Visceral forces: the noise of brightness and darkness in Oklahoma! and This Is How We Die

Abstract

In this article I explore the visceral affectivity of shifts between extreme brightness and darkness through the lens of noise. While noise is commonly considered a sonic phenomenon, in this article I draw on Marie Thompson's notion of noise as affect to examine how extreme lighting shifts operate as noise, creating interruptions, generating powerful experiential change and foregrounding the capacity for light to work upon bodies. I examine my phenomenological experience of light in Daniel Fish and Jordan Fein's production of Oklahoma! (2022) and Christopher Brett Bailey's This Is How We Die (2014) from the perspectives of an audience member and performer, to explore how these lighting shifts operated as noise. I propose that a consideration of light as noise and the application of primarily sonic theories and vocabularies can be valuable in analysing the experience of light in performance, arguing for the productive value of interdisciplinary languages. The noise of light I put forth brings to the forefront our immediate, embodied being-in-the-world in the experience of performance.