Asking the wrong questions: musings on a conversation with Gakire Katese Odile about “Intercultural Theatre”

Abstract

‘Asking the Wrong Questions: Musings on a Conversation with Gakire Katese Odile about Intercultural Theatre’: After an interview with Gakire Katese Odile, a Rwandan drummer, director, and entrepreneur, I was struck by the failure of my theories to account for her work. Rehearsing this failure allows for an exploration of the ramifications of acknowledging the fact that Odile had already theorized her own work. She uses her theorization to shift the nature of the debate surrounding the relationship between theatre and performance, the nature of interculturalism, and the political impact of theatre. I find myself challenged to consider what theoretical pluralism–as opposed to the assimilative mode so often on display in European academies–might do to our intellectual landscape.