Who’s game? Embodied play in theatre and sport

This article offers some preliminary suggestions of where perceived boundaries usually drawn between theatre and sport may be porous and malleable, with the individual performing body serving as the source point of complex action and exchange. By means of an intertextual approach, this article therefore starts to give account of the dynamic relationships between spontaneity, subjectivity, control and conditioning that exist in both sport and theatre. Particular attention is paid to those forms of theatre and sport in which indeterminacy plays a key role. Secondary sources have been selected in which the personal performing body – acknowledged as being able to write its own script and take action through embodied play – is seen to invite risk, action and transformation. The discussion begins with a focus on Theatresports™, as an example of a purposeful converging of key characteristics from both theatre and sport. Further examples from physical theatre, wrestling and boxing highlight the complex relationship between liberation and restraint through play. This article forms the preliminary phase of a proposed extended research project with the same title: it thus aims to offer some of the key observations that have arisen so far and which invite deeper investigation.