Victorian College of the Arts - Theses
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ItemCommitment, Courage, & Caution: On the playwriting practicability of Alain Badiou’s materialist dialectic( 2022)Drawing on Alain Badiou’s theory of the ethic of truths and objective phenomenology—part of what he calls the materialist dialectic—this thesis develops a dramaturgical practice for playwriting. This results in the active maxims of ‘commitment’, ‘courage’, and ‘caution’. To elucidate their utility, I circulate between the philosophical and the personal, the generic and the specific, and between inaesthetics and aesthetics. From my own education in what theatre and playwriting are and can be, I outline my personal history and position my own experiences within a broader socio-cultural context. I then explore Badiou’s philosophy itself, which becomes a theoretical foundation for my endeavours. I illustrate how inaesthetics and objective phenomenology serve as an intervention into my own thinking and practices. Finally, I combine the two in order to analyse others’ artistic works, as well as participate in this situation as a writer. I show how Summer of the 17th Doll by Ray Lawler operates as a foundational text to the contemporary state of Australian theatre, concluding that this situation is one saturated by the aesthetic of naturalism. I outline my journey from passive spectator to active participant of the theatre community, summarised as ‘commitment’. I then analyse the work of Sisters Grimm, in particular Summertime in the Garden of Eden, Calpurnia Descending and Lilith: The Jungle Girl. These works utilise the dominant conventions of naturalism, while also finding elements of theatre to invert through camp and queer practices, embodying the ‘for all’ nature of a truth procedure. I consider my own play that similarly undermines and relies upon conventions of naturalism, in this case linearity and time, the work For Love nor Money. In the next section, I analyse the work of Nakkiah Lui, in particular Black is the New White, to understand how to utilise naturalism as a more radical conventional form in a contemporary setting. I point to the way in which continuing within a situation demonstrates ‘courage’. I write a play that seeks to uphold these characteristics, Dirt. Finally, I examine the halting points in naturalism by studying the work of Zoey Dawson: The Unspoken Word is Joe, Conviction, and Australian Realness. I point to the limits of artistic sequences and show that, while the ‘state’ of theatre is saturated by naturalism, theatre is an infinite set of possibilities. I use this to ‘caution’ against any discourse or practice that seeks to exhaust itself in naming and evaluating every example of an artistic form. My final play, Cavemxn, accordingly incorporates elements of both naturalism and other theatrical styles. In conclusion, I articulate how my journey through contemporary playwriting culture, guided by Badiou’s philosophy, serves a practical purpose. I argue that his concept of truths provides a generic utility for an artist as an ethical framework. I illustrate the ways in which a playwright might be or become an active subject in their own specific situation — how to commit, to have courage, and be cautious.