ve no hope of succeeding In this whole wide world You need to try a little harder than that Cause you’ve been so bad
You’re a naughty person, You’re an evil sort
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With all your troubles And your unkind thoughts You need to be a whole lot better than that Cause you’re so very bad
Let me introduce you to your failures I’ll list them one by one And then I will replay you your humiliating moments And put them on re-run and re-run
You’ve been a total failure Unworthy of love There’s no hope for you No there’s no hope at all But you can never be better than that Cause you’re so very bad. (Personal Journal, 1st September, 10th September 2008)
This song became The Naughty Song, presented by ‘Jolene’ in the May 2010
performance. In 2009, I more consciously started to use Michael White’s
externalisation technique and to link this to some of his theories, and I noted in my
journal that I could illustrate “White’s ‘concept of personal failure’” (Personal Journal,
22nd July 2009). Over the subsequent months, I started to develop these concepts
and connect my use of externalisation techniques with my experiences of narrative
therapy and to my creative development techniques. In October 2009 I noted after
reading White’s Exotic Lives (White, 2004, 67) that:
I think this is what I’ve been doing with Margi for years... Looking at White’s work I have started to realise how I have used his approaches as creative strategies in the first work-in-progress version of Mind Games...I developed these approaches through my work with Margi Brown Ash… and now they have become part of the way I create work. (Personal Journal, 1st October 2009)
In the 2009 version of the cabaret, I created the character of ‘The Caretaker’ (or
‘The Doctor’) in order to represent the perspective in which depression and bipolar
disorder is pathologised. This character is a caretaker at a mental institution, and
was created to represent a pathologising force within society, but could also be seen
to represent this force within the mind. These characteristics are shown in the
following excerpt from the 2009 script:
The caretaker: So you’ve an expressed a desire to learn more about what goes on down here. Well, welcome to the facility... I’m sure that your stay here will be very… Illuminating... You’ll be meeting some interesting creatures here… normally hidden from view. (Personal Journal, Mind Games script, 30th November, 2009)
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In 2010 I crystallised this approach in the character of ‘Jolene Mindtrich’, a parody of
Marlene Dietrich, who can be seen to embody an externalisation of my inner critic.
The character of ‘Jolene’ was first presented in a work-in-progress showing for my
supervisors and the dramaturges Therese Collie and Kathryn Kelly in March 2010.
In my journal I noted the panel feedback and my reflections on this feedback. As
discussed earlier in this chapter, the panel’s feedback helped me to develop the
character of ‘Jolene’ and to develop a clearer relationship between ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’
(Personal Journal, 16th March, 2010). This feedback also drew me back to having
the emcee character present a pathologising perspective in the show (as ‘The
caretaker’ had done in 2009). The character of ‘Jolene’ as an externalisation of my
own inner critic will be further discussed in Chapter Six.
‘Jolene’: a provocateur and a vamp
Throughout my creative process, I developed my use of a persona as a way to
cabaretise Michael White’s externalisation. Over the three years the use of
performance personas in relation to aspects of the vamp and the provocateur
became much more pronounced. This led to the development of the persona of
‘Jolene’ in the final show, with aspects of the provocateur. I first began to explore
‘vampish’ qualities when performing the song So you’re back again in September
2008. In this song I draped myself across the piano, while seductively smoking a
cigarette (Figure 1). Then in the solo of the song I pretended to draw the cigarette
back across my arm, intending to evoke the bowing of a violin and the act of self
harm. This song showcased the contradictory qualities of the vamp, being both
seductive and terrifying. In the same show I also performed the first version of The
Naughty Song as a school-teacher style dominatrix with a wooden spoon. In 2009, I
took the vamp persona further in performing the world of the bar. In this part of the
show I performed the songs So you’re back again (Figure 2) and The Naughty Song
(both a part of the 2008 version of the show) in a new context and in a more
seductive fashion. Both songs were performed as a saucy bartender, So you’re back
again as I filled people’s wine glasses and The Naughty Song as a seductive ‘come
hither’ bar wench, inviting audience members onstage to be spanked (a section
inspired by cabaret artist Meow Meow). At this stage the vamp was very much a
cameo appearance in the show. By 2010, the vamp ‘Jolene’ had become the
narrator of the show. Throughout 2010 I developed this character into an
impersonation of Marlene Dietrich. Inspired in part by Paul Capsis’ parodic tributes
to aging divas, I heightened the recognisable features of Dietrich, while also
focussing on her vulnerability and ‘faded star’ quality. In choosing to perform Dietrich
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in her ‘Vegas years’, I kept the focus on her constructed femininity and on the
amount of effort taken to create her stage image. This construction is discussed in
detail in Chapter Six. On reflection, while I included elements of the provocateur in
the 2008 and 2009 versions of the show, the provocative characters in these
performances lacked the sense of pointed humour and playfulness that is apparent
in the provocateurs discussed in my contextual review. In 2008, The Naughty Song
was performed in a very serious, po-faced style, and in 2009, the caretaker
character was presented as serious, intimidating, and ‘creepy’ rather than humorous
(Figure 3). In contrast, the 2010 ‘Jolene’ was performed in a humorous style, with
most of her lines written as gags inciting giggles from the audience. ‘Jolene’
balanced her pointed and caustic comments with a greater sense of playfulness and
fun, consistent with the cabaret form.
My own autonomous ethic of living
The Mind Games cabaret expressed my exploration of my own personal values or
autonomous ethic of living in a number of scenes in the cabaret. I developed these
scenes through reflecting on my own story, focussing on sharing my story more
within the cabaret, and relating these values to interviewees’ experiences.
In cycle one I reflected on the value of ‘being strong’ or ‘trying to put on a brave’ face
to hide depression and wrote this in poetic form in my journal at the time:
How are you “I’m fine, yeah good” Yeah, I bet they’re depressed! Show a strong face, to hide the disgrace Of not being able to cope with your life. (Personal Journal, 26th July 2008)
This poem became the song I’m Fine as an expression of an individual wanting to
pretend to the world that everything was okay.
I’m fine, just fine Thanks for asking but I’m coping okay I’m fine, just fine Had some problems but I’m still on my way. (Personal Journal, 4th September 2008)
In cycle one, this song was performed with vocal soundscapes used as verses to
express the sadness an individual is trying to hide. In retrospect this song strongly
represented my own experiences at the time. I was quite depressed, but didn’t want
to let anyone know how I was feeling. In cycle two, encouraged by dramaturge
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Therese Collie, I wrote verses to this song that revealed my own experiences of
wanting to pretend that I was fine, as shown in verses two and three:
Verse 2: Crying hysterically in the toilet at work Strange sounds come out of my body It convulses and rocks and I’m powerless to stop it Someone hears the noise and knocks on the door “Are you okay? Can I help” “Well actually…”
Verse 3: I’m in a meeting with my boss And I’m that crazy crying woman again He says “perhaps today isn’t the best day to give feedback” And I say, “no it’s okay, I’m always like this anyway…” Cause you see… . (Personal Journal, 4th August, 2009)
In cycle three director Sandro Colarelli encouraged me to give this song a dramatic
context, so I wrote an introduction to this song that explained a particular event in
my life that led to a depressed episode. This event was in 2006 when I was trying to
establish myself in the music industry and was humiliated by a bar manager at a
hotel, and featured in Scene Five in the cabaret (Mind Games script 2010, 8-9).
One theme from the interviews that had strong parallels with my own experience
was of becoming aware of thought processes, or ‘unravelling’ thoughts. This
process expresses a personal value of understanding. One interviewee commented
that the first part of this process was becoming aware of her thought processes, and
that she specifically found cognitive therapy useful:
[because] going through different exercises with that it helped me to become aware of my thought processes. Just doing lots of journalling, also… Just to get it out of my head and to stop – you know – the same feelings and thoughts going through my head… just get it out…so it didn’t have as much impact. So that so [from this] one can think of depression and anxiety as separate entities that you could control… That they don’t have control over you. (Interviewee Four, Lines 1594-1601)
The same interviewee described her experience of depression with metaphors:
like you’re in cage and you can’t get out of it. I sometimes think of it as if you’re being underwater and you are just trying to swim to the surface and you’re stuck there…or even maybe that you are just up at
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the surface and you’re just treading water but you can’t get anywhere. (Lines 1526-1529 Interviewee Four)
Another interviewee described panic attacks she experiences during depressive
episodes in the following way:
Interviewee 3: It’s just everything’s crowding in on you and you just can’t breathe and you can’t see and you can’t hear. Oh, it’s the most ghastly things.
Jo: And what kind of thoughts go through your mind?
Interviewee 3: Oh hardly any! You just think “I’ve got to get out here, I’ve got to get out of here, I’ve got to get out of this… feeling…” That’s all you can think; “I can’t have this anymore.” (1276 – 1283 Female Interviewee Three)
Another interviewee commented that it has taken her a long time to work through
her thoughts because her “thinking had been so warped for so long, that it’s taken a
long time to kind of unravel it” (831-832, Interviewee 2). I strongly related to these
experiences of unravelling the mind, and these interviews led me to write the
following song while I was in a class:
during this class I was just aware of all these really depressed and dark thoughts in my head – and I felt like I just needed to escape from my head. This reminded me of one of the interviews in which a woman had described her process of ‘unravelling’ her thoughts. She said that her psychiatrist was helping her to “unravel” her thinking. I love this image, and from my experiences today and created the beginnings of a song…
Climbing out If I can just unravel my head, and climb right out of my mind Then I’ll be fine. (Personal Journal 2nd September 2008)
This song was written in my own musical style of ‘jazzy folk’, reflecting the self
revelation in the song.
These are two examples of how I used the principle of an autonomous ethic of
living to develop specific scenes in the cabaret. In the first example, I drew from my
own experiences in an abstract fashion to express one of my core values at the time
(the value of being strong). Through 2009 and 2010 I was encouraged by my
dramaturge and director to delve further into these concepts and to share the
specific circumstances that surrounded this value. In the second example,
comments made by a number of interviewees drew my attention to the act of
unravelling my own thought processes and gave me new words to express the way I
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was feeling. I then incorporated interviewees’ comments to flesh out a song
describing the value of understanding. Both of these scenes were performed using
the style of heightened realism in order to encourage a sense of intimacy with the
material being performed, and to draw an audience into connecting with the
perspectives presented.
Rich descriptions of my story
In the three cycles of the project I experimented with telling my own story from many
different perspectives through the use of different performance personas and styles.
This technique provides rich descriptions of my own life experience in that it
presented life experiences as “multi-layered”, “multi-purposed”, and “open to
renegotiation” (White 2004b, 31-32).
In cycle one I began to experiment with expressions of my personal experiences in
song form. These songs gave small glimpses into my personal experiences from a
range of perspectives. In the song I’m Fine, the audience received a glimpse of an
individual being extremely distressed while still putting on a brave face for the world
(Personal Journal, 4th September 2008). In the song Just One the audience saw an
unemotional woman, numb with depression, slowly making herself a cup of coffee
(Personal Journal 3rd September 2008). And in the song Unravel, the audience was
introduced to an energetic and driven woman pushing a piano (Personal Journal 2nd
September 2008). The abstract nature of the songs provided me with a sense of
safety in sharing my personal story with an audience. However, as stated earlier,
the audience found the lack of clear characters or context to be disengaging. At the
time I also felt clearer choices needed to be made in how I expressed these different
aspects of my own experience.
In cycle two, I told my experiences from the points of view of diverse personas from
different performative worlds that I described as ‘the facility’, ‘the bar’ and ‘the gym’
(Personal Journal, 30th November 2009). Within the gothic aesthetic of ‘the facility’ I
expressed my own personal experiences in the characters of the ‘mental patients’
through the songs Dancing with my demons til dawn (an exploration of insomnia
driven by anxiety) and You put my brain back the wrong way (a description of an
extreme response to anti-depressant medication). As ‘the bartender’ I expressed
my resignation to depression as an inevitable part of life through the song
Everyone’s Fucking Depressed, performed in a blues style. And as a ‘gym junkie’ I
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performed the act of trying to feel better through exercise in the songs I’m Fine and
Just One (Personal Journal, 30th November 2009).
In cycle three I used audience feedback to refine these personas, and to make
these personas more clearly aspects of the character of ‘Jo’ rather than entirely
different personalities. As ‘Jo’ I moved between a number of different performance
personas within the cabaret that I have described as ‘Jo the calm storyteller’, ‘Jo in
denial’, ‘provocative Jo’, ‘numb Jo’ and ‘psychotic Jo’. The ‘provocative Jo’
appeared in the 2010 version of the song Everyone’s Fucking Depressed. In 2009, I
had performed the same lyrics within a blues style. The transition of these lyrics into
the rap style introduced a more provocative and ‘in your face’ feel to this song. It
also created humour through the parodic incongruity between rap form and the
content of the lyrics. The ‘psychotic Jo’ appeared in the song You put my brain back
the wrong way. This song follows ‘Jo’s’ revelation of wanting to commit suicide and
being put on anti-depressants by her doctor. In 2009, this song was performed in the
world of the clinic and the character was represented as a kind of Frankenstein’s
monster who came to life. The use of this song as the end of one of ‘Jo’s’ scenes
gave a personal context to the song as an expression of my experience of taking
anti-depressants, and thus created a more confrontational setting for the song. In
addition the dramatic juxtaposition of the revelatory subject matter in the scene with
the form of punk rock added to the comically incongruous use of parody in this
scene. These different aspects of ‘Jo’ are further discussed in Chapter Six.
