Living Theatrically

‘Living Theatrically: A Sophie Calle Cabaret’ is a stage adaptation of Lavanya Sinha’s senior essay, which examines the works of narrative artist Sophie Calle, who is famous for her unorthodox art projects that test the boundaries of privacy, performance, and authenticity. She has followed strangers to foreign cities, invited people to sleep in her bed under her watchful eye, and pursued chambermaid work to rifle through people’s belongings. Lavanya’s essay argues that Calle’s projects are manifestations of something called a ‘theatrical ethic’, a mode of living and creating that accepts, even embraces, the notion that everyday life is a theatre. The Sophie Calle Cabaret transforms Lavanya’s musings on Calle’s works as theatre into literal theatre, guided by the belief that her work can be rendered beautifully, if somewhat whimsically, in a ‘cabaret’ setting.

The show itself is the journey of several characters - Lavanya and their friends, as versions of Sophie Calle - as they come to revelations about Calle’s art and what it means. The script and score are devised, i.e. created through the rehearsal process. Calle’s projects involve arbitrary rules and constraints, and the various segments of the show impose these constraints on the performers. The results are different each time.

There is singing and dancing, improv and sketch comedy, revelry and silence. There is good old-fashioned theatre. Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome!