Affect and the Holed Spectator: Ecology of Transfers

Abstract

The chapter initially traces the different ways in which we can look at the topic of David Greig’s theatre and spectatorship including Greig’s Brechtian engagement, Greig’s interest in involving actors and local so-called real people in shows, Greig’s ideas on the connection between the work produced and the expected audience of that work, Greig’s special attachment to Scottish audiences, his interest in young audiences and his experiments in social media. Using affect theory, the chapter defines the term holed spectator and situates this figure in an ecology of transfers which includes the playwright, the plays, the staging of the plays and the world itself, unveiling a dance across holed entities. Greig understands this dance as a set of transfers between zāhir (the concrete) and bātin (the inconcrete), which might eventually illuminate the inexistent as part of the real.