Abstract

In Living a Feminist Life, Sara Ahmed explains that precarity is akin to a vase on the mantelpiece. If it were pushed even slightly, it would fall off the edge. Existence on that edge, Ahmed explains, is what we allude to when we discuss precarious populations. Patriarchy, racism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia are violent forces. They threaten to push us over the edge. Queer performance often begins in this in-between state on the mantelpiece, not quite fallen, not quite stable, negotiating, and straddling a balance between holding on to a fragile state and falling off the mantle entirely. In this article, I analyze the Queer Pride Inside Cabaret (June 2020), the first official partnership between Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the largest and longest running queer theatre in the world, and the CBC, a Canadian federal Crown corporation and national public broadcaster. In considering the mainstream producers and the radical queer artists showcased, I refuse a simplistic antinormative/normative binary in queer performance in Canada and make space for accessing resources from the mainstream, while rejecting inequitable systems of oppression. If queer theatre is intended to break down ingrained static and naturalized assumptions of everyday practices, how do we understand queer performance through contradictions and incoherence? Can we simultaneously fuck the system and accept our complicity within it? Complicating the unique and diverse ways artists opt-in and out of mainstream queer presence, this article looks at creative practices that challenge and promote continuing legacies and failures of queer performance in Canada.

摘要

在《过女权主义生活》一书中，萨拉·艾哈迈德解释说，不稳定就像壁炉架上的花瓶。只要轻轻一推，它就会从边缘掉下来。艾哈迈德解释说，当我们讨论不稳定的人口时，我们所提到的就是处于这种边缘的存在。父权制、种族主义、体能歧视、同性恋恐惧症和跨性别者恐惧症都是暴力力量。他们威胁要把我们推到悬崖边。酷儿表演通常始于壁炉架上的这种中间状态，没有完全堕落，也不太稳定，在保持脆弱状态和完全脱离地幔之间进行谈判和平衡。在这篇文章中，我分析了歌舞表演中的酷儿自豪感（2020 年 6 月），世界上最大、运营时间最长的酷儿剧院 Buddies in Bad Times Theatre 与加拿大联邦皇家公司和国家公共广播公司 CBC 之间的首次正式合作。在考虑主流制作人和所展示的激进酷儿艺术家时，我拒绝加拿大酷儿表演中简单化的反规范/规范二元论，并为从主流获取资源提供空间，同时拒绝不公平的压迫制度。如果酷儿戏剧的目的是打破日常实践中根深蒂固的静态和自然化假设，那么我们如何通过矛盾和不连贯来理解酷儿表演？我们能否在操弄这个系统的同时，接受我们在其中的共谋？让艺术家选择加入和退出主流酷儿存在的独特和多样化的方式变得复杂化，