Relational Intelligence Breaks New Ground on the Theatre Stage

Not Just the Play Itself

Anders Carlsson is an actor and a PhD student in performing arts at the Academy of Music and Drama. On 25 September, he will defend his thesis, 'Acting Otherwise, Phronesis, the Erotic and the Ethics of Acting Under Heteronomous Conditions'. In his thesis, he examines acting as a form of practical knowledge. There has long been considerable interest in research into how actors construct or develop a credible representation of a person – in other words, the very act of taking on a role. But Anders Carlsson’s research also focuses on other aspects.

‘Over the last 15 to 20 years or so, during which time I have been working as an actor, I have noticed that actors need a broader understanding of the situation. It is not just the play, the fictional situation, but also the social context surrounding the theatrical event. Or the historical perspective, or the institutional context – the fact that we are gathered here in this room right now, that we are precisely these people.”

Navigating Towards an Unknown Destination

Anders Carlsson takes as his starting point the Aristotelian concept of knowledge known as phronesis, which can mean both practical wisdom and ethical judgement – knowing how to act in a given situation in order to achieve a good outcome. Phronesis can be contrasted with techne, that is, technique or craftsmanship. With techne, one knows what one wants to achieve and has a clear idea of the goal.

‘But with phronesis – the concept of knowledge on which this thesis is based – we are navigating towards an unknown destination and do not really know where we are going. You could say that is my starting point,’ says Anders Carlsson.

During his years of research, Carlsson has been involved in practical work on various productions, which form the basis of his thesis.

'It’s an experimental endeavour when you don’t really know where we’re heading, and that’s usually a positive thing. It’s wonderful not to have decided in advance what the outcome will be; instead, we want to throw ourselves into it and explore the way forward together. But in an instant, not knowing can feel very overwhelming,’ he says.

There has long been a great deal of research into post-dramatic theatre; that is, theatre in which there are no longer any characters, where the focus is not primarily on a narrative, but on a live experience shared by the audience and the performers. Many have also written about phronesis in the past – not least in Sweden, where there is an interest in practical knowledge. The philosopher Jonna Bornemark is one such example. Among other things, she has investigated how practical knowledge and what might be described as a form of judgement are given too little consideration within the healthcare sector.

The Erotic

– But perhaps not many people have studied how the art of acting is affected by the same issues as in the healthcare sector. That is to say, the use of concepts of knowledge that reduce what it could be, that fail to make the most of the forms of intelligence that exist and that the actor possesses. And perhaps not many have studied phronesis in conjunction with the concept of the erotic. I don’t know of anyone who has done that, says Anders Carlsson.

It wasn’t obvious from the outset that the erotic would have a place in the research project. Carlsson needed the concept to understand what happens when ‘the temperature' of a situation changes.

'Being in an open situation and improvising together is one thing: when everything is calm and it doesn’t really matter how it turns out. Meanwhile, when there’s a lot at stake and our nerves are on edge, that’s when the tension rises'.

'Because of the associations it evokes, when you say something is erotic, thoughts might turn to sexuality, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Here, it perhaps becomes a measure of what is alive – knowing when a situation has run its course and no longer holds any charge, and how we get to that point where something is at stake, when something becomes important again.'

Bortom teaterns vanliga verktyg

To investigate this, Anders Carlsson has had to look beyond the theatre’s usual methodological tools. He is currently rehearsing a small-scale performance to be presented as part of his doctoral defence, alongside the actress Nina Jeppsson. They did not know each other beforehand and have deliberately embarked on the project without knowing exactly what they will be doing on stage. Among other things, they have drawn inspiration from breath work, a technique they have borrowed from tantra.

'We try it out, just as actors do. We can draw inspiration from anywhere. And that might involve a somatic focus, for example. What can I sense in my body, and where do we stand in terms of our relationships and our spatial positioning? Such performative aspects of being in the present moment have proved more productive, methodologically speaking, than asking, ‘What role am I playing? Where do I come from, where am I going, and what is the conflict?’

Carlsson hopes that the perspectives from his thesis will prove useful even outside the theatre. One area he himself sees is leadership. In environments where one wishes to avoid strictly hierarchical leadership and instead place trust in colleagues, there may be value in developing relational intelligence between people.

'Perhaps my concepts might be of some use.'