The interviewees’ stories
In a similar process to the adaptation of my own story for the cabaret, I used
principles of externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions to
transform interview transcripts into scenes in the cabaret. As discussed earlier in
this chapter I used many of interviewees’ comments to flesh out The Naughty song
as an externalisation of the negative thoughts within one’s mind.
An autonomous ethic of living in the interviewees’ stories
I used the principle of an autonomous ethic of living to present a number of the
interviewees’ core values in the style of heightened realism. One of these core
values was of acceptance as an important part of a healing process. Female
Interviewee Four noted the importance of accepting what was happening to her, and
“not being afraid of it” (Lines1585- 1592). This sense of acceptance was also cited
as important by other interviewees. Interview Three commented that she liked her
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current counsellor because “she doesn’t criticise or judge or take emotional sides or
anything” (Female Interviewee Three, Lines 1409-1410). Interviewee One noted that
her husband was very understanding, commenting “he’s really, really good. He’s
really got to really understand it, which is more than a lot of people do I think”
(Female Interviewee One, Lines 488-490). Interviewee Two commented that for her,
self acceptance (being ”okay with me”) was an important part of overcoming
depression and that “I had to get to a point where I was okay with me, and that was
a long path” (Female Interviewee Two, Lines 978-980). In the case of depressive
disorders, this sense of self-acceptance can also relate to knowing that the condition
has a family history. Interviewee Two commented that it helped her to find out there
had been a family history of depression, and that she wished she had known about
this earlier so that she could have known it was a biological part of her:
Looking back on my family history I think it’s an hereditary condition. I think my grandfather certainly suffered from it, members of my family suffered from it on my mother’s side. And this is only something I’ve found out in the last couple of years since I sort of started talking about it… which shits me, cause if someone had said this to me a bit earlier I might have had an idea of what was going on… and that I wasn’t exactly freaky. I think that it has been a family history. And I’m cast as having melancholic depression so it is a long ongoing thing, it’s not something that’s triggered by any event, it’s just something that is. It’s a chemical imbalance in my brain and that’s how I look on it now. (Female Interviewee Two, Lines 765-773)
Female Interviewee Three confirmed this experience in relating her story of finding
out that she was adopted, and that her biological family had had a history of mental
illness:
Female Interviewee Three: I’ll just tell you an interesting thing… When I found out I was adopted, about 11 years later I found my natural family, but I met my father and lots of aunts and uncles and cousins and I found out that just like the Amish people who live in a secluded sort of style, my relatives all had schizophrenia, bi-polar, depression… nearly all of them had one form or another of mental illness – they say it’s the most hereditary illness you can have. So I was quite surprised. My dear aunt she even felt guilty that she was passing on bi-polar – you know. So that’s very interesting.
Jo: Did that help you?
Female Interviewee Three: Yes, hugely. I didn’t feel quite so weird. (Female Interviewee Three, Lines 1225 - 1236)
The value of personal acceptance and understanding from others was captured in a
personal story related by Female Interviewee Three, telling of her experience of a
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depressive episode and of her husband’s inability to accept this process, shown in
his request for her to “pull up her socks”:
when I was down he used to tell me to get my act together and “pull up my socks”, you know, which you can’t do when you’re that depressed, but that’s what made me realise that he didn’t understand at all. (Female Interviewee Three, Lines 1259-1261)
The interviewee related that she had divorced her husband because “We couldn’t
work it out” (Female Interviewee Three, Line 1209). I used this particular story within
the first creative development process; in the second creative development process
dramaturge Therese Collie, after reading the script from the first showing, noted the
image of ”pulling up socks” as a potentially powerful theatrical metaphor (Personal
Journal 17th June 2009). I then developed this concept of ’pulling up the socks’ in
my rewriting of the script, and noted in my journal that I was aiming to use the
“symbolic gesture of pulling up socks” in order to represent the individual “trying to fit
into an unrealistic stereotype”, and then to show “how she turned her back on
stereotypes and learnt to make peace with herself” (Personal Journal, 27th June,
2009). In cycle three this interview excerpt was used as the basis for a
contemplative monologue in which woman took off her stockings to symbolise not
trying to fulfil a stereotype. This monologue was almost entirely verbatim
information from the interview:
Scene eight: The sock woman That’s what my husband used to say. I’m a nursing sister. After I did my general training, I came up here and did obstetrics, and got married to an American on the rebound from another chap, and we had two children...
I was diagnosed when I was about 24 -- just before I got married I had another depression – I had jumped into the river fully clothed and someone fished me out. I can’t have wanted to die too much because I think I swam… I was in the hospital for a few weeks...
And I came home and got married and lived … happily ever after?
We were married for about 7 years. (Starts to roll down her ‘stocking’, and take them off) He was 16 years my senior and an American and he’d been a bachelor for too long. We just couldn’t work it out.
We had two little kids and he still wanted to be the company executive. He’d come home with three men at night and he’d want dinner on the table…
And I was looking after two little children… and I just couldn’t do it.
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I divorced him and he didn’t like that. He did love me, and he was shocked that I would go so far as to divorce him.
When I was down he used to tell me to get my act together and “pull up my socks”, you know. (Mind Games script May 2010, 18)
At the end of this monologue, I added the following line in order to clarify the theme
of the scene, and reflect information from other interviewees:
He just didn’t understand that this is a part of me, this sadness is part of who I am, and is not going to be fixed by any cover up! (Mind Games script May 2010, 18)
In this way, I used one individual’s interview material to focus on a general theme
from the interviews. I chose to perform the scene with a style of heightened realism
to reflect the intensely personal nature of the material, and to encourage a sense of
intimacy.
Other core values expressed in the cabaret were the importance of being
independent and responsibility and commitment. These core values were
expressed ‘in reverse’; by this I mean the value was expressed by the sense of
trauma created in an individual’s life. The first of these values, the importance of
being independent, was expressed in a scene in which an individual was
experiencing trauma due to a loss of independence. The second core value, of
responsibility and commitment, was expressed in a scene in which a woman
continued to care for her daughter despite the difficulty and pain this was causing
her.
The value of independence was expressed in a scene entitled Ms Rapid Cycling,
performed towards the end of the cabaret. The interview expressed an individual’s
shame at needing to be looked after by her parents after an extreme episode of
bipolar disorder in which she engaged in promiscuous behaviour:
We were in New Zealand and there was a group of us travelling around and I decided to have this party and we were going to have the best party ever and I was even getting my teeth cleaned for this party – I was manic you see. And I ended up in a field somewhere in the back of someone’s ute having sex… Well it wasn’t really sex… I was just there and he was having sex and I felt so bad about it… anyway he took me home to his place and gave me breakfast. And the next thing I found myself sitting in the lounge room feeling so bad – not knowing that I was bi-polar I just went from high down to low in about 24 hours and I took all these sleeping pills… I don’t know where
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I got them now. And then I got in a taxi and I asked him to drive me over a cliff. And the poor man – he spent about two hours talking to me… I was in my nightie and dressing gown and he finally persuaded me to go to hospital and I went. And my father came over from Australia and got me, and my mother took me to this psychiatrist... And I stayed home for a while and then mum and dad were going on a trip to Queensland and they took me along. Mum didn’t want me to go with them because she thought she was rid of me, and then here I was again just like a little child… You know, needing to be looked after. (Interviewee Three, Lines 1169 – 1189)
In this scene large excerpts from the interview material were used as a dramatic
monologue followed by the Fallen angel song that expressed the pain of having “so
much potential, so much promise” having to return to “being spoon fed” in “my high
chair” (Mind Games script May 2010, 24- 25). The second core value of taking care
of a loved one was expressed through a character called ‘The mother’. This
character was developed in response to feedback from cycle three’s work-in-
progress showing suggesting there was a need to explore the point of view of carers
of those with depression, and the tensions that can occur in caring relationships
(Personal Journal 16th March, 2010). An implied core value here is the sense of
responsibility and commitment to taking care of a loved one in difficult
circumstances. While researching this perspective I found a research report by
Graeme Cowan conducted for the book Back from the Brink Too that included on-
line responses from 351 carers of individuals with depression (Cowan 2008, 3).
This resource presented a range of different experiences through responses to
standardised questions, and also included section for other concerns and
experiences to be discussed. For example, the question “Please rate the
problems/frustrations you have in supporting someone with depression”, 72 percent
supported the comment “I feel like I am being pushed away”; while 62 percent
supported the comment “I wish they would just snap out of it”; and 60 percent
agreed with the statement “I feel like I don’t know them anymore” (Cowan 2008, 3).
Other data from the questionnaire that I found relevant to my cabaret performance
included the quotes: “I feel like I am always giving – I am running on empty”; “I have
great difficulty in communicating with them and they often get irritated/angry” ; “I feel
that nothing I do helps” (Cowan 2008, 4) and “I require help... [in finding out] how to
tell them when their behaviour is unacceptable” (Cowan 2008, 8). Other
respondents noted that they feared “self harm and suicide” (Cowan 2008, 4). I used
this information to create the monologue for ‘the mother’ who appears towards the
end of the cabaret. This speech in the final performance was as follows:
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The mother: (Sigh) I wish she would just snap out of it! But... she keeps telling me she doesn’t need any help! Sometimes the best thing I can do is to get her out of bed every morning and have a shower... Most of the time though... I can’t say anything to her – she’ll just get really angry! It’s like I’m walking on egg shells all the time… I don’t know her anymore... all she seems to care about is herself... I feel like it’s all my fault... I don’t know what to do... How long will this last? I need to tell her that her behaviour is unacceptable... “pull yourself together”, “everyone struggles”... but that’ll just upset her further... I’m terrified that she’s going to... but how do I talk about that? ... so I just keep trying to pick up the pieces. (Mind Games script May 2010, 25-26)
This monologue reflects the challenges a carer experiences when they are
committed to looking after a loved one with a mental illness, and expresses the high
level of responsibility and commitment carers have towards their loved ones.
Rich descriptions and the interviewees’ stories
I presented a rich description of interviewees’ stories through the performance
technique of parody. This was designed to move the audience between a state of
distance and intimacy with interviewee’s stories, and to encourage multiple points of
view of a situation. Multiple perspectives on mental illness are presented within the
cabaret as a way to perform motivations for ‘Jo’ to change her perspectives on
issues. I used rich descriptions within the cabaret to present the interviewees’
stories of the search for the right therapy, the high level of productivity while on a
‘high’ and the sharing of personal experiences.
Of particular resonance to me were interviewees’ descriptions of their often lengthy
experiences of finding the ‘right’ therapist and the ‘right’ drugs. One interviewee
described this experience as beginning while she was in high school. At this time
she went to see a therapist with her mother. When the therapist suggested she was
depressed, her mother forbade her to see the therapist again. In response, the
interviewee tried talking to counsellors over the internet, and later when she went to
university she went to see many different psychiatrists and counsellors but didn’t
find them very helpful. Some of these psychiatrists would give her drugs, and then
when she complained about adverse effects the psychiatrists increased the dose
(514- 583, Female Interviewee One). A particularly vivid episode occurred for this
interviewee when she saw a psychiatrist while in hospital and subsequently returned
to work:
yeah, but it was really hard… she had me on so many drugs… she told me to take the lithium and so I did and then I was at work and I
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kept ringing her and saying to her like I can’t move, I feel like my limbs are really heavy and I’m like trying to drag myself around, and I can’t teach like that, it just doesn’t work. And she just said “Oh no, you’ll be fine”. Then when I rang her to tell her what had happened at work and I told her and said “Oh well that’s probably a good thing because now you can just like take more lithium and see what happens”… and I was like “Oh no, I don’t think so.” So I hung up and I actually never spoke to her again. (Female Interviewee One, Lines 547 – 563)
Another example of a similar experience was shown in the interview with Female
Interviewee Two, who took a very long time to be diagnosed with a depressive
disorder (Female interviewee Two, Lines 814- 877). Her story began when she
went to see a doctor to try to lose weight. This doctor put her on a very low dose of
an anti-depressant, which didn’t have any effect. Later when she decided to have a
lap-banding procedure she was given a psychiatric assessment followed by multiple
trips to a psychiatrist, which finally led to her diagnosis with a depressive disorder.
