Focus E15: Performing Nuisance as a Feminist Narrative of Property

Article


Mccarthy, L. 2020. Focus E15: Performing Nuisance as a Feminist Narrative of Property. Studies in Theatre and Performance. 40 (1), pp. 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2019.1689739
AuthorsMccarthy, L.
Abstract

In 2014 Focus E15 resisted the evictions of young carers by drawing attention to the precarity of the London housing crisis (2010-). The campaign’s local occupations protested the devastations of urban cleansing in the area of Newham and won them the ‘right to stay put.’ After, Focus E15 mounted a musical and verbatim theatre project staging the narrative of their protest, entitled, The Land of the Three Towers (2016). The production detailed how the political and feminist voices of the campaign emerged, and I argue not only as the metaphorical ‘voices’ for the mothers' self-representation, but as the material through which they laid claim to property. This article discusses how Focus E15 challenged UK property regimes while illustrating the critical contribution of voice as a feminist strategy of resistance, and as a way of showing how property is tethered to performative vocal claims. I observe how nuisance featured as an activist strategy of the campaign elaborating on its meanings as a form of property disturbance and as a form of untolerated noise to identify how the mothers usefully politicised nuisance as a tactic to address their displacement. Finally, I argue that a feminist narrative of property unfolded across the political campaign and its subsequent theatrical staging.

JournalStudies in Theatre and Performance
Journal citation40 (1), pp. 21-34
ISSN1468-2761
Year2020
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
License
File Access Level
Anyone
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2019.1689739
Web address (URL)https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2019.1689739
Publication dates
Online06 Feb 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited28 Mar 2019
Accepted01 Sep 2019
Copyright information© 2020 Taylor & Francis. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Theatre and Performance on 06/02/2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14682761.2019.1689739.
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