Disorienting Landscapes in Hotel Methuselah

Abstract

Imitating the Dog’s Hotel Methuselah is very different from the pieces discussed in the previous chapters. The main difference being the balance between live theatrical performance and the cinematic projection which accompanies it. On a spectrum with theatrical and cinematic elements at either end, Hotel Methuselah lies much closer towards the cinematic end than any of the previous pieces. The stage is dominated by a huge film projection to which all live action is subjected and the plot, together with its filmic representation, is heavily stylised and reliant on cinematic convention. The apparent dominance of the cinematic stylistic in Hotel Methuselah is an interesting starting point for this chapter’s theoretical enquiry into the ‘politics of perception’ because it starkly addresses the expectations and perceptual habits inspired by realist cinema. We live in a culture that is saturated with cinematic modes of representation that also constitute forms of perception, modes of framing and perceiving representations and what one may call expectations of a ‘cinematic gaze’. Where the previous chapters have investigated the ways in which post-cinematic theatre can make spectators aware and reflexive of pleasure and ethical stances that affect their perceptual choices in relation to cinematic/filmic representations, this chapter will focus on the more formal aesthetics of film and cinema in the context of an intermedial de construction.