Reminiscence Theatre 13-11-08

"At the end of the 20th century history is not what it was"

Kershew believes this, I agree with him to a certain extent. In this weeks lecture we came to realise that Kershew's belief about history is very much about (Heritage, Issues/Events, the shift from Post Modernism to Modernism, not looking at things in a linear but more in a singular way. We also came to realise that we look at history in a fragmented way, as we negotiate different accounts of history also looking at multiple histories.
In this case history works very well for Reminiscence Theatre as it manages to capture the personal views of a particular time but also the creativity of making history what it was not, the four factors that help to create this type of theatre are: Heritage, Nostalgia, Reminiscence, and Memory. Molly asked us in groups of 4 to 5 people to come up with our own meanings of these words, and how they can link to performance. My group had to think about Heritage, we thought heritage relates to "Who you are?" personal background such as family roots, established buildings, national owned heritage and inherited value. Another group had to define Memory they thought about; the primary view of a person, human senses the trigger of memory, suppressed memory, fact/fiction, and collective memory. Nostalgia group came up with; the emotional recall that generates emotion, it could be negative or positive. Finally the reminiscence group thought about the reminiscence of the past with a friend, dreamy and wish full world, positive and happy times and the freedom to make a choice about reminiscing.

Kershew also believes "Performance of Heritage, Performance of Identity, and Celebration of the past" (i.e the London Blitz)

"In Performance memory is a Political Act" I agree with this because it brings about the debate of ownership, making up a story for effect, the truth of the story is played with, the freedom of editing, the storyteller's vulnerability, exposure, misinterpretation and how much should be told.


On the other hand memory in performance can also be therapeutic, as it helps the storyteller to diffuse a personal remorse from the story, i.e Emily's experience, can also become a gift exchange honouring the audience with a personal story, strengthens community and unity of people, builds up memory ability of the brain but also can manipulate the audience into a certain attitude about i.e old people.