Theatrical Affordances to Stage the Perceived-Experienced Reality of People with Dementia: Florian Zeller’s Dramaturgy of Porosity in The Father

Abstract

This article investigates how French playwright Florian Zeller positions his writing with respect to realism in his play The Father (Le Père, 2012) and what his dramaturgy of porosity adds to the representation of dementia in contemporary theatre. Through an analysis of the text of The Father and its West End theatre production (2015), this article demonstrates the ways in which this play challenges the dominant perspective in theatre that depicts dementia from the perspective of the outsiders – i.e., those who do not have dementia. On stage, the perceived reality of persons living with dementia has often been portrayed as an illusion, in contrast to the ‘true’ reality perceived by neurotypical people. This article examines how Zeller’s dramaturgy of porosity, by making the audience see the reality from the perspective of the protagonist living with dementia, generates encounters with alternative ways of perceiving and relating to the world. While drawing on theoretical discussions on neurodivergent aesthetics, this paper argues that contemporary theatre can evoke divergent consciousnesses of persons with dementia by using dramaturgical and theatrical strategies.

Keywords:

• Florian Zeller
• dramaturgy of porosity
• dementia
• disorientation
• perceived-experienced reality
• neurodivergent aesthetics

Disclosure Statement

 

Notes

1. For historical genealogy and development of dementia research on personhood, see Step-han Katz and Annette Leibing, ‘“Lost in Time Like Tears in Rain”: Critical Perspec-tives on Personhood and Dementia’, Criti-cal Dementia Studies: An Introduction, eds. Richard Ward and Linn J. Sandberg (New York: Routledge, 2023), 57-71.

2. See Marlene Goldman, Forgotten: Narratives of Age-Related Demen-tia and Alzheimer’s Disease in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017) and Aagje Swinnen and Mark Schweda, eds., Pop-ularizing Dementia: Public Expressions and Representations of Forgetfulness, (Verlag: Transcript, 2015).

3. For instance, Simon Russell Beale prepared to play Lear by researching Lewy body dementia for the 2014 National Theatre production of King Lear.

4. See Marianne L.N. Johansson, ‘The Experience and Management of Temporality in Five Cases of Dementia’, Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy 8, no. 2 (2001): 85-95; Mohamad El Haj and Dimitrios Kapogiannis, ‘Time Distortion in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Systematic Review adn Theoretical Integration’, NPJ Aging and Mechanisms of Disease 2, no. 1 (2016): 1-5; Shiromaru-Sugimoto, Azusa, et al. ‘The Subjective Perception of Past, Present, and Future Time in Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease: A Qualitative Study’, Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment 14 (2018): 3185-3192.

5. Linda Örulv, ‘Placing the Place and Placing Oneself Within It: (Dis)orientation and (Dis)continuity in Dementia’, Dementia 9, no.1 (2010): 21-44.

6. Richard Ward and Linn J. Sandberg, ‘Thinking Back and Looking Ahead: Coordinates for Critical Methodologies in Dementia Studies’, Criti-cal Dementia Studies: An Introduction, eds. Richard Ward and Linn J. Sandberg (New York: Routle-dge, 2023), 263-277 (268).

7. Morgan L. Batch, The Loss of Small White Clouds: Dementia in Contemporary Performance. PhD diss., Queensland University of Technology, 2019, 84.

8. In Macdonald’s 2015 production, Nicholas Gleaves played Pierre; Jim Sturgeon and Rebecca Charles played the characters named Man and Woman; and Kirsty Oswald played Laura.

9. Leon J. Hilton, ‘“The Bright Shapes Were Going”: Disability, Neurodivergence, and Theatrical Form in Elevator Repair Serv-ice’s The Sound and the Fury’, Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 12, no. 2 (2018): 163-83.

10. Megan Johnson, ‘Integrating Accessi-bility and Aesthetics Onstage in Neworld Theatre’s King Arth-ur’s Night’, Cana-dian Theatre Review 176 (2018): 102-106.

11. Nicola Shaughnessy, ‘Imagining Otherwise: Autism, Neuroaesthe-tics and Contemporary Performance’, Interdis-ciplinary Science Review 38, no. 4 (2013): 321-34 (321).

12. Ginny Russel, ‘Critiq-ues of the Neurodiver-sity Movement’, in Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Move-ment: Stories from the Frontline, ed. Steven K. Kapp (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2020), 287-303 (293).