She related that:
after a few sessions with the psychiatrist he’s like “right well here’s what I think… You have melancholic depression… you have had a severe depressive disorder for most of your life, it’s amazing that you have done as well as you have, we’re going to up the drugs and change your drugs” and from that point on I’ve just been a much better person. It hasn’t been easy. (Female Interviewee Two, Lines 820-822)
From that point on, she related that it was a very long process and that “it hasn’t
been an easy relationship in terms of my shrink... I’ve hated him” (Female
Interviewee Two, Lines 868-869). A similar lengthy process was experienced by
Female Interviewee Four, who related that it took her a number of years to find a
therapeutic process that worked for her (Female Interviewee Four, 1572-1601). After
a particularly traumatic life experience she returned to her home town, where there
was only one counsellor who came to visit once a month. The interviewee related
that she didn’t find this counsellor’s approach useful. This individual she did not find
therapists or psychiatrists particularly helpful, and she found it more helpful to read
books on psychology and to take anti-depressants. She summed up with the
following statement:
Yeah, I haven’t had much success with therapists. But what I did have success with was taking anti-depressants… just to kind of get out of that extremely low state and also to help the anxiety attacks to subside and I also started reading a lot about depression and anxiety and, you know, lots of self-help books. And it was through that process that I really started to accept what was happening to me and I
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really started to not be afraid of it anymore. (Female Interviewee Four, Lines1585-592)
In 2008, I began to experiment with performing these experiences in a song that
parodied the style of musical theatre , My therapist, my friend. While reading a
section of an interview with young woman that explored the theme of the ‘rigmarole
of going through therapy’, I was struck by the rhythmic and poetic quality of her
spoken language (Personal Journal 5th September 2008). This is particularly
obvious in the following excerpt:
I first saw a psychologist when I was at school, for the anorexia, yeah, and she thought I was depressed and stuff, but that upset my mother too much, so we didn’t actually go back, yeah, she took it really personally… so I never went back, so I was pretty much on my own… so I’d get onto the internet and you can contact counsellors on the internet, and so I sort of got into that. (Personal Interview, 27th July 2008)
I then investigated ways of singing these words, and began to sing in a ‘saccharine
sweet’ musical theatre style. I found the use of this style interesting as it parodied
the form of musical theatre, contrasting the neat, happy endings offered by this form
with the complexity of real life experiences. During my interviews I was also struck
by the way individuals would often laugh after sharing their darkest moments,
possibly to lighten the mood of the situation; and felt that the use of the musical
theatre form and an exaggerated smile mimicked this approach, helping to approach
the subject matter in a light hearted way. From this inspiration, I began to write a
song based on three interviewees’ experiences with their therapists, and added the
‘corny’ chorus “My therapist, my friend, without you where would I be?” (Personal
Journal 5th September 2008). In this way, the use of musical parody offered me a
way into a musical performance of the interview material. In 2010, in order to
heighten the performative style of this song, Colarelli and I developed this song into
a parody of opera performed by the character ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’. Originally
this song was divided into three different characters and involved chair-swapping to
represent different people’s experiences. During the final creative process I decided
to simplify this scene by making the three characters into a single character. This
simplified the story for the audience by bringing a number of individuals’ experiences
together under the one theme. The individual experiences described above are
each represented in the verses of the song, most of which were verbatim material
from the interviews, unified by the chorus “My therapist, my friend, without you
where would I be?” The final lyrics are as follows:
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Verse One: I first saw a psychologist when I was at school She thought I was depressed and stuff But that upset my mother too much So I didn’t go back I didn’t go back
Then I saw my general practitioner to get some help with my weight So it really was by accident He prescribed me a mild anti-depressant But it didn’t really help (No, no) It didn’t really help (No!)
My home town it was so small A counsellor only came once a month She handed me a box of tissues (Piano player: hands box of tissues)
And wanted to know about all my issues And I wasn’t ready for that (blows nose) I wasn’t’ ready for that (blows nose)
Chorus: My therapist, my friend, Without you where would I be?
Verse Two: And then I got on the internet, you can contact counsellors that way I’ve always been intellectual And just wanted to know it all And I got into that I got into that
Chorus: My therapist, my friend, My therapist, my friend, Without you where would I be?
Spoken: I was having a really hard time, my weight was spiralling out of control And I decided to have lap-banding done But that doctor said “You can’t do that until you get your head straight”
Bridge: So finally I had an appointment with my very own psychiatrist He was pretty shocked to hear My story from the start And he pushed up my dose He pushed up my dose
He said Piano player (as the psychiatrist): you’ve got a severe depressive disorder It’s amazing that you’re still okay
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Chorus: My therapist my friend, My therapist my friend, My therapist my friend Without you where would I be?
Spoken: I haven’t had much success with therapists. But I did have success with taking anti-depressants… just to kind of get out of that extremely low state and to help the anxiety attacks and I started reading a lot about depression and anxiety lots of self-help books. And it was through that process that I really started to accept what was happening to me and I’m not scared of it anymore.
Verse Three: And then I started to read about The cognitive behaviour approach And I liked all those exercises To help unlock your thought processes Just to get out of my head Get out of my head. (Mind Games script, May 2010, 12-14)
The performance choice of compiling three interviewees’ experiences into the one
character also led to greater comic potential through parodying the persona of an
‘Opera Diva’, as discussed in Chapter Six.
For Interviewee One, bipolar highs are associated with a high level of work
productivity (Lines 413-417 and Lines 453-462) while her lows often involved staying
in the bathtub and wanting to commit suicide (Lines 468-472).
The first of Interviewee One’s experiences was portrayed in Mind Games in the
light-hearted song I’m flying, in which a woman dances and shakes maracas before
collapsing in exhaustion. This song was the brain child of my pianist Philippe Klaus
during one music rehearsal when we were exploring ways to show the bipolar highs
in the show (Personal Journal, 6th September 2008). We started to musically ‘jam’
on this idea and, as I noted in my journal:
Philippe started mucking around on the piano and played the riff for the song that would become “flying”... I then started dancing around and improvising lyrics and came up with “I’m flying so high, I don’t wanna come down, I’m flying so high, I don’t wanna come down, flying, flying”… We decided that this would be the chorus for this song. (Personal Journal, 6th September 2008)
I combined this music and lyrics with interview material about one interviewee’s
bipolar high to create the song “I’m flying”. The music that Philippe had created was
in a Latin based style, and in response I had the idea of playing maracas in the
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scene and dancing around in a Tropicália style. In 2008 I performed this scene
running around the audience shaking maracas during the spoken verses, and
dancing and singing during the choruses. This song was used in the 2008, 2009
(Figure 1) and 2010 performances of the cabaret. This scene’s exaggerated use of
parodic humour created a strong sense of distance between the performer and the
audience.
All interviewees commented on the value they found in sharing their stories and
experiences with others, be they therapist, support group or friends and family. I can
strongly relate to this experience. Interviewee Three noted that she regularly goes
to see a psychologist and a range of support groups and finds these helpful (Female
Interviewee Three, Lines 1386- 1395). Interviewee Two noted the drastic change in
her life that has taken place from the most severe depressive episode in her
twenties to her current life. In her most depressed
times she said she isolated herself, stating: “I had a
year virtually where I found it difficult to get out of
bed and I refused to go home to visit my parents and
that year it was really quite bad…” (Female
Interviewee Two, Lines 779-784). She then
compared this with her current life:
I’ve gone from one who was so shy and friend-less for such a long time, I now have a huge circle of friends, I remember for my 30th birthday I had a pub crawl and had a bus full of 60 people and I could never have thought that I would have managed to fill a bus with
60 people. You know, and I’m getting married next year, and I’m having trouble culling the guest list. (Interviewee Two, Lines 974-978)
Figure 1: ‘The flying girl’ 2009
Here she relates being happier and overcoming depression to having more
connections with other people. Interviewee One commented that she found value in
talking and joking with her husband about her negative thoughts, and that he helped
her to understand the origin of her own thoughts:
Oh, he’ll just egg me on... he’ll go… “Oh that’s because you’re evil” and I’ll be going “yeah I know”… no, he’s pretty good about it. And he’ll say to me “Oh, you got that from your parents,” because they were really harsh and very critical, so it was easy for me to not have very good self esteem because they were really difficult people to live with. (Female Interviewee One, Lines 729-732)
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I found this theme of connection with others to be most poignantly expressed in a
personal anecdote by Interviewee Four, relating her experience of being an au pair
while she was overseas and finding consolation through crying and talking to her
friends over the phone:
I was working as a live-in nanny for two young children aged one and three, and I was really at that point in time having a nervous breakdown, and like I was responsible for these two young people everyday while their mother went off to work and I was waking up crying and just crying all day, and trying to keep it together so that I could look after these children. So in order to get through the day and be able look after these children I’d often call some of my friends, and I’d be talking on the phone to them and crying on the phone and having them talk me through it, and talk me down so I could maintain my calm. And one day the three year old girl who I was looking after was playing with a toy phone and she picked up the telephone and put it to her ear and she was playing, pretending that she was crying, and freaking out on the phone… and that was when I decided to quit. (Mind Games script 2008, 5)
In 2008, I performed this scene with a toy telephone, to evoke the image of a young
girl imitating her au pair’s behaviour. At this time, the performance of this scene was
very realistic, with a focus on the sadness of the scene. I would describe the
performance style as subtle, realistic, with an emphasis on a low key performance
style (that is, it was not overly emotive). In 2009 I embarked on extensive
development of this scene with Collie, and we experimented with many different
ways into the scene, including a versions of the song as a ‘persecuted maiden’ in
the gothic performance style. One of these versions experimented with showing the
scene “as a nightmare contrasted with a children’s song” (Personal Journal, 11th
August 2009). In this version lines spoken by the character to the children, were
contrasted with thoughts in the character’s mind. This related social views to the
way parental sayings canrepresent imbedded ideologies in the mind:
“Tommie, time to get up! Rise and shine, it’s time to face the world…. Come on, you can’t just lie around in bed all day!” “That’s a good boy… up you get!” (Personal Journal 11th August, 2009)
At this time, I was experimenting with the notion of the whole cabaret being
performed in a gothic aesthetic in order to represent the nightmarish experience of
depression and bipolar disorder. Later in the process I introduced the concept of
four different performative worlds within the performance (a circus, a nightmare, a
bar, and a gym) and described the circus world as presenting “the experience of
trying to ‘perform’ for the world… to meet society’s standards… and fail[ing]”
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(Personal Journal 26th October, 2009). These four different worlds were created to
present four different truths about the world of depression and bipolar disorder, or
four different perspectives of these experiences. At this time I became more
conscious of the relationship between the content of the scene and the style, and
began to clarify the agenda of each scene. In reflecting on the nanny/au pair scene,
I decided that this scene fitted within the circus/show world in that it focussed on an
individual attempting to ‘live up to’ society’s expectations. This change of attitude
towards the scene led to a stylistic change to show that the au pair’s behaviour
related to the theme of performing others’ expectations. Therese Collie had the idea
of performing the song in the country and western style. This style was chosen as
country and western songs often discuss extremely dark and upsetting subject
matter in an upbeat way. In this light, the country and western style of performance
can be likened to ‘putting on a brave face’ in a tough situation. I spent the next few
weeks listening to country and western CDs that Therese Collie lent me and wrote
the song Crying on the Phone in this style (Mind Games script in Personal Journal,
3rd November 2009). I continued to develop this song towards the December
showing of the work, and performed it with an exaggerated American accent. The
song began with the following lyrics:
Well about ten years ago I was dating a fellow But he was putting me down, holding me back So I got a job as a nanny For a friendly family Tried to get myself back on track But I was waking up crying And lookin after those kids was trying I needed my friends to help me through
CHORUS: I was crying on the phone I could hear the friendly tone Of my friend in another time zone
And then I wasn’t so alone When I was crying on the phone Until I heard that sad dial tone. (Mind Games script May 2010,19)
Audience feedback on this scene described appreciation of the way the country and
western style differentiated the character and explored a sense of pathos, as shown
in this sample:
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I thought that the high point in terms of pathos was the scene that featured the country blues song (very quaint!). The atmosphere really changed, and the concept of the mood of the Nanny being transposed to the little girl was quite touching. The ‘country twang’ was an effective variation – and Jo could make more use of her skills with language and accents to differentiate between some of her characters (Audience feedback Showing Two, Lines 268-272).
Sandro Colarelli commented in support of this audience member’s opinion that at
this stage the show was ready for a more “refined expression of the characters”
(Audience feedback Showing Two, Line 49) In development with Colarelli in 2010
we worked on creating ”more definite stylistic brush strokes”. We kept the basic
structure of this scene, including the three verses and three choruses of the song,
and added original interview material eliminated in earlier versions in order to give
the song a greater sense of context (Mind Games script 2010, 19-20). In addition,
Colarelli and I decided the character was not American but an Australian girl from a
rural country town who was in love with country and western music. This choice
grounded the scene more strongly in Australian culture, and made the focus less on
making fun of country and western music, and more on country music as an
expression of the character’s situation. Thus my use of parody in this scene
became a celebration of the form of country and western music, rather than a
‘mocking’ form of parody. As Kreuz and Roberts state, parody can “criticise” or
“flatter” (1993, 103); and as Hutcheon states, parody is not necessarily denigrating
but can involve the ”revising, replaying, inverting and ’trans-contextualizing‘ previous
works of art” (1985, 11). In this scene, we began to use parody as an expression of
the character’s love for country music. This performance choice led to the effect of a
kind of ‘empathetic caricature’, intended to create a ‘push pull’ effect between
distance and intimacy with the audience. In addition, Sandro felt that more
references to other country and western songs were needed to give a greater link
between the scene and country music, and to give a stronger sense of this
character’s attraction to the country and western style. To this end, we added
quotations from famous country songs to the scene, including the lines: “sometimes
it’s hard to be a woman” and “take me home country road... ” (Mind Games script
2010, 19-20).
Conclusion
This project has utilised techniques of intimacy and distance in applying therapeutic
principles to the creation of a cabaret performance. Through action research cycles I
integrated more of my own story into the cabaret performance, created more
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dynamic variation in the cabaret and developed my use of performance persona and
parody. In applying the principles of externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living
and rich descriptions I transformed personal stories into a cabaret that created a
dynamic flux between distance and intimacy. Chapter six will analyse the
performance of Mind Games in order to describe the performance’s application of
these therapeutic principles.
