‘Who Told You There Was Meaning?’: Mimesis and Narrative Complexity

Abstract

This paper reports on longitudinal research into a partnership between a youth arts organisation and an inner city secondary school, using case study and reflective practitioner methodological approaches. Earlier projects in this same field of study explored a mimetic model of theatre practice, based on young people's dramatised stories that culturally diverse teenage participants described both as ‘real’ and delivering moral messages to their peers and wider community. In 2009 a play-building process, combining text from Shakespeare's King Lear with original material inspired by Beckett's Waiting For Godot and a devised contemporary narrative, was used to generate a new play called Searching For Lear. This work wove tragic and absurdist perspectives into a contemporary young person's street story. In this article, the project is analysed using literary theory and an analysis of mimetic processes. The play utilised a model of mimesis that complicated the relationship between the audience and the dramatic narrative, interrogating the basis on which dramaturgical meaning was constructed. These theoretical perspectives are considered in relation to research data, revealing participant and community audience perceptions of this work and its significance in its local cultural context.