13. Sue M. Paul, ‘Semantics: The Case for ‘Neurodiversity’ vs ‘Dementia’’, The Dem-entia Queen, Septem-ber 19, 2015, https://thedementiaqueen.com/semantics-the-case-for-neurodiversity-vs-dementia/ (accessed March 14, 2023).

14. Carol Thomas and Christine Milligan, ‘Dementia, Disability Rights and Disablism: Understanding the Social Position of People Living with Dementia’, Disability & Society 33, no.1 (2018): 115-31 (116).

15. For a critique of the lack of dementia activism and recent emergence of dementia activism, see Ruth Barlett, ‘The Emergent Modes of Dementia Activism’, Ageing and Society 34, no. 4 (2014): 623-44.

16. Tom Shakespeare, Hannah Zeilig, and Peter Mittler, ‘Rights in Mind: Thinking Diff-erently About Demen-tia and Disability’, Dementia 18, no.3 (2019): 1075-88 (1076).

17. Linda Örulv, ‘Neurodiversity and Dementia: Pitfalls, Possibilities, and Some Personal Notes’, Critical Dementia Studiees: An Introduction, eds. Richard Ward and Linn J. Sandberg (New York: Routledge, 2023), 247-262, (248).

18. Hilton, ‘Disability, Neurodivergence, and Theatrical Form’, 166.

19. Carrie Sandahl, ‘Con-sidering Disability: Disability Phenomen-ology’s Role in Revol-utionizing Theatrical Space’, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 16, no.2 (2002): 17-32.

20. For further information on the play and the team, see the website of Cracked: New Light on Dementia, https://crackedondementia.ca (accessed February 7, 2023).

21. For further information on the play and the team, see Gail J. Mitchell, Christine Jonas-Simpson, and Vrenia Ivonoffski, ‘Research-Based Theatre: The Making of I’m Still Here!’, Nursing Science Qua-rterly 19, no.3 (2006): 198-206.

22. Michael Mangan, Sta-ging Ageing: Theater, Performance and the Narrative of Decline (Chicago: Intellect, 2013).

23. Julia Henderson, ‘Dra-maturgy of Assistance: Performing with Dem-entia or Age-Related Memory Loss’, Resear-ch in Drama Educa-tion: the Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 24, no.1 (2019): 72-89 (73).

24. Janet Gibson, Dem-entia, Narrative and Performance: Staging Reality, Reimagining Identities (Cham: Spr-inger Nature, 2020), 6.

25. See Holly Williams, ‘The Father, Tricycle Theatre, Review: A Heartbreaking Portrayal of Old Age’, Independent, May 14, 2015, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/the-father-tricycle-theatre-review-a-heartbreaking-portrayal-of-old-age-10248681.html (accessed March 14, 2023); Michael Bill-ington, ‘The Father Review – Ingenious Alzheimer’s Drama With Echoes of Lear’, Guardian, October 6, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/oct/06/the-father-review-alzheimer-s-kenneth-cranham-claire-skinner-florian-zeller (accessed March 14, 2023).

26. See Batch, The Loss of Small White Clouds, 65-69. She discusses how ‘the generational discourse’ is used in performances on dementia and provides examples.

27. Ibid., 67.

28. Pamela Das, ‘Theatre: A Relentless Journey: Life with Dementia’, The Lancet 386.10006 (2015): 1813-14, (1813).

29. Gibson, Dementia, Narrative and Performance, 133.

30. Elinor Fuchs, ‘Last Spring, Dementia Made it to Broadway! Part 2’, The Theatre Times, February 4, 2017. https://thetheatretimes.com/last-spring-dementia-made-broadway/ (accessed March 14, 2023).

31. 박은영 (Eunyoung Park), ‘플로리앙 젤레르의 작품에 나타난 노년과 상실 - [아버지] , [어머니] 를 대상으로 (Old Age and Loss as Shown in Florian Zeller’s Plays - Focusing on The Father and The Mother)’, 세계문학비교연구 (The Comparative Study of World Literature) 73 (2020): 255-274 (255).

32. Rachel Donadio, ‘The Next Playwright to Know? Florian Zeller, From France to Broadway in a Big, Busy Leap’, The New York Times. March 31, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/theater/florian-zeller-a-busy-french-playwright-makes-his-american-debut-on-broadway.html (accessed March 14, 2023).

33. Dominic Glynn, ‘Yas-mina Reza and Florian Zeller: The Art of Success’, in Contem-porary European Play-wrights, eds. Maria M. Delgado, Bryce Lease and Dan Rebellato (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), 261-276 (269).

