07

The Table Read


The Table Read is a social performance of a first reading of a script (aka a table read). Members of the audience are invited to take part in it as actors. The work is cite specific in relation to the developing area where the venue is. It questions what it means to build a community and its culture at Södra Änggården and neighborhoods alike. The script is titled “Significant Otherness” --- taken from the subtitle of one of Donna Haraway’s most influential essays, The Companion Species Manifesto.

Prior to the performance, I invited three designer friends to read for three of the roles in the script. In a workshop I handed them over the “idiotic methodology,” with the instruction that we can write notes on the script during the performance.

The script is designed in a way in which every scene starts in The Room (a space outlined with tape on the floor), e.g. ‘THE ROOM is a church.’ There is a character named Oneself, the person casted for this role is every person from the audience that comes to see the show. Script reads: ‘THE ROOM is a church. ONESELF enters THE ROOM.’

The playbill which is handed out to the audience has a section for notes. There are pencils available.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exhibited at Vulkano, Gothenburg, 2022

Documentation by Hanna Antonsson and Charlie Vinces

Documentation in notes by the audience