THE INTIMATE CRITIC: THE RELATIONSHIPS, LABOURS AND INHERITANCES OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE CRITICS IN ARCHIPELAGIC SOUTHEAST ASIA

With intimacy as a heuristic, I explore the structure of interpersonal relationships that undergird performance criticism in the Southeast Asian archipelago (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines), and how the syncretic practices of the archipelagic critic can offer us new insight into and possibilities for criticism. I identify how these critical intimacies are embodied through three avatars that draw from local theory-making and doing. Firstly, the critic as perantau or voluntary wayfarer, where the itinerant critic's intimacy with performance and its publics shifts constantly. Secondly, the critic as parasite, an intimately exploitative position rehabilitated through concepts from Filipino liberation psychology such as kapwa (shared identity) and loob (relational will). Through case studies, I demonstrate how the critic might become symbiotic with their ecologies. Thirdly, the critic as pendamping-pengganggu: both companion and provocateur. I adapt this Indonesian dramaturgical concept to the critic's role through examples of embedded criticism with arts companies.

Author dc:creator

• TAN LINLING, CORRIE

• care
• relationships
• intimacy
• Southeast Asia
• performance
• criticism