Live Performance Matters
Research Centre, Drama
Live Performance Matters
Research Centre, Drama
Posted by Adrian Curtin
19 October 2026What can a performing body do in the face of oppression? And how can performance become a site of resistance, pleasure and political possibility?
These questions shaped ‘Politics of the Performing Body: Insurgence, Pleasure, Labour’, a conversation hosted by Live Performance Matters on 19 October 2026 between cultural theorist Dr Brahma Prakash (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) and Dr Aparna Mahiyaria (University of Exeter).
Drawing primarily on Prakash’s Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing the ‘Folk Performance’ in India, the discussion explored the performing body as a site of cultural memory, oppression, resistance, labour and pleasure. It also connected these themes to Prakash’s more recent book, Body on the Barricades, and ongoing protests in India, considering the continuing entanglement of performance, embodied experience and political struggle.