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Chapter Six: Analysing Mind Games
Introduction
This chapter analyses the representation of games of truth in the cabaret Mind
Games in relation to techniques of distance and intimacy, and Michael White’s
principles of narrative therapy. Within the cabaret the character of ‘Jo’ is shown to
be exploring her own games of truth through her interactions with her externalized
inner critic and the other characters in the show. This chapter will firstly discuss the
presentation of constructedness within the cabaret performance in relation to
notions of witnessing and performance style. Three principles of White’s narrative
therapy will then be discussed in relation to the characters of the cabaret and ‘Jo’s’
journey throughout the performance. It is important to acknowledge that the
constructs discussed in this chapter are dynamic and contingent and that the
conclusions in this chapter represent one stage in the research journey. As
discussed in Chapters Three and Five, the application of White’s principles within
this project were in constant development and flux. The problematic representation
of ‘truth’ within the cabaret is explored at the end of this chapter specifically in
relation to the character of ‘Jo’.For the purposes of clarity I will refer to the
characters as performed in the play in the third person, and to my experiences of
having performed the show in the first person. This word choice has been chosen to
clarify the constructed nature of the performance, and to allow me to distance myself
from my own creation for the purposes of analysis. Many of the character names in
the cabaret were written in the script, but not identified on stage; hence, the
characters names were intended for use only by the creative team. For the
purposes of clarity, the characters in the cabaret are as follows:
‘Jo’: a representation of Jo Loth and the central protagonist of the cabaret ‘Jolene Mindtrich’: a parodic version of Marlene Dietrich; the representation of Jo’s inner critic; and the antagonist of the cabaret ‘The flying girl’ : a character based on an interviewee with bipolar disorder ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’: a character based on multiple interviewees who have suffered from depression ‘The sock woman’: a character based on an interviewee with bipolar disorder, but in this scene she is referring to her experiences of depression ‘The country and western singer’: a character based on an interviewee who has suffered from depression
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‘Ms Rapid Cycling’: a character based on an interviewee with bipolar disorder ‘The mother’: a character created from research material that included interviews with carers and relatives of individuals with depression
Also for the purposes of clarity, a scene list is provided below:
Mind Games: Scene List
Scene one: The Introduction of ‘Jolene’ (Song: The Naughty Song) Scene two: The Introduction of ‘Jo’ (Song: Unravel my Head) Scene three: ‘Jolene’ introduces ‘The flying girl’ (Song: I’m Flying so High) Scene four: ‘Jolene’ responds to ‘The flying girl’ Scene five: ‘Jo’s’ story of falling into depression (Song: I’m Fine) Scene six: The introduction of ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ (Song: My Therapist, My Friend) Scene seven: ‘Jo’s’ stand up routine (Song: Everyone’s Fucking Depressed) Scene eight: ‘The sock woman’ Scene nine: ‘The country and western singer’ (Song: Crying on the Phone) Scene ten: ‘Jo’s’ lowest point (Song: You Put My Brain Back the Wrong Way) Scene eleven: ‘Ms Rapid Cycling’ (Song: Child Song) Scene twelve: The character ‘The mother’ picks up the pieces Scene thirteen: Conclusion (Song: Just one step)
The full script from the cabaret performance of Mind Games in May 2010 can be
found in Appendix 1.6.
Emphasising the constructed nature of the cabaret
Mind Games was not intended to present a truthful representation of real people’s
lives, but was rather intended to present an audience with a number of different
perspectives on mental illness through the adaptation of personal stories. With this
intention in mind, I used the techniques of self-conscious presentation, character-as-
witness and parody to draw attention to the constructed and artificial nature of the
cabaret.
In his discussion of documentary theatre (that is theatre created from interview
material), Bottoms (2006) advocates a ”self conscious” approach to the creation of
the performance, in which attention is drawn to the construction methods in the play
(Bottoms 2006, 61). Bottoms specifically praises Kaufman’s Gross Indecency: The
Three Trials of Oscar Wilde for being “highly self-conscious about its own status as
a collage of appropriated historical texts” (Bottoms 2006, 61). According to Bottoms,
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a more ethical way of producing documentary theatre is to make obvious the means
by which the performance has been constructed. While I did not explicitly discuss
my interview techniques or interview contexts during Mind Games, in scene two I
acknowledged that some of the performance material was drawn from interview
material. This was portrayed through the character of ‘Jo’, and also expressed one
of my own motivations within this process, to discuss the issue of depression within
a public forum, as shown in the following lines:
I’ve written a show about mental health – well depression and bi-polar disorder…. Because I’ve suffered from severe depression… and … um… I guess I’d like to raise awareness of this… condition… and so I’ve been interviewing other women, and through I met some really interesting people with bi-polar disorder… and that seemed relevant as well… so, yeah, this is my show. (Mind Games script May 2010, 4)
In this way I provided a background to the interviews that took place in the
development of the cabaret.
Additional techniques used to draw attention to the methods of construction in the
cabaret were the use of an onstage witness and the conscious use of styles of
parody to move between playful and scathing, homage and critique.
By presenting ‘Jolene’ as a witness to the stories, the audience is made more
conscious of the constructed, artificial nature of the cabaret. As discussed in
Chapter Three, the placement of a character as a witness within a performance can
increase the sense of theatricality in the performance, and draw the audience’s
attention more consciously to their own act of witnessing or watching a performance
(Rokem 2002, 2000). Applying Rokem’s three modes of witnessing, that is “the
performance-within-the performance”, “eavesdropper” or “omniscient” witness
(Rokem 2002, 171), ‘Jolene’ can be seen to represent the first two categories. At
the beginning of the cabaret, ‘Jolene’ sets herself up as an emcee by introducing the
audience to the performance and to the characters they will be meeting during the
cabaret:
Jolene: Welcome, everyone, to the show! Tonight I am going to introduce you to some very peculiar creatures.... some call them ‘sick’... I call them sick, yes, but... ‘interesting’? fascinating? strange? unique?... that will be for you to decide... These people have the blues – real bad... Or they maybe they are a bit crazy, you know... These are the people who lie on this couch and share their secrets. (Mind Games script May 2010, 3)
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‘Jolene’ later introduces ‘The flying girl’ with the exclamation “The extraordinary...
the bizarre... the amazing, flying girl!”; and ‘Jo’ with the description “But Jo, oh dear,
she is another story..She was fine for most of her life. A happy, good person, not
troubling herself with any of those negative feelings” (Mind Games script May 2010,
6, 8). According to Rokem, the use of the “performance-within-the performance”
mode of witnessing places emphasis on “the aesthetic dimension of witnessing”
(Rokem 2002, 171). Within a cabaret format, an emcee overtly showcases their own
and the other performers’ performativity, emphasising the fact that all performers
within the cabaret are putting on an act for their audience. This point can be seen in
Mind Games in the performance of the role of emcee by the overtly constructed
character ‘Jolene’, which emphasises the sense of performativity and artistry within
the cabaret. After being established as emcee, ‘Jolene’
becomes an “eavesdropper” (the second of Rokem’s
categories) to the stories of the other characters by
responding to the characters in a highly judgemental
fashion. To ‘Jo’ she exclaims, “Pull yourself together girl!
No one cares about your pathetic little life”; to ‘The flying
girl’ she counsels “Stop feeling so sorry for yourself”; and
after ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ has spoken she responds
“Well… Well… I don’t know what is going on with you
people. No one has any self control anymore… Where
is the discipline? Where is the will power?” (Mind Games script May 2010, 6, 8, 14).
Through comments expressing her opinion of them, ‘Jolene’ reveals that she has
been eavesdropping on the other characters. According to Rokem, the witness as
an “eavesdropper” places emphasis on the “psychological aspects” of the
performance (Rokem 2002, 171). In other words attention is drawn to the way the
witness thinks and feels about the other characters. In Mind Games the emphasis
on ‘Jolene’s’ opinions of the other characters in the cabaret draws the audience’s
attention to the act of developing an opinion to the performance being presented,
and invites the audience to develop their own opinions on the cabaret. This
invitation emphasises the notion that the cabaret is a construction to be thought
about and discussed, rather than a realistic presentation of real events and people.
Figure 2: ‘The flying girl’ 2010
A range of parodic styles was used in the performance for different performative
effects. Characters that were representative of myself and my inner critic (‘Jo’ and
‘Jolene’) were often performed in a polemic, parodic style. It is with these characters
that I took the greatest creative license. The character of ‘Jolene’ was performed in
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a scathing parodic style for the entire cabaret. She was performed as an extreme
caricature, and even when she is falling apart is shown to be highly critical of the
characters around her. As a parodic representation of Marlene Dietrich, ‘Jolene’
critiqued Dietrich’s vanity, obsession with self-discipline, and unemotional acting and
performance style. This created an unsympathetic portrayal of this character. The
character of ‘Jo’ was generally performed in a style of heightened realism but
occasionally parodied other performance styles, namely hip hop and punk rock. In
the rap song Everyone’s Fucking Depressed, ‘Jo’ presented a one-dimensional,
exaggerated parody of the rap style,
drawing attention to the arrogant and
confrontational performance style of rap,
and mocking rap singers’ ‘gangsta’ style
movements . In a similar way, the punk
rock song You Put My Brain Back the
Wrong Way, presented a one-dimensional
caricature of a punk rock artist’s aggressive
and erratic physicality and atonal, extreme
singing (or screaming) style. In contrast,
parodic presentations of the interviewee
characters were presented in a more
sympathetic manner. These characters were generally introduced in an
exaggerated, caricatured style and then became less caricatured as the scene
progressed. In this way, the scenes moves from a
performer-audience relationship of distance to one of
intimacy, encouraging the audience to more
empathetically relate to the characters at the end of
scene. The first two interviewee characters introduced
to the audience, ‘The flying girl’ (Figure 2) and ‘Dame
Hurry-to-Therapy’ (Figure 4), were performed as
Figure 3: ‘The country and western singer’ 2010
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heightened parodies of Carmen Miranda (in the musical form of Tropicália) and an
opera diva respectively. ‘The flying girl’ presented a comic version of the bipolar
high, as she sings, dances and shakes maracas (Mind Games script 2010, 6); and
‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ relates light-hearted experiences of seeing therapist after
therapist with exaggerated operatic trills and flourishes (Mind Games script May
2010, 12). Later in the cabaret show, the audience met ‘The country and western
singer’ (Figure 3) who tells of her experiences of depression through the style of
country music. This character is presented as a caricature of an Australian girl from
a rural community (perhaps Central Queensland or Northern New South Wales) who
speaks in a broad Australian accent and loves country music.
In these ways I used parodic forms of Tropicália, Opera and Country and Western
music to present some of the interview material. These stylistic choices made it
clear to the audience that a large amount of creative license has been taken in the
journey from interview material to performance. Scenes presenting interview
material generally began in a distancing relationship with the audience, and moved
towards a sense of intimacy. ‘The flying girl’ , the first interviewee character
presented within the performance, was performed in an exaggerated state of mania,
parodying the extremity of a bipolar high and encouraging a relationship of distance
between the audience and this character. As the scene progressed, however, we
see this character becoming physically exhausted before collapsing in a heap. After
having an intense, and intentionally comic, high, the audience sees her slowly fall to
the floor and her facial expressions become pained. In t
from a comic, light-hearted atmosphere to one of hurt
and pain, implying that the character is about to enter
depressive period. ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ was also
presented in an exaggerated manner, parodying the
self-centredness and melodramatic attitude of
singer and implying that individuals going to therapy are
similarly self-centred and melodramatic. This caricature
is undermined at the end of the scene when the ‘Dame’ sits on the sofa and more
calmly relates the end of story, and sings her final lines in a gentle sing-song style.
In a similar way, ‘The country and western singer’ begins her scene in an
exaggerated country Australian accent and is shown stuffing her bra in an attempt to
be more like Dolly Parton. This scene ends on a more tragic note as she sings
“take me home, country road” in a plaintive voice, expressing her need to re
home to her parents. These scenes begin by reinforcing stereotypes of indiv
his way the scene moves
a
an opera
turn
iduals
Figure 4: ‘Dame Hurry‐to‐Therapy’ 2010
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with a mental illness as manic, self-centred and ‘other’, and then undermine these
stereotypes encouraging a sense of intimacy with the characters.
My use of heightened, comic, and parodic performance styles was a way of self
the
is
Despite the contrasting use of performance styles to represent the interviewees, I
In describing the usual process in verbatim performance, Heddon notes that
ought
aracter
Thus, by self-consciously introducing the use of interview material in the cabaret,
hin
Externalisation
ene’
ugh the
e’ is an
o
consciously drawing attention to my own creative process. Within these scenes,
parodic performance style makes it clear to the audience that I am not intending to
provide a truthful representation of real people, but am instead self-consciously
interpreting parts of real peoples’ stories to explore the themes of the play. The
incorporation of elements of intimacy in these parodic representations steered th
style of parody to a less critical, more playful and more empathetic style.
would describe the overall style in my performance of these characters as
’empathetic caricature’.
performers often take on the “key physical characteristics or what might be th
of as gestus” of their subjects(Heddon 2008, 130). In rehearsals Colarelli
encouraged me to create a clear physicality and set of gestures for each ch
in order to clearly define the differences between the characters. Each character
was presented through specific physical and vocal characteristics, sometimes
extremely exaggerated, sometimes more minimal.
establishing ‘Jolene’ as a character-as-witness, and through varying the parodic
styles in the performance, I enhanced the sense of constructed, performativity wit
the cabaret. In these ways the cabaret presented itself as a consciously constructed
performance of aspects of life experience, rather than a presentation of real life.