34. Shaughnessy, ‘Imagining Otherwise’, 321.

35. Ibid., 322.

36. Ibid., 321.

37. Hilton, ‘Disability, Neurodivergence, and Theatrical Form’, 180.

38. Heunjung Lee, ‘A Cross Time through Dementia’, University of Alberta Education and Research Archive (ERA), 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-lyzh-1910.

39. Das, ‘A Relentless Journey’, 1813.

40. Florian Zeller, The Mother and The Father (London; Faber and Faber, 2015), 96.

41. Hilton, ‘Disability, Neurodivergence, and Theatrical Form’, 165.

42. Ibid.

43. Ibid., 180.

44. Zeller, The Mother and The Father, 101.

45. Das, ‘A Relentless Journey’, 1813.

46. Paula Benson, ‘The Deliberately Disorien-ting Décor The Father’, Film and Furniture, March 15, 2021. https://filmandfurniture.com/2021/03/the-deliberately-disorientating-decor-of-the-father/ (accessed March 14, 2023).

47. Lyn Gardner, The Father ‘Five-Star Review – A Savagely Honest Study of Dementia’, Guar-dian, October 23, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/oct/23/the-father-review-ustinov-theatre-royal-bath-florian-zeller (accessed March 14, 2023).

48. Ryan Gilbey, ‘Florian Zeller on The Father: Anthony Hopkins Took Me in His Arms. We Knew the Miracle Had Happened’, Guardian, March 4, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/mar/04/florian-zeller-father-anthony-hopkins-miracle-olivia-colman (accessed March 14, 2023).

49. Laura Cappelle, ‘With ‘The Father’ a Play-wright Pivots to the Screen’, The New York Times, February 25, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/movies/florian-zeller-the-father-movie.html (accessed March 14, 2023).

50. Susannah Clapp, ‘The Father Review – Obsessiveness and Loss Subtly Conjured’, Guardian, October 26, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/oct/26/the-father-review-kenneth-cranham-florian-zeller-ustinov-theatre-royal-bath Accessed March 27, 2023.

51. Alex Ritman, ‘How ‘The Father’ Director Crafted an ‘Immersive Experience’ to Explore Dementia’, The Holly-wood Reporter, March 2, 2021. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/how-the-father-explored-the-painful-descent-into-dementia-4138634/ Accessed August 18, 2022.

52. By ‘dementia justice’, I refer to a social justice perspective and movement that ‘contextu-alize[s] dementia as a human rights issue with a broad focus on social justice, equality, non-discrimination, autonomy, dignity, social inclusion, and participation and solidarity’. Suzanne Cahill, Dementia and Human Rights (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2018), 21.

53. Liam Jarvis, ‘Theatre, Appification and VR Apps: Disability Sim-ulations as an Interven-tion in “Affective Realism”’, Theatres of Contagion: Transmitt-ing Early Modern to Contemporary Perfor-mance, ed. Fintan Walsh. (London: Met-huen Drama Blooms-bury Publishing, 2020), 186-201.

54. Petra Kuppers, ‘Diver-sity: Disability’. Art Journal 75, no.1 (2016): 93-97 (93).

55. Shaughnessy, ‘Imagining Otherwise’, 321.

56. Dominic Cavendish, ‘The Father, Wynd-ham’s Theatre, Review: An Unqualified Triumph’, The Telegraph, October 6, 2015. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/the-father--wyndham-theatre--review---/; Holly Williams, ‘The Father, Tricycle Theatre, Review: A Heartbreaking Portrayal of Old Age’, Independent, May 14, 2015.

57. Batch, The Loss of Small White Clouds, 238.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid., 165.

60. Ibid., 236.

61. Shaughnessy, ‘Imagining Otherwise’, 321.

62. Henderson, ‘Dramaturgy of Assis-tance’, 72.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Doctoral Fellowship 2020-2021].

Notes on contributors

Heunjung Lee

Heunjung Lee is a PhD Candidate in Performance Studies and an instructor in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta. Bridging Performance Studies, Age Studies, and Critical Disability Studies, her research, funded by (SSHRC), titled Performing (Ab)normal: Reframing Ageing, Dementia, and Temporality (2023), investigates normative ideas of ageing and the aged bodymind. The research offers an inclusive account for altered perceptions of time and reality among persons with dementia. Her works on theatre and ageing/dementia have been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Theatre Research in Canada (TRiC) and The European Journal of Experiments: Futures and Fantasies of Old Age (2023).