The idea of waiting is one that seems so normal as we do it all the time. However, in our performance we are wanting to make strange of the idea. Make people really think about the idea of waiting and the passing of time and what this does to them and the environment around them. After doing audience research, we have discovered many normal and rational reasons for waiting. Its is a normal thing that people do on a daily basis. So how does this become a performance?

In Marc Auge’s ‘Prologue of non-places’ he describes the behaviour of a man and what he does as he arrives at an airport and leaves on the plane. These are normal behaviours that people do all of the time. However, he describes them in a way that becomes a performance in itself. Everyday life, no matter how mundane and boring can become a form of performance. These activities can easily become a performance and this is something we want to incorporate into ‘The Waiting Room’.

For example, when someone is comforting another person it would not necessarily be seen as a performance, but within our performance it will be. Also,in Auge’s chapter he talks about the man waiting, “he had nothing to do but wait for the sequence of events” (1995, p.2-3). In a sense, this is what our audience/participants are doing throughout the performance. They are waiting for the performance to unfold so they can stop waiting.

References-

Auge, Marc, 1995, Non Places- An Introduction to the Anthropology of Supermodernity. London and New York, Verso.