The construction of ‘Jol
The process of ‘externalisation’ within the performance was enacted thro
character of ‘Jolene’. As discussed in Chapter Five, ‘Jolene’ is a stylised
representation of my own inner critic, and thus in the performance, ‘Jolen
aspect of ‘Jo’s’ mind. White states the externalisation of a problem helps people t
assume responsibility for their lives, commenting that:
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This separation of the person’s identity from the identity of the problem does not relinquish people from a responsibility to address the problems they are encountering. Rather, it makes it more possible for people to assume this responsibility. (White 2007, 26)
This chapter discusses the way that the persona of ‘Jolene’ was constructed and
deconstructed within the cabaret performance. It is important to note that I am using
these terms to describe the creation and dismantling of the persona ‘Jolene’ within
the cabaret, rather than as the terms are used in the textual analysis approach of
deconstructionism. In this research, deconstruction refers to White’s process of
dismantling or unravelling of perspectives that are considered to be truths by an
individual. I have chosen the terms construction and deconstruction to draw
attention to the process through which ‘Jolene’ was ‘set up’ and then ‘broken down’
for the audience. According to White, by separating their identity from the problem,
an individual is able to unravel their own thought processes. This “unravelling
process” reveals the origin of the problem and allows individuals to explore different
ways of experiencing the world:
It is quite common for this unravelling process to reveal the history of the “politics” of the problem that bring people to therapy. This is a history of the power relations that people have been subject to and that have shaped their negative conclusions about their life and their identity. This unravelling deprives these conclusions of a “truth” status and calls them into question. As an outcome, people find that their lives are no longer tied to these negative conclusions and this puts them in a position to explore other territories of their lives. (White 2007, 27)
In Mind Games I used performative techniques from the cabaret personas of the
provocateur and the vamp to both construct and deconstruct ‘Jolene’.
As discussed in Chapter Four, provocateur cabaret artists present their critiques in a
humorous, musical form, and their humour is cutting and often caustic. These
qualities ensure that the provocateurs present criticisms that are both entertaining
and focussed.
This is particularly obvious in the work of Eddie Perfect, who uses the approach of
“stroking and striking” the viewers by combining entertainment with hard-hitting
messages (Perfect quoted in Rose 2005a). Perfect states that he aims to “let the
audience be angry” with him but not to feel like he is “attacking them” (quoted in
Rose 2005a). This means that Perfect intends to provoke the audience into feeling
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a strong emotion that can incite action (in this case anger), but not to feel threatened
or individually attacked. In Mind Games ‘Jolene’ made cutting, critical statements,
sometimes directed at the audience, sometimes directed at the other characters in
the cabaret, and these were presented in light hearted, comic and musical forms.
This created a balance between provoking the audience with critical statements and
pleasing them with musical comedy, or, in Perfect’s terms “striking” and ”stroking”
the audience.
‘Jolene’s’ first speech presents the audience with a lesson in which she announces
she will teach the audience how to control their minds, and states that if they do not
control their minds they are “weak” and “naughty”. She then sings The Naughty
Song, telling them they have been very bad. This song starts out in a playful, sexy
manner (“you have been a bad, bad boy”) and gradually becomes more serious and
intense until she tells the audience “you’re a total failure, unworthy of love” (Mind
Games script May 2010, 2). The musical style of The Naughty Song also lightens
the scene. In the tradition of cabaret provocateurs, the music style is sweet and
seductive. In the same vein as Eddie Perfect (whose performances are
characterised by angry, sarcastic lyrics performed in a sweet, ‘cherubic tone’) and
Dusty Limits (whose smooth, operatic voice is the vehicle for cutting satire), The
Naughty Song is performed in a husky, sensual jazz style voice, presenting caustic
statements in a sensuous style.
After this introduction ‘Jolene’ introduces the show explaining that she will introduce
the audience to some “strange creatures” who she describes as “sick”’:
Jolene: Welcome, everyone, to de show! Tonight i am going to introduce you to some very peculiar creatures.... some call them ‘sick’... I call them sick, but... Interesting? Fascinating? Strange? Unique?... that will be for you to decide... anyway... they have de blues – real bad... Or they maybe they are a bit crazy, you know... these are the people who lie on this couch and share their secrets. (Mind Games script May 2010, 3)
This opening scene is in the realm of the provocateur. This scene is marked by a
dark sense of humour, and ‘Jolene’ makes caustic comments addressed first to the
audience, and then to a particular group of people – those with depression or bipolar
disorder. Her comments are simplistic and extreme. These are not the comments
of someone presenting a ‘well balanced’ perspective; these comments are
deliberately provocative. The humour of the situation comes from the extremity of
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the character and her viewpoints; her perspective is so extreme that it becomes
laughable.
Other provocative comments ‘Jolene’ makes include criticisms of ‘Jo’ and ‘The flying
girl’ . In the second scene in the cabaret, ‘Jolene’ castigates ‘Jo’ for telling the
audience about her troubles, and tells her to “Pull yourself together... [because] No
one cares about your pathetic little life!” (Mind Games script May 2010, 6). When
introducing ‘The flying girl’ , ‘Jolene’ describes her as having a “strange condition”
and being part of a “weird world” (Mind Games script May 2010, 6. After the scene
‘Jolene’ gives a double-edged compliment to flying girl and criticises ‘Jo’:
Jolene: How fantastic! You can achieve so much! You are so much more interesting than Jo. Ugh, Jo, she gives me a chronic case of ennui! But,you... It is like you are super human! I need some of that energy! Your energy is fantastic! Stop feeling so sorry for yourself! You just had a wonderful high and you were so productive! You are the over achiever. But Jo, oh dear, she is another story. (Mind Games script May 2010, 8)
Characteristics of the vamp are also used to construct the persona of ‘Jolene’. The
vamp is characterised by an overt sexuality, glamorous style and self-conscious
performance of ‘constructed femininity’. In the first four scenes of the cabaret
‘Jolene’ is overtly sexualised, almost to the point of caricature as she: pouts; gropes
her own breasts; suggestively caresses the legs of the couch; draws attention to her
legs; and hints at a dominatrix style of sexuality in The Naughty Song. Up to scene
four, ‘Jolene’ relates to the other characters and subject matter of the cabaret in a
sexual manner: her excitement in finding more stories of the couch, her interest in
knowing more about ‘The flying girl’ , her castigation of the audience and the
characters for being “naughty”: all of these have a sexualised tone suggesting
arousal or sex play.
As discussed in Chapter Four, vamps in contemporary cabaret often draw attention
to the constructed nature of femininity and glamour. Camille O’Sullivan began The
Dark Angel glamorously dressed in a floor length coat with her hair perfectly coiffed,
and ended the show with messed up hair, and without most of her clothes.
O’Sullivan did not take her clothes off as a strip tease, but rather as a stripping off of
her glamorous layers. Meow Meow makes a point of showing how the diva persona
is created by changing costumes onstage and asking for help from the audience to
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help her construct herself, and Paul Capsis adds small costume items and specific
gestus to construct the diva performers in front of the audience.
In the opening scene of Mind Games, the character of ‘Jolene’ is constructed in front
of the audience. The first image that confronts the audience is of a female
performer wrapped in white fabric facing away from the audience grunting as she
tries to wrestle herself free of the fabric. She is holding her arms across her chest as
if she has been restrained, and the white fabric is intended to symbolise a straight
jacket. After the performer has freed herself from the fabric, she notices the blond
wig (perched on the musician’s head), reaches for the wig and places it on her own
head. Then she carefully drapes the white fabric around her shoulders as a stole.
The musician moves aside, a spotlight is focussed on the female performer, and she
is formally introduced to the audience:
Piano player: Good evening ladies and gentlemen – please put your hands together for the one, the only Jolene Mindtrich! (Mind Games script May 2010, 2)
In this introduction to the cabaret, the performer has contrasted the primal,
uncontrolled qualities of the figure shown at the start of the play (trying to escape
from a straight-jacket) with a
controlled, constructed glamorous performance. This moment clearly establishes for
the audience that ‘Jolene’ is an artificial construction, and that the primal ‘Jo’ has
made a decisive move to become ‘Jolene’. This sequence also draws attention to
the constructed nature of glamour and the effort taken to achieve a glamorous
appearance.
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Deconstructing ‘Jolene’: the vulnerability of the vamp
As the cabaret progresses the audience observes the deconstruction of ‘Jolene’.
With each story told by the other characters in the show, ‘Jolene’s’ glamour and
power are diminished until she becomes a ‘throw away’ joke in the final moments. In
Mind Games, the deconstruction of ‘Jolene’ is expressed through changes in
costume and characterisation.
The costume for Mind Games is a combination of layers consisting of a short mini-
skirt dress in gold sequins under a longer matching skirt. Together these two layers
create the effect of a long sequinned evening gown. A blonde wig and white stole
are added to denote the character
‘Jolene’ (Figure 5). Underneath the
dress and skirt is a plain cream slip,
and high heels and stockings complete
the outfit. In the early scenes of the
cabaret, the sequins, high heels and
blonde wig are used to enhance
‘Jolene’s’ sexualisation. As the
performance progresses these layers
are stripped off until the performer is
left wearing just a cream slip. When ‘Jo’
gets her first chance to tell her story
she removes the long sequinned skirt,
then the character of the ‘sock woma
takes off the shoes and stockings
After this scene, ‘Jolene’ is visibly upset
and removes her own wig and takes off
the dress. At the same time as the costume is being dismantled, ‘Jolene’ is sho
as becoming less sexualised, less sure of herself and more irate and confused. This
deconstruction shows ‘Jolene’ as a vulnerable persona, easily dismantled and take
apart. This vulnerability is a quality of the vamp performance persona. As discussed
in Chapter Four, the personas presented by Camillie O’Sullivan, Meow Meow
Paul Capsis all show the vulnerability of the vamp. O’Sullivan does this by
dismantling her glamorous image through the show; Meow Meow by having the
audience dress and undress her during the show, and asking the audience to lift he
and move her around the space (drawing attention to her reliance on the audienc
n’
.
wn
n
and
r
e
Figure 5: ‘Jolene in 2010
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to maintain her ‘diva-ness’); and Capsis by showing the vulnerability of the ‘faded
stars’ he embodies.
The breakdown of ‘Jolene’ in relation to the other characters
The inner critic ‘Jolene’, encourages ‘Jo’ to feel a sense of self-stigma and to
present a mask so that she can fit in and be normal. ‘Jolene’, can be seen as the
normalising tendency within ‘Jo’. ‘Jolene’ pathologises ‘Jo’s’ depression by advising
‘Jo’ that she is “weak”, “bad”, “evil” and so on (Mind Games script May 2010, 2-6).
‘Jolene’ repeatedly castigates
‘Jo’, telling her that she is not
good enough, and that it is
shameful to admit to having
depression. ‘Jolene’ also
advocates ‘Jo’ not change her
facial expression (thereby
not telling anyone that
anything is wrong), and tells her
to try to succeed in life by being
strong willed. In this way, ‘Jolene’
advocates keeping up a social
mask in order to fit into society.
She also advises ‘Jo’ not to see a
therapist because it is
“...humiliating! Shaming!” asking
“What will people think? What
will people say?” (Mind Games
script 2010, 12). As ‘Jolene’ is
ased. A turning point in the
relationship between ‘Jolene’ and ‘Jo’ occurs in scene seven. This scene follows th
opera singer character relating her experiences of therapy. After going through
many different therapists, the opera singer decides that therapy is not really for her
and that she gains more from anti-depressant medications and reading about way
to cope with depression. In scene seven, ‘Jolene’ is for the first time uncertain how
to progress, and comments:
Figure 6: ‘Jolene’ falling apart, 2010
disempowered, ‘Jo’s’ sense of self-stigma is decre
e
s
Jolene: Well… Well… I don’t know what is going on with you people. No one has any self control anymore… Where is the discipline?
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Where is the will power? It seems dat… I don’t know, I seems dat… (Mind Games script 2010, 14)
This is the first time in the show that ‘Jolene’ is shown as being anything less than
powerful and confident. In response ‘Jo’ seems to be more empowered, and she
finishes ‘Jolene’s’ sentence... proclaiming “everyone’s fucking depressed!” (Mind
Games script 2010, 15).
This is an aspect of ‘Jo’s’ personality
that has not been seen up to this
point. She is outspoken, powerful and
aggressive. ‘Jo’ then proceeds to
critique the use of the term ‘black
dog’ to describe depression, and
recites a rap song proclaiming “it
seems like everyone’s fucking
depressed!” (Mind Games script
2010,14). ‘Jo’ seems to be
challenging the audience to consider
the ways they think about d
and to admit that most people go
through these experiences
‘coming out’ analogy, this scene
shows Jo being ‘loud and proud’
about her views on depression. In
this scene, ‘Jo’ takes on aspects of
the provocateur persona. She is being deliberately provocative, making extrem
statements, playing ‘devil’s advocate, critiquing one of society’s expressions and
challenging the audience, all within a light-hearted parodic framework. This s
shows ‘Jo’ as being more powerful than ‘Jolene’, and thus this is the point of the
cabaret in which the status is shifted. Hence, the relationship between ‘Jo’ and
‘Jolene’ could be seen as a struggle between ‘Jo’ and her sense of self-stigma,
showing ‘Jo’ finding her sense of power within this situation.
epression,
. Using the
e
cene
Figure 7: ‘Jolene's’ disintegration continues, 2010
From scene four onwards, ‘Jolene’ is shown to lose her powerful status. As she
becomes less ‘in control’ of the situation, ‘Jolene’ seems to lose her sexual energy.
This implies that ‘Jolene’s’ sexuality is linked to a sense of being in control – she is
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turned on by power and status. In response to ‘Jo’ telling her story for the first time,
and sharing her desire to reach out to a therapist, ‘Jolene’ berates ‘Jo’ for
considering this option. In this scene, ‘Jolene’ is prowling about the stage, but this is
focussed on an aggressive attack rather than a sexualised ‘come hither’ approach.
