„This is an Anti-War Play“ – Artistic Approaches to War in »Plastic Heroes« (Ariel Doron) and »Count to One« (Yase Tamam)

Abstract

There is a growing awareness of the relevance of puppet theatre to performance studies, but little attention has been paid to object and material theatre as part of contemporary theatre. In an attempt to open up the field of performance studies to the concept of ‘materiality’, the usage of everyday objects and materials in performances two productions, which both have war as a central topic, shall be studied: Ariel Dorons object theatre production Plastic Heroes (playing war with toy soldiers) and Yase Tamams material theatre production Count To One (building stories out of clay). The two productions are both analysed from two angles: firstly the specific usage of the objects/ material and how their specific materiality adds to the artistic approach to war and similar threat scenarios; secondly the question how visible manipulated object or material theatre (i.e. when the human performer is visible on stage) contributes to possible depictions of human beings as well as non-human entities that are affected by war.