Tamara (play)
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Tamara is a play by John Krizanc. It was premiered at Strachan House in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Canada on May 8, 1981 and published as a book the same year.
The play draws the audience into a labyrinthine story which reflects complicity in civic responsibility. One of the principal characters, Tamara de Lempicka, declines to use her voice despite the power given it through her cultural preeminence. She sells her art to the highest bidder without commentary. This has been taken up by some post-modern theorists of Management Studies as reflecting their position under the hegemony of the contemporary university, where academic freedom is constrained by corporate public relations.
In Tamara the barrier between spectator and actor has been dissolved; the spaces intermingle, and spectators become actors on many stages. Tamara is postmodern theatre performed in a large house with ten actors performing simultaneous scenes in several different rooms; at other times there is simultaneous action in eleven rooms. The spectator can accompany the character of their choice and experience the story they choose, knowing that with the simultaneous performances they cannot experience the whole play. Thus the members of the audience make a series of choices, and depending upon these choices, each spectator creates their own individual viewing of the play from point of view they develop.
There are five key choices in the play:
- 1. As characters leave and separate from a room, which will you follow?
- 2. Or will you wait and see who shows up in one or several rooms?
- 3. Will you follow the same character all the time, or switch characters as the play progresses?
- 4. Will you stay with a friend, or each adopt different strategies?
- 5. How will you respond when an actor gives you instructions (i.e. to follow them, or wait in the room, etc.)?
