Bound to Honour: the Detention of David Hicks as Performance

Resum

When you think of the war on terror, Guantanamo Bay and the incarceration of David Hicks you don’t automatically think of an aerial performance. The 2006 production of Honour Bound created by Nigel Jamieson and choreographed by Australian Dance Theatre’s Garry Stewart raises questions about human rights, justice and the role of politics in the war on terrorism. Using the processes of intermediality the production wages a physical assault, akin to David Hicks’ experience, on the audience through a combination of set, sound and lighting with dance, aerial work and physical theatre to symbolically communicate the confronting aspects of imprisonment and incarceration thereby enhancing the visceral experience of the debate surrounding David Hicks for the audience. In the
field of contemporary performance it is often said that form is content and content is form. This paper will demonstrate how the use of brutalised form personified the pain and distress of David and his parents.