ABSTRACT
There is a significant shared moment between the philosophical and prosaic–poetic writings of Hélène Cixous and the theatrical praxis of Ariane Mnouchkine at Théâtre du Soleil: a fundamental and radical openness towards the ‘other’ and the future. This makes both their individual and collaborative works a promising starting point for a discussion of the ethical–aesthetical as well as the transformative potential of performance philosophy. This article centres on the notion of ‘openness’ as common ground between Cixous’ writings and Mnouchkine’s theatrical praxis at the Théâtre du Soleil. Cixous’ texts are characterized by a radical openness, challenging the idea of a singular authorship – they have no clear beginning or end, they cannot be attributed to any particular literary or theoretical genre and they encourage the reader to actively interact with the texts. Similarly, the stage productions of the Soleil engage in an openness by escaping the textual closure and completion typical for traditional plays. Investigating how the mentioned openness manifests itself in both Cixous’ writings and Mnouchkine’s understanding of theatre will involve investigating the relationship between text and performance. What does it mean to talk of a “performative” text? What is the role of text/language for performance?