After the scene where the opera singer talks about seeing therapists, we see
‘Jolene’ lost for words as she tries to create a response to the situation. ‘Jolene’ then
transforms into ‘Jo’, who finishes off the sentence by proclaiming “everyone’s
fucking depressed!” (Mind Games script May 2010,15). Previously in the cabaret the
focus has been on individual experiences, or on individuals being ”lacking”,
”strange”, ”unusual”’ and so on for having depression or bipolar disorder. In contrast,
the reference to ”everyone” being depressed points to a community of people who
have common experiences of depression. After the ‘sock woman’ has removed the
high heels and stockings, ‘Jolene’ appears very uncomfortable and in order to regain
some sense of control she reverts to the opening speech of the show, perhaps
trying to rediscover the power and authority she had at this time. But she appears
uncertain, struggling to find a foothold in the scene; at one point she stands up from
the chair and then is shocked to see that she is not wearing high heels, and then
proceeds to stand on tip toe to pretend she is wearing high heels and teeter around
the stage. This is when ‘Jolene’ is shown to fall apart. As she repeats the words
“sometimes, sometimes” she struggles to take off the sequinned dress in a
movement evocative of the ‘straight-jacket’ moment at the beginning of the play
(with arms crossed over her chest). The performer then becomes ‘The country and
western singer’ who completes the sentence by proclaiming “sometimes it’s hard to
be a woman!” (Mind Games script 2010,19).
‘Jolene’ has one final appearance at the end of the cabaret show as a part of the
final song. In this scene, ‘Jolene’s’ power is further diminished by having Jo
contradict her final statement. After ‘Jolene’ has instructed the audience: “do not be
weak, do not be naughty”, ‘Jo’ counters with “well, maybe just a little” (Mind Games
script 2010, 27-28).
In this final appearance of ‘Jolene’, no costume or wig is added to denote ‘Jolene’:
instead the performer assumes only her posture, facial and vocal expression. The
absence of costume or prop to identify ‘Jolene’ clarifies for the audience that she is
just an aspect of ‘Jo’s’ personality. ‘Jolene’ is further disempowered by ‘Jo’s’
contradiction of her final line with a throw-away joke, an act that shows ‘Jolene’ is a
playful, harmless persona, rather than the powerful, intimidating force of the opening
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scene of the cabaret. The overt creation and dismantling of the character of ‘Jolene’
illustrates the therapeutic journey in the cabaret, enacting the way that the process
of externalisation is able to disempower an individual’s negative thoughts.
The combination of an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions
The principles of an autonomous ethic of living and rich descriptions were alternated
in the performance, and combined with techniques of intimacy and distance to
create a state of flux in the cabaret. As discussed in Chapter Four, provocative
cabaret performers create a changing dynamic in their relationship with their
audience between intimacy and distance. This constant flux creates a dynamic in
which the audience is entertained and relaxed by the performance and encouraged
to think about issues through a sense of estrangement or alienation. As discussed
in Chapter Four, even highly polemic cabaret artist Eddie Perfect uses the approach
of “stroking and striking” his audience by combining entertainment with hard-hitting
messages (quoted in Rose 2005a). While he aims to challenge an audience he
tries not to make an audience “feel like you're attacking them” (Perfect quoted in
Rose 2005a). Thus, rather than presenting an overtly confrontational performance,
cabaret encourages the audience to consider issues within a relaxed and playful
environment.
In Mind Games, the use of the style of emotionally connected, heightened realism
draws the audience into a relationship of intimacy with some scenes in the cabaret.
This performance style is used in scenes that present characters’autonomous ethic
of living. The use of parody in Mind Games moves the audience between
relationships of distance and intimacy with the performer. This performance
technique is used in scenes designed to explore rich descriptions. Parody is a
technique that can create this push/pull effect between intimacy and distance.
Parody can both celebrate performance styles, creating a sense of familiarity with an
audience, and mock these performance styles in various degrees. The artistic
choice to begin with heightened parodic characterisations within the performance
set up a relationship of distance between the audience and the characters. This
movement between a sense of distance and intimacy through parodic humour
encourages audience members to change their attitudes towards the characters
within the scene, creating a sense of ‘flux’ in meaning.
As discussed earlier in this chapter, playful parody is used to create empathetic
caricatures of the characters of ‘The flying girl’, ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ and ‘The
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country and western singer’. The approach of beginning these scenes with extreme
parody and then transitioning to a more empathetic portrayal of the characters
creates a flux between the performative states of distance and intimacy. By
changing perspective on these characters within the same scene, multi-faceted
views of one situation are expressed, creating the effect of a rich description. In
addition, the character of ‘Dame Hurry-to-Therapy’ was a composite character that
combined many different personal experiences in relation to therapists. These
included: an individual who liked going on-line to receive therapy (“and then I got on
the internet, you can contact counsellors that way”); an overweight lady who first
went to a psychiatrist when she decided to have lap banding done (“And that doctor
said, well you can’t do that until you get your head sorted”; a woman from a small
town who found a therapist too pushy (“she handed me a box of tissues and wanted
to know about all my issues, and I wasn’t ready for that”); and a lady who preferred
anti-depressants and cognitive behaviour therapy to therapists (“I haven’t had much
success with therapists”) (Mind Games script May 2010, 12- 14). Multi-faceted
perspectives were presented of the characters ‘The flying girl’, ‘Dame Hurry-to-
Therapy’ and ‘The country and western singer’ through the combination of playful
parody and “rich” descriptions.
In the second half of the cabaret, the characters ‘The sock woman’, ‘Ms Rapid
Cycling’ and ‘The mother’ were performed in the style of heightened realism and
enacted the principle ofan autonomous ethic of living. The three scenes featuring
these characters were intentionally understated in tone, and create a sense of
intimacy between the audience and the performer. These three characters embody
characteristics from personal cabarets. As discussed in Chapter Four, personal
cabarets focus on creating a sense of intimacy with the audience through the
interpretation of well known songs to express a personal connection or truth. While
all the songs in the Mind Games cabaret were original, the characters of ‘The sock
woman’, ‘Ms Rapid Cycling’ and ‘The mother’ were performed in a manner focussed
on creating a sense of intimacy and connection with an audience. Each of these
characters gave the impression of ‘opening up’ to the audience, and sharing highly
personal anecdotes through use of a revelatory performance style. Each of these
characters shared their autonomous ethic of living with the audience through an
emphasis on personal values. As discussed in Chapter Five, ‘The sock woman’
represented the core value of acceptance by telling the story of breaking up with her
husband because he didn’t understand that “this sadness is part of me, and won’t be
fixed by any cover up” (Mind Games script May 2010, 18). ‘Ms rapid cycling’
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represented the core value of independence through expressing trauma at being
reduced to being a dependent child, lamenting “now here I am, yes here I am, back
being spoon fed” (Mind Games script May 2010, 25). And ‘The mother’
demonstrated her core value of “commitment and responsibility” through her
concern for her daughter’s well being (Mind Games script May 2010, 25-26). In
contrast to the parodic style of other characters in the Mind Games cabaret, these
three characters were performed with a sense of stillness and emotional connection,
the more realistic performance style creating the sense of truth. For example,
directly after ‘Jo’ has presented the audience with the exaggerated and parodic rap
Everyone’s
Fucking
Depressed there
is a sudden
lighting change
revealing ‘The
sock woman’.
This moves the
audience from an
exaggerated,
crazed scene
ending with ‘Jo’
directing the
audience to “pull your socks up!” to a moment of stillness. After a slight pause ‘The
sock woman’ quietly begins to tell her story with the lines: “That’s what my husband
used to say. I’m a nursing sister. After I did my general training, I came up here and
did obstetrics, and got married to an American on the rebound from another chap,
and we had two children” (Mind Games script May 2010, 17-18). After the extremity
of the rap scene, the audience is presented with a more realistic life story, presented
in an understated manner, in which a character reveals highly personal information
including the story of a suicide attempt and of trying to cope with a difficult marital
situation (Mind Games script May 2010, 18). Later in the performance ‘Ms Rapid
Cycling’ (Figure 8) shares one of her life’s lowest moments when she describes
trying to commit suicide after an episode of promiscuity and sings the ballad Child
Song (Mind Games script May 2010, 24-25). This ballad is performed in an
emotional style that expresses this character’s lowest moment, a style evocative of
the personal cabarets in which there is an ”exchange of trust” and ”feeling of
Figure 8: 'Ms Rapid Cycling', 2010
intimate communication” between a performer and their audience (Harrington
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2000, 15). The sense of intimacy and trust is continued in the following scene w
‘The mother’ shares her struggles as a carer for a family member with depression.
In these ways, the characters ‘The song woman’, ‘Ms Rapid Cycling’ and ‘The
mother’ emphasise emotional connection and a realistic performance style, evo
elements of personal cabarets.
hen
king
‘Jo’: Rich descriptions and an autonomous ethic of living
erself as
telling
the
her
t
ins as she
the
script May 2010, 4-6). This song uses metapho
‘Jo’ is
ene’
As Mind Games progresses, we see ‘Jo’ trying on different versions of h
she moves towards her ownautonomous ethic of living. These acts of exploring
different versions of herself are in
response to ‘Jolene’ and the other
characters in the cabaret. White’s
narrative therapy involves an
experimenting with ways of re-
one’s own story. In Mind Games, ‘Jo’
is shown as presenting different
versions of herself in response to
externalisation of her inner critic
(‘Jolene’) and the stories of the ot
characters, who embody their own
autonomous ethic of living or presen
rich descriptions of a life story. At the
start of the cabaret, ‘Jo’ is
glamorously attired in sequ
reclines on the therapist’s couch. As
she lies on the couch she shares her
experience of depression in a
restrained and poetic fashion in
song Unravel my Head (Mind Games
rs (such as being “out a sea” or
trapped “in a cage”) to describe a personal experience of depression. I have
described this version of ‘Jo’ as being ‘Jo the calm storyteller’. This version of
personable and relaxed, and uses highly poetic images to express her emotions.
‘Jo’ next appears in Scene Five. This scene follows ‘The flying girl’ who has
presented her story of being highly productive while on a manic high, and ‘Jol
has disparagingly compared ‘Jo’ with ‘The flying girl’ stating: “You are so much
Figure 9 : You put my brain back the wrong way, 2010
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more interesting than Jo!... you just had a fantastic high and you were so produc
(Mind Games script May 2010, 8). In response to this the next version of ‘Jo’
attempts to maintain a brave face in spite of all odds as she sings “I’m fine, jus
thanks for asking but I’m coping okay” (Mind Games script May 2010, 8-9). I have
termed this version of ‘Jo’ as ‘Jo in denial’ because she sings “I’m fine” in an up-
tempo jazz style as she recounts her experience of falling into depression as a
series of embarrassing moments (Mind Games script May 2010, 8 – 11). At this
point ‘Jo’ is dressed in a knee length sequinned outfit. This scene uses a light
hearted approach to share personal information and draws the audience into a
sense of intimacy with ‘Jo’, in a similar style to most personal cabarets. Then in
scene seven, ‘Jo’ appears as a confrontational and angry stand-up comedian wh
proclaims that “everyone’s fucking depressed!” (Mind Games script May 2010, 15).
have termed this version as ‘provocative Jo’. This scene distances the audience
from ‘Jo’ who up to this point has been gentle and friendly. In this scene, ‘Jo’ is s
wearing the sequinned knee length dress, but her ‘hip hop’ style movements give
the impression of ‘Beyonce style bling’ to the sequins. The next time ‘Jo’ appears
the cabaret, in scene ten, she is wearing only a slip. The sequins, high heels and
stockings have been removed; she has literally been ‘stripped back’. This scene is
‘Jo’s lowest moment’. In this scene she stands centre stage with minimal
movements and facial expressions, the performance style has also been s
back in this scene. This is a moment of extreme intimacy with the audience. At th
moment ‘Jo’s’ physicality is slightly hunched, and she looks downwards through
most of the scene. The audience is then shocked by a sudden transition into the
punk rock song You Put My Brain Back the Wrong Way (Mind Game script May
2010, 23). Suddenly Jo is screaming and using extreme punk rock gestures and
facial expressions (Figure 9). Up to this point in the cabaret, the movement betwe
intimacy and distance present truth as a shifting concept within the cabaret. At the
end of the cabaret, ‘Jo’, still dressed only in the slip, stands centre stage with
minimal movements. The difference between this scene and scene ten is that
wearing a smile. Her physicality in this scene is also more open and directed
upwards and towards the audience. These changes indicate a ‘happy ending’
cabaret. The cabaret performance shows ‘Jo’ experimenting with different selves
and ways of communicating, and at the end, ‘Jo’ expresses her central values and
truth in the statement:
tive”
t fine,
o
I
till
in
tripped
is
en
she is
to the
So here I am... Jo... finally taking responsibility for myself Stopping the mind games... Starting to reach out to people.
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I’m off the anti-depressants Talking to my therapist Being kind to myself Am trying to stop judging mysI’ve stopped buying “singstarting to make time flearning to surf Having a cry when I need to. Walking in the shade Living with the de
and the way she is living her life in opposition to “other people’
elf by other people’s standards... le lady” microwave meals
or a serious relationship
bris. (Mind Games script May 2010, 26-27)
This shows ‘Jo’ expressing the autonomous ethic of living she has defined for
herself s standards”.
tions
of living at the end of the
s
ature
d
ewee characters through the
empathetic ending in each scene. In the first half of the cabaret, the interviewee
hip
re
e.
t ‘Jo’
She describes this as “taking responsibility for herself”. In this way, rich descrip
of ‘Jo’s’ character show her moving towards her own autonomous ethic of living.
Was a fixed notion of truth implied in the cabaret?
