CIVILITY

Abstract

The performance 'Civility', happening in the frame of the festival Indiscipline in the Casino in Knokke, is an imageless play. Intending to alter the traditional dominance of sight in perceptual hierarchies, a shift in the attention paradigm occurs. Spectators, comfortably seated in velvet chairs, adopt the role of sound voyeurs, orienting themselves amidst this off-screen drama. The narrative centers around a text titled 'La découverte' from Catherine Robbe-Grillet's collection of short stories 'Cérémonie de femmes.' Within this text, here narrated by a female’s voice, a female friend of the author escorts her into a New York City gay club. In the midst of this environment, where they stand as the sole women amidst a predominantly male crowd, they encounter a peculiar dynamic. They become unwitting spectators to an unfolding scene, their presence unintentionally turning them into observers in an environment not meant for their scrutiny.