The main focus of Liesbeth's PhD project is the concept of nomadic theatre. In contemporary European performance there is a tendency towards mobility in theatre, examples of which are moving events outside the theatre into public areas or creating fluid performer/spectator spaces either inside or outside traditional theatre buildings in which spectators are not seated but move around. These fluid borders often find a twin in flexible performer/audience interfaces. The dynamic relationships between space, performer and spectator can be understood as a shift in relative positions or a shift of borders between positions. Mobility not only concerns actual movement of the spectator, but the movement of these shifting borders as well. In order to study these different patterns of movement, Liesbeth has labeled this development 'nomadic theatre'.
Nomadic theatre is not a genre, but a concept. The research into nomadism will be based on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Rosi Braidotti. Their approach to nomadism offers a tool for understanding these fluid actor/spectator relationships as acts of de- and reterritorialization. In a wider context, these acts might be seen as examples of the way theatre is 'contaminated' by a global, capitalist society in which mobility and free choice are central issues. Contamination is not intended as an evaluation, but as a description of a certain kind of movement. Theatre re-territorializes this contamination by using mobility (and nomadic prosthetics such as mobile phones, maps or guides) and aspects of consumerism (including performativity) as theatrical tools.
