Sound and Sense in Contemporary Theatre

“An impressive and important study that undertakes a vitally needed critical analysis of the staging of madness from the perspective of sound. Tomkinson investigates representational frameworks of madness in contemporary theatre, asking how they inform an audience’s ways of listening. The book invites artists and scholars to consider very carefully the representational politics that permeate soundscapes and, more broadly, the powerful role acousmatic sound plays in shaping the popular imagination with regard to madness.” — Natalie Álvarez, Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University This book is among the first to consider the subject of mad auralities in theatre and performance, asking: what does it mean to hear and listen madly? Drawing widely upon mad studies, critical disability studies, theatre studies, sound studies, queer studies, and critical race theory, it seeks to explore the theatrical relationship between sound and mental health differences by examining a range of case studies in which audience members are immersed in auditory simulations of madness. Ultimately, however, this critical study investigates the shortcomings of simulation as a representational practice, in keeping with the critical tradition of disability studies and mad studies. Matthew Tomkinson is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies (CENES) at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from UBC, where he studies sound within disability arts cultures. His postdoctoral research examines multimedia adaptations of Daniel Paul Schreber’s memoirs.