ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the importance of place in recovery-engaged performance practice. Specifically, it highlights the influence of global and local contexts on lived experiences of addiction and recovery which are subsequently revealed and reimagined thorough performance activity. First, an analysis of Sonya Hale’s Like Butterflies illustrates how a play written by a person in recovery can subvert affective associations with place to evoke more compassionate perspectives on underrepresented narratives involving female drug users and street dwellers. It highlights the inconsistencies of international movements, such as #MeToo, and critically reflects on the biopolitical position of addicts as deviant or dangerous. Second, encounters during an Open House event hosted by Outside Edge Theatre are shared to observe how place functions as a creative hub for recovery community. Ideas of home and dwelling are extended to examine how recovery arts can inhabit spaces in ways that generate atmospheres of recovery. It suggests that place, as always temporary, might be transported through recovery-engaged creative practices.
