Between Liveness and Presence: Gob Squad's Paradox

Abstract

In this paper, the author analyses the intersection between audio-visual devices and live performance in Kitchen (you’ve never had it so good) by the collective Gob Squad. This piece is considered through the lens of intermediality, inasmuch as its blurring between media enables new perceptions and considerations of the status of artistic forms. This analysis will aid in exposing how Gob Squad’s techniques challenge ontological debates on theatre. After a review of the state-of-the-art of these discussions , this paper shows how Gob Squad’s intermedial performances provide a different understanding of theatre that undermines binary divisions on live/recorded, presence/absence, and immediacy/mediation. Finally, the article takes on the way in which Kitchen (you’ve never had it so good) deconstructs these dichotomies by creating numerous layers of technological mediation. Through the usage of video recordings, screens, and headphones some members of the audience are able to participate with the actors and among themselves, constantly shifting between closeness and distance, reality and fiction, theatre and film.