Workshop. Challenging Identity and Selfhood through Performance

In this workshop we will explore the idea of constructed identity through the lens of Eleanor Antin’s practice. Together we will question ideas of authenticity when fictionalising the real, ethics when drawing from other people’s stories, as well as impact when thinking about audiences and viewership.

Antin, an artist who moved freely across genres and mediums, often used autobiographical material alongside performativity and theatrical devices to reimagine the world around her. Starting from her perspective that ‘All History is Fiction’, this workshop will explore how autobiography and curated identities can be reinvented through theatrical tools to address wider social issues. We’ll experiment with techniques such as verbatim theatre and Bouffon theatre’s archetypal figure of ‘The Trickster’ to create alter egos and personas and discover multiple ways of performing versions of ourselves.

Drawing inspiration from Antin’s work, this workshop aims to find new approaches to using and transforming both autobiographical material and the stories of others to plot a performance.

Note: No performance experience is needed. This workshop is open to anyone interested in exploring concepts of identity, selfhood, and authorship.

This workshop is part of the series Performing identities. While it is not mandatory, it is recommended to participate to all three sessions (occurring on 16.11 and 07.12.2025)

Biography:

Raphaël Adams is a theatre maker, performance artist, and director who experiments with the boundaries between audience and performers. He uses audience interaction and queer performance to invite reflections on what love and intimacy mean in neoliberal society and is keen on researching and finding various paths for community-building in an increasingly isolating world. Raphaël has worked with multiple organisations in Ireland (Galway Theatre Festival, Macnas, Druid, Baboró, Dublin Fringe) and Luxembourg (Kulturfabrik, neimënster). He directed Yaqui and Béal (GTF24), a collaborative theatre piece exploring the similarities between Native American and Irish cultures and histories. He also conceptualized the audience-interactive piece Gulliver in Love (Druid FUEL residency), a radical queer reimagining of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. More recently, he investigated contemporary perceptions of masculine identity by repurposing Greek mythology in Olympus Has But Snow (co-creation with Cuisle Productions, research residency at neimënster).