Aesthetic distance as deus ex machina when the performer’s trauma is (not quite/quiet)

Abstract

This article employs Practice as Research (PaR) as a paradigm to explicate the specialised research insights produced during the theatre-making process of devising and performing ReTAGS’ Antigone (not quite/quiet). I revisit Sophocles’ original Antigone, reading the circumstances of the titular character alongside the contemporary reality of postapartheid South Africa. I further employ the register of tragedy to develop my earlier conception of mbokodofication and interrogate the transgressive potential of aesthetic distance to mitigate retraumatization in performance and maintain the emotional hygiene of the performer.