A problematic aspect of presenting ‘Jo’s’ autonomous ethic
cabaret is that it gave the cabaret a ‘neat ending’ and implied a fixed notion of truth.
This fixed notion of truth was also supported in part by the use of the style of realism
towards the end of the cabaret. The presentation of the other characters in the
cabaret can be seen to parallel ‘Jo’s’ shifting dynamic between distance and
intimacy. Throughout the cabaret performance these characters are presented a
distanced or intimate, but as the performance progresses the characters are
presented as more and more realistic. In performance, the interviewees’ stories
were presented in various performance styles ranging from broad comic caric
to heightened realism. The show began with the more heightened characters, an
as the performance progressed the characters became more realistic. From the
discussion above, a number of points can be made about the way I positioned the
audience in my performance of Mind Games.
Firstly, empathy was encouraged for the intervi
characters are introduced in a manner that encourages a distancing relations
between the audience and the characters. This relationship is reversed as each
scene progresses. In the second half of the cabaret, the interviewee characters a
presented in a manner that encourages a relationship of intimacy with the audienc
This empathy was further encouraged by the presentation of ‘Jolene’ as an
antagonist to ‘Jo’ and to the other characters. Having ‘Jolene’ as such an overtly
disparaging and unsympathetic character easily clarifies for the audience tha
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and the other characters in the cabaret are the protagonists, that is, the characters
to identify with and to support. In addition, elements from personal cabarets were
used to create a relationship of intimacy and empathy in Mind Games. Thus while a
dynamic relationship between distance and intimacy was established within the
performance, the latter parts of the cabaret moved towards a sense of a fixed notion
of truth, emphasising a relationship of intimacy between the performer and the
audience.
Conclusion
Mind Games cabaret as a presentation of the games
view of the character of ‘Jo’. As ‘Jo’ journeys through the
‘Jo’
lf,
This chapter has analysed the
of truth from the point of
cabaret, she moves closer to her own ethic of living through encountering an
externalisation of her inner critic and other individuals who present her with their
own autonomous ethic of living or rich description of their stories. In response,
engages in her own rich descriptions through exploring different versions of herse
finally expressing her ownautonomous ethic of living. The characters in the cabaret
are presented through the performative techniques of parody, persona and a style of
heightened realism to move between relationships of distance and intimacy. One
problematic aspect of the cabaret performance was that the ending could imply a
fixed notion of truth, which could potentially weaken the games of truth presented in
the performance. This aspect is discussed in Chapter Seven in relation to the
findings of the study.
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Chapter Seven: Findings
Introduction
Games of truth have been at the
fore-front of this research journey
and as a result, my findings
primarily relate to the presentation
of games of truth within the cabaret.
The 2010 version of the Mind
Games cabaret integrated aspects
from contemporary cabaret and
personal cabaret to create a truth in
flux. The research journey that led
to this performance, was in itself a
‘game of truth’ in which I struggled
to articulate my own
epistemological position and clarify
my application of White’s narrative
therapy. This chapter will discuss
three inter-related findings of the
study in reference to the degree of
success of the truth in flux, and to
my own personal agendas within
the performance. The first finding of the study relates to the cabaret’s ability to
balance the performative elements of provocation and empathy. The second finding
of the study discusses my own desire for self empowerment within the cabaret. The
third finding of the study views the presentation of truth within the cabaret in relation
to White’s concept of “preferred identity claims” (White 2004b).
Figure 10: ‘Jolene’, 2010
Finding One: Finding a balance between provocation and empathy
The first finding of my study is that by applying techniques of narrative therapy to the
development of a cabaret performance I was able to present both provocative and
empathetic elements within the performance. This was achieved through the
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performer- audience relationship that moved between distance and intimacy; a
changing dynamic that encouraged the audience itself from the issues presented
within the performance (and thus to explore new perspectives on an issue). By
externalising part of myself in the cabaret show, I was able to create a character that
was outspoken and caricatured. The character of ‘Jolene’ uses aspects of the
provocateur persona in that she presents critical statements within a comic, musical
form. These aspects were used to represent the negative, cutting remarks of an
inner critic inside one’s mind. ‘Jolene’ also embodies qualities of the vamp to
represent constructions of the mind as fragile and vulnerable, and easy to
deconstruct. These qualities were used to show the ultimate vulnerability of the
inner critic as a construction within the mind. The incorporation of elements from the
personas of the provocateurs and the vamps created a dynamic flux between
distance and intimacy, bringing elements of provocation into a self revelatory
cabaret performance. Through using techniques of personal cabaret I developed a
sense of intimacy between the audience and performer within some scenes in the
cabaret. The sense of a truth in flux within the cabaret was somewhat effective
through the changing dynamic of distance and intimacy, however this was
weakened by an emphasis on empathy towards the end of the cabaret. In addition,
the final scene of the cabaret showed ‘Jo’ proclaiming a personal sense of truth. The
effect of a truth in flux was more effectively portrayed in the first half of the cabaret
through sudden shifts between parodic presentations and intimate revelation.
However the performance style became more realistic in the second half of the
cabaret, and in the final scene of the performance ‘Jo’ expressed her own truth. This
ending gave a neat resolution to the performance, weakening the notion of a truth in
flux. Thus, while there was some presentation of a ‘truth in flux’ within the
performance, overall the cabaret emphasised a fixed notion of truth. The second
finding of this research project presents a theory as to why this result emerged.
Finding Two: The effects of my own desire for self-empowerment within the cabaret
From a critical perspective, it can be argued that the games of truth presented within
the cabaret Mind Games were effective up to a point, but were problematised by a
‘happy ending’ that privileged one truth over the others. This can be seen to have
occurred due to my own personal need for empowerment through the cabaret
performance.
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Schaefer (2003) notes that a complication of the ‘performing witness’ (that is,
performers playing themselves) is the
performer’s ‘desire for self-empowerment’
may affect the audience’s response to the
performance (8). Schaefer (2003) further
comments that “what witnesses search for
are answers, not questions... in testimonial
drama there is less room for the audience to
find their own interpretation of the event.
Essentially, the characters are undertaking
the interpretive work for them” (17). Perhaps
in my own quest for self-empowerment and t
address my own sense of self-stigma, I
constructed a narrative within the
performance with a convenient happy e
The act of performing my cabaret show can
be seen as a way of ‘witnessing myself’. In
retrospect I am able to reflect on the
version(s) of myself that I presented and the way I “re-membered” my own story.
These concepts are explored by Heddon (2008) in relation to narrative processes of
psycholanalysis. Heddon draws from the work of psychoanalytic theorists (Oliver
2001, Gilmore 2001, Brison 1999, Henke 2000) to argue that psychoanalysis works
to “reconstruct” and “transmit” personal history, enabling “a sense of subjective
agency” that can help to “master” a traumatic event (Heddon 2008, 56). Heddon
continues:
o
nding.
Figure 11 : 'Jo', 2010
In this sense, narrative memory is a performative act that enables the recreation of a ‘self’... and narrative memory needs to be understood as an act of creativity... The work that narrativising performs is the transformation of the seemingly unrepresentable into the symbolic, thereby giving it a name and a place. (Heddon 2008, 56)
Although White would not define his therapy as ‘psychoanalysis’, White’s narrative
process does seem to have links with the psychoanalysis described by Heddon in
which the patient consciously creates the narrative of their own life story. In Mind
Games I re-enacted the events in my life in structured ways and reconstructed these
events to create a linear narrative. All of the events were collaged from moments in
my life over the past four years. These events were taken from my personal
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experiences in 2006, 2007 and 2008, but were not presented in their real order in
the cabaret. In addition I developed material for the character of ‘Jo’ that related to
points of connection between the interviewee’s stories and my own. As described in
Chapter Five, this technique was used in the writing of songs The Naughty Song
and Unravel My Head. I also used relevant material from my research in the public
domain to develop the song You Put My Brain Back the Wrong Way. I combined all
of this material to create what appeared to be a chronological narrative. I creatively
put together my own narrative version of my life to frame my experiences as moving
from confusion, to shame, to feeling isolated and perceiving life to be meaningless,
to finding a sense of resilience or a “pathway through the wood” (Mind Games script
2010, 27), and in the process I came to believe in this new version of my story. In
this way I found a way to “master” my own trauma’ through the “therapeutic balm of
words” (Gilmore 2001, 7).
In a similar way, the cabaret also privileged my process of addressing my sense of
self-stigma. Sayce (1999) posits that strategies for addressing the stigma of mental
health issues include refusing to be shamed:
Having mental health problems is not a moral matter; how one behaves is. Key strategies for throwing off the impact of discrimination are therefore to ‘come out’ – visibly to refuse to be shamed just for being a user/survivor – and simultaneously to take responsibility for one’s actions (see Ch 6.): to be quite prepared to feel guilty, to take the consequences of actions that may be unethical. If user/survivors become ever more involved in the wider disability movement, they could contribute to new overarching ideas, such as ‘No to shame’, which go much further than ‘No pity’, which challenge, ever more trenchantly, society’s tendency to humiliate those it has deemed ‘imperfect’. (Sayce 1999, 139)
Sayce’s choice of the phrase ‘come out’ in reference to this discussion is an
interestingone. It likens the process of overcoming shame associated with a mental
illness, to that of overcoming shame and prejudice associated with being
homosexual. This link is also made by Corrigan (2005), who draws parallels
between these two groups. He argues:
In some ways … mental illness stigma may parallel the experiences of the gay and lesbian community. Most individuals choose to disclose their sexual orientation and come out of the closet. In this chapter, I argue that the community of people with mental illness may similarly benefit from disclosing their illness to the public at large. (Corrigan 2005, 257)
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While these parallels could perhaps be seen as problematic (and Corrigan does
acknowledge that mental illness and homosexuality are not ”transposable”
conditions; ibid), his sense of the ‘coming out’ process for the mentally ill can be
seen to have some merit. The usefulness of the analogy can be seen to lie in the
sense of personal empowerment that may be experienced by individuals who take
ownership of their own condition thus leading to improved self esteem, and, as
Corrigan states “personal empowerment is the opposite of self-stigma” (Corrigan
2005, 249). Corrigan draws from research on empowerment to support this point:
At the negative end of the continuum are persons who report being unable to overcome all the pessimistic expectations about mental illness. They have low self-esteem and little confidence in their future success. These are the self-stigmatized. At the positive end, however, are persons with psychiatric disability who, despite this disability, have positive self-esteem and are not significantly encumbered by a stigmatizing community. Instead, they seem to be energized by the stigma to righteous anger... hence, assessment of personal empowerment may be a proxy for the self-stigma that specifically arises from being a person with a mental illness. People high on personal empowerment may be viewed as relatively low on stigma. (Corrigan 2005, 246)
For Corrigan, developing a sense of personal empowerment is the answer to
overcoming self-stigma:
Persons who have a strong sense of personal empowerment can be expected to have high self-efficacy and self-esteem... Empowerment approaches may be considered among the best ways to deal with self-stigma (Corrigan 2005, 249).
To use these terms, I am ‘coming out’ as a person who has had depression, and the
cabaret Mind Games could be equated to me boldly jumping out of the ‘mental
illness’ closet to loudly proclaim ‘I HAVE HAD DEPRESSION!’. With this in mind I
would like to re-appropriate an excerpt of a song from the gay scene in the Weimar
cabaret. This song, Das Lila-Lied (The Lavender Lay), critiqued attitudes towards
homosexuals at the time, but can be reinterpreted to apply to the stigma of mental
illness within contemporary society:
How civilized That we’re despised And treated as something taboo ... For equal rights we fought our bitter war! We will be tolerated, and never suffer more! (Quoted in Senelick 1993, 89).
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My own personal agendas – of self empowerment and addressing my own self-
stigma – can be seen to have affected my ability to successfully portray a truth in
flux.
Finding Three: A journey towards “self care”
It is interesting at this point to refer to Michael White’s concept of “multiple
authenticities” and Foucault’s concept of “self care” (White 2004b, Foucault 2005).
As discussed in Chapter Two, White encourages individuals to engage in multiple
“tellings and retellings” of their own stories in order to explore “multiple
authenticities” (White 2004b, 33-34). For White, authenticity is not an expression of
an inner, fixed truth, but is instead “a public and social achievement in which a
person’s preferred identity claims are acknowledged” (White 2004b, 34). This
creation of a “preferred identity claim” relates to Foucault’s notion of “self care” as
when a subject comes to find truth in relation to “care of oneself” (Foucault 2005, 2).
As discussed in Chapter Two, Foucault advocates a conscious “self-formation” in
which an individual “tr[ies] to work out, to transform one’s self and to attain a certain
mode of being” (Foucault quoted in Bernauer and Rasmussen 1988, 2). Foucault
saw artistic practices as a means of this conscious self-formation, and according to
Danaher, Schirato and Web (2000) “Foucault writes [that] the idea of aesthetics can
be used as a metaphor for the self, can provide a set of practices in and by which to
take care of the self” (163). In other words, “self care” is the subject’s conscious
formation of their own truth, and constant attendance to their life as a work of art.
