Nudity and Textuality in Postmodern Performance

Abstract

W5TT 'rhen people speak of nudity in theatrical performance, they tend to refer to actions in which actors expose their genital organs to the audience. Even to an entirely female audience, female performers who expose their breasts will appear more than male performers who expose their bare chests. Nudity in performance refers to the exposure of the most erotically exciting and excitable sexual identifiers of the body, with exposed genitals being the most complete proof of the body's vulnerability to desire and the appropriating gaze of the Other. However, this view of nudity entails some difficulties in relation to theatrical practice. For instance, some performers have used flesh-colored bodystockings to simulate nudity, while others have used prosthetic genitals or breasts as part of a costume which in fact conceals the body of the performer. Consider also those theatrical scenes in which the spectator knows the actor is really nude but cannot see this nudity sufficiently, because clever light and shadow veil the body. Another device for suggesting nudity is to have the actor stand behind a screen upon which he projects his silhouette while he takes off his costume; when he finishes stripping, he appears naked to the spectator when he actually is not.

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