Facing Doubles: Addressing “a vestigial trace…”

Talk on the uncanny and theatre by Dr. Mischa Twitchin.

Theatre simulates what is usually thought of in terms of what is life-like, ephemeral, and realistic. This is perhaps most evident in the comparison between the poetics of the face and the mask.

Although Freud’s own understanding of theatre meant that he did not regard it as a medium of and for an experience of the uncanny, the sense of what oscillates between the living and the dead has, nonetheless, fascinated many theatre artists. How might the uncanny offer a way to understand the mimetic arts of theatre and masquerade? And, beyond the metaphorical “theatre” to which Freud (like so many theorists) appeals, how might this relate to the founder of psycho-analysis’ aversion to the telephone?

Dr Mischa Twitchin is a lecturer in the Theatre and Performance Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. His book, The Theatre of Death – the Uncanny in Mimesis: Tadeusz Kantor, Aby Warburg and an Iconology of the Actor is published by Palgrave Macmillan in their Performance Philosophy series; and examples of his performance- and essay-films can be seen on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user13124826/videos.