Through showing the process of exploring my different versions of ‘Jo’ in Mind
Games, I fore-grounded this character’s search for authenticity not as an unearthing
of a truth that had always existed inside her character, but rather as the result of
creating a “preferred identity claim” and an act of “self care”. In her final speech, ‘Jo’
shares with the audience that she is “starting to reach out to people... talking to my
therapist, being kind to myself, trying not to judge myself by other people’s
standards...” (Mind Games script May 2010, 25-26). These statements are
describing ongoing actions, and processes that are continually being engaged in an
active manner. The final song Just One continues to emphasise this ongoing
process by advocating that individuals approach life “step by step” in the assertion
that:
With hands outstretched, you’re grabbing it all And it just weighs you down
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And I know you want to see it all at once But it’ll come back round
So why do you try to hold it in your head? Why try to keep it in your hand? And why are you trying to catch it in your heart – when all it can be is just one taste. (Mind Games script May 2010, 26)
In this way, ‘Jo’ presents her autonomous ethic of living at the end of the cabaret as
taking a “step by step” approach to life, focussing on one day at a time. In the song
lines “And once where only demons stood, there is a pathway through the wood” ‘Jo’
describes a pathway she sees in front of her indicating her direction of travel, rather
than stating she has reached her final destination (Mind Games script May 2010,
26).
Conclusion
The three findings within this study can be seen to express my multiple intentions
within the project.
The first finding expresses my intention as a cabaret artist to create an innovative
style of cabaret that balances elements of provocation and empathy. Finding two
expresses my own desire to over-come my self-stigma within the project. Finding
three expresses my intention to explore my own shifting versions of myself as I work
towards my own “preferred identity claim”.
These three findings can be seen to be games of truth that I played while creating
this cabaret. Within each of these games there is a different emphasis. Foucault
would describe these emphases as different sets of “trumps”. Foucault states:
We escaped then a domination of truth, not by playing a game that was a complete stranger to the game of truth, but in playing it otherwise or in playing another game, another set, other trumps in the game of truth. (Foucault quoted in Bernauer and Rasmussen 1998, 15)
Within these findings, the game of technical innovation emphasises the skilful use of
artistry, while the game of over-coming self-stigma values personal empowerment
and the game of “preferred identity claims” values a constant attendance to life as a
“work of art”. In viewing the findings of the work from these different perspectives I
have aimed to foreground my own multiple intentions and the way that these have
impacted on the work.
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Chapter Eight: Conclusion
“If I can just unravel my head and climb right out of my mind, then I’ll be fine” (Mind Games script May 2010, 5).
This research journey has involved an exploration or unravelling of my own thought
processes to examine the games within my mind. White describes narrative therapy
as a means for individuals to see their lives in new ways, and states that through
this process:
people suddenly find themselves interested in novel understandings of the events of their lives, curious about aspects of their lives that have been forsaken, fascinated with neglected territories of their identities, and, at times, awed by their own responses to the predicaments of their existence. (White 2007, 5-6)
In a similar way, this research project has allowed me to explore neglected
territories of my own identity and my own experience, often with unexpected
outcomes. As stated in Chapter One, this study has investigated ways to present
therapeutic concepts within the public domain focussing on the question: What are
the implications of applying White’s principles of narrative therapy to the creation of
a cabaret performance about depression and bipolar disorder? I explored this
question in reference to the following sub-questions:
• What is the benefit of applying White’s principles of narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret performance?
• How can the aesthetic forms of cabaret be harnessed within this process? • What research methods can be utilised to enact this process? • What are the tensions within this process, and how can these tensions be
managed? • What are the challenges of using an autoethnographic method within this
process and how can these be managed?
This conclusion will draw together my discussions of these questions with examples
from the Mind Games cabaret and will discuss the wider implications of this
research.
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In Chapter Two of this exegesis, White’s narrative therapy was described as a
process of re-authoring personal narratives as influenced by Foucault’s concepts of
truth. The principles behind narrative therapy are useful ways of playing games of
truth with personal narratives. A review of the form of cabaret, presented in Chapter
Four, described the highly performative nature of this form in relation to two types of
cabaret: personal cabaret and provocative cabaret. Personal cabarets draw the
audience into an intimate relationship with the performer and focus on personal
revelation, as shown in the highly personal cabarets of Queenie van der Zant. In
contrast, provocative cabaret creates a shifting dynamic between distance and
intimacy through the pleasing and teasing aspects of provocateurs (such as Tim
Minchin) and vamps (such as Meow Meow). Provocative cabaret also makes use of
parodic humour to please and tease its audience, from the highly polemic parody of
provocateur Eddie Perfect to the celebratory parody of vamp Paul Capsis.
By moving between emotionally connected intimacy and heightened, parodic
presentations, the Mind Games cabaret encouraged its audience to shift
perspectives, or to play games of truth, within the performance.
Chapter Two described the pathologisation of mental illness as discussed by
Foucault as one game of truth about mental illness. This pathologising viewpoint
was presented in the cabaret by the character of ‘Jolene’ who described the other
characters in the cabaret as “sick”, “strange” and “weak” (Mind Games script May
2010, 2-3). In Chapter Two, I related the pathologisation of mental illness to White’s
concept of spoiled identity and Goffman’s concepts of stigma and self-stigma. My
own experience of self-stigma was expressed by the character of ‘Jo’ in the cabaret
in scene five, where she is falling into depression but tries to deny this to the world
as she sings “I’m fine, just fine, thanks for asking but I’m coping okay” (Mind Games
script May 2010, 8-9).
White’s principles of narrative therapy are designed to address a sense of spoiled
identity, or self-stigma, through moving truth into a state of flux. In Chapter Two, the
performative terms of intimacy and distance were related to three of White’s
principles of narrative therapy: externalisation, an autonomous ethic of living and
rich descriptions.
Externalisation separates an individual’s problem from their own identity, and can be
seen in terms of the performative term of distancing. The character of ‘Jolene’ is an
externalisation of the inner critic inside an individual’s mind. ‘Jolene’ combined
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aspects of provocateur and vamp personas to express harsh criticism in a comic,
musical form and to show the inherent vulnerability of a mental construct. As the
cabaret progressed, ‘Jolene’ was disempowered and deconstructed. This mirrors
the process of narrative therapy in which an externalised problem is addressed and
can be viewed in new ways, and ultimately disempowered.
An autonomous ethic of living is an individual’s identification of their own core values
and beliefs. Through developing their sense of ethical substance an individual can
journey towards their own conscious self-formation, or in Foucault’s terms, take
“care of oneself” (Foucault 2005, 2). In Mind Games, ‘Jo’ is shown to journey
towards her own autonomous ethic of living through her encounters with other
characters who express their core values. This is shown in the character of ‘The
sock woman’ who expresses her core value of “acceptance” in the statement: “this
sadness is part of who I am, and is not going to be fixed by any cover up!” (Mind
Games script May 2010, 18). Scenes exploring the principle of an autonomous
ethic of living were performed in the emotionally connected style of personal cabaret
in order to create a strong sense of intimacy with the audience.
The principle of rich descriptions encourages individuals to view their narratives as
multi-faceted, “multi-purposed and “multilayered” (White 2004b, 32). During the
cabaret ‘Jo’ is presented in many different performance styles, from heightened
realism to stand-up comedy and confrontational parodies of rap and punk music.
These contrasts show ‘Jo’ exploring her multiple sides and playing games of truth
with her own identity. In addition, some of the interviewee characters were
presented in heightened parodic characterisations that transitioned to more
empathetic portrayals. This movement from distance to intimacy encouraged
audience members to change their attitudes towards the characters within the
scene, creating a sense of the truth in flux. By shifting the perspective on these
characters within the same scene, multi-faceted views of one situation were
expressed, creating the effect of a rich description.
Within this study, autoethnography has provided a method for allowing my own
reflection to impact on the development of the work and for an in-depth exploration
of my own personal story. Practice-led research and action research have facilitated
a productive dialogue between theory and practice, allowing me to balance intuition
and intellect, intimacy and distance within many cycles of development. The
practice-led research methodology has facilitated a “dialogic relationship” between
theory and practice (Barrett 2006, 5). This dialogic relationship has allowed for
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creative, innovative and unexpected solutions to emerge from within the practice
itself.
On reflection, I feel that the ethical concerns, tensions and challenges of the
research project have enriched the theoretical and creative outcomes.
Ethical considerations within this research project led me to make strong links with
the interviewees, and to explore new ways to present their stories. My personal
links with interviewees helped me to feel more confident in presenting their work,
and allowed interviewees the opportunity to be involved in the creative development
of the cabaret. Explorations of the ethical concerns of verbatim and documentary
theatre led me to explore Rokem’s concept of witnessing. I incorporated Rokem’s
concept of the performing witness in order to heighten the sense of theatricalisation
(or constructed truth) in the cabaret.
In Chapter Three, I described two conflicting aims within the study: to create a
provocative cabaret; and to create an empathetic, verbatim cabaret. The
identification of this central tension within the research led me on a search for ways
to blend and contrast these elements within a cabaret performance. By transitioning
between the performative realms of intimacy and distance within the cabaret I was
able to balance these two aims within the study as I was constantly shifting
perspectives in the performance. In addition, the application of externalisation within
the performance facilitated the creation of ‘Jolene’: a provocateur and a vamp, a
character able to please and tease the audience who draws attention to the fragility
of mental constructs.
Reflection on the presentation of a fixed truth within the cabaret generated an
awareness of my own desire to address self-stigma within the cabaret. This process
drew my attention to the way the performance reflected the values within my own
narrative, developing my awareness of my own games of truth.
My greatest personal challenge in this research project was in telling my own story.
The autoethnographic methodology helped me to identify my own reticence to tell
my story as a sense of self-stigma. This identification helped me to reveal more of
my own narrative within the Mind Games cabaret. Through performing my story in
different performance styles, I was able to perform different versions of my identity,
or to ‘try on’ different versions of myself.
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This research journey began with a desire to discuss depression and bipolar
disorder through the stories of others, and returned to my own story as the frame for
the research. The final cabaret presented my own story in relation to other people’s
stories and portrayed ‘Jo’ exploring various games of truth as she moved towards
her own autonomous ethic of living. Following White’s concept of multiple
authenticities, each individual expression of truth can be part of a constantly shifting
rich description. Despite presenting a truth at the end of the cabaret ‘Jo’ affirms that
“All it can be is just one taste” (Mind Games script May 2010, 26). This exegesis has
outlined the games of truth that I played in my journey to create this cabaret, and
has explored the many shifting narratives that have informed this journey.
As discussed in Chapter Seven, the three inter-related findings of the study present
different games of truth in themselves. The first finding is that by applying
techniques of narrative therapy to the development of a cabaret performance I was
able to present both provocative and empathetic elements within the performance.
The second finding of the study is that my own desire for self-empowerment as a
performing-witness in the study led to the presentation of a fixed truth at the end of
the cabaret. The third finding of the study is that the truth presented at the end of the
cabaret is one version of multiple authenticities and the expression of a “preferred
identity claim”. These three findings can be seen to be a game of truth in which I
emphasise different sets of trumps (to use Foucault’s term). These trumps are skilful
artistry, personal empowerment and attendance to life as a work of art.
This research has provided a model for inter-disciplinary performance-led research
and demonstrates the benefit of embracing ethical, epistemological and personal
challenges within an autoethnographic performance project.
As an inter-disciplinary study, this research project identified a number of stylistic
features of contemporary cabaret performance and applied these to the illustration
of therapeutic principles. The exploration of personal and provocative cabaret
involved both historical and theoretical examination of these forms in order to
explore the forms’ epistemological underpinnings. In order to performatively illustrate
principles of narrative therapy, I also re-framed White’s principles in the performative
terms of distance and intimacy. The performative terms of distance and intimacy
provided a bridging point between the two disciplines and created a sense of clarity
in the research project. This process of re-framing concepts in performative or
therapeutic terms involved an interrogation of the terms and underlying
[162]
epistemologies, and resulted in the discovery of practical ways to connect two
separate disciplines.
This project points to the value of embracing challenges within the research in order
to enrich the project’s outcomes. More specifically, this project demonstrates the
value of action-led processes of action and critical reflection within an
autoethnographic performance project. Exploration of ethical concerns within the
project allowed interviewees to have a greater impact on the creative development
and encouraged innovation in my performative treatment of verbatim material. The
challenge of clarifying a clear epistemological position for the research, led me to
explore the theoretical framework supporting different therapeutic approaches. This
reflective process also allowed me to articulate that White’ s narrative therapy had
become a part of my own thinking and creative processes, and subsequently to
articulate the ways it had informed the performance work. I found that the most
difficult aspect of this research project was the challenge to reveal my own
experiences with depression. It was this aspect that was arguably the most valuable
of the project. My own struggle with self-revelation throughout all three cycles of the
project pointed to my own sense of self-stigma. An examination of my own personal
tensions and struggles within the process greatly informed and enriched my artistic
process, and represented my own autoethnographic journey within the project. This
aspect of the research points to the value of creative work as an avenue for
personal reflection and the revelation of hidden agendas. The major implication of
applying White’s principles of narrative therapy to the creation of cabaret
performance was that this process required an examination and conscious
presentation of my own mental processes. By applying White’s principles of
narrative therapy to the creation of a cabaret performance, I have been actively
involved in performing and articulating different games of truth.
[163]
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Appendices
Appendix One on CD ROM:
1.1 Personal Journals (2008, 2009 and 2010)
1.2 Ethical Clearance Information
1.3 Personal Interviews
1.4 Audience Feedback
1.5 Program Notes (2008, 2009 and 2010)
1.6 Mind Games script May 2010
1.7 Personal thank-you letter
1.8 Analysis of audience feedback
1.9 Collaborators and the Research Cycles
1.10 Confirmation Document (2009)
1.11 Framing Document (2010)
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Appendix Two on DVD:
2.1 Work-in-progress showing 2008
2.2 Audience Feedback 2008
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Appendix Three on DVD:
3.1 Work-in-progress showing 2009
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Appendix Four on DVD:
4.1 Performance of the Mind Games cabaret, May 2010