In Comes I: Performance, Memory and Landscape

In Comes I explores performance and land, biography and locality, memory and place. The book reflects on performances past and present, taking the form of a series of excursions into the agricultural landscape of eastern England, and drawing from archaeology, geomorphology, folklore, and local and family history.

Mike Pearson, a leading theatre artist and solo-performer, returns to the landscape of his childhood – off the beaten track in Lincolnshire – and uses it as a mnemonic to reflect widely upon performance theory and practice. Rather than focusing on author, period and genre as is conventional in the study of drama, the book takes region as its optic, acknowledging the affective ties between people and place.

Offering new approaches to the study of performance, Pearson integrates intensely personal narrative with analytical reflection, juxtaposing anecdote with theoretical insight, dramatic text with interdisciplinary perception. The performances, ranging from folk drama to contemporary site-specific work, are seen in the light of their relationship to their cultural and physical environment.

Mike Pearson is Professor of Performance Studies at University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is a leading theatre artist, having worked both as director and performer in various theatre companies in Wales; he continues to create performances as a solo artist with German saxophonist Peter Brõtzmann, and with artist/designer Mike Brookes. He is co-author of Theatre/Archaeology (Routledge 2001).