Abstract

The Museum of Desire is an unpublished short story by John Berger, best known as the author of ‘Ways of Seeing’ and the Booker Prize-winning novel ‘G.’ The story was adapted by internationally-renowned British director Dan Jemmet and a multi-national group of performers that included Rick Kemp, the co-author of this presentation. The production was performed in the Frick Museum, Pittsburgh, USA, among paintings by masters such as Rubens, Fragonard and Reynolds, and created an experience that invited audience members to simultanesouly experience themselves as viewers and viewed, as both receivers of art, and also the subjects of art. The performance incorporated the dramatization of this story, the reading of another Berger story (‘Flowers in a Corner’), a tour of the gallery, and the performance of Schubert’s ‘Trout Quintet.’Its location within a major museum blurred the boundaries between real and fictional life in a meta-theatrical style that mirrored the literary techniques that Berger uses in the writing of the story. This account considers the discoveries made by the devising company generally, and particularly considerations of site and participants that were challenged. This presentation, co-authored by a performer and a viewer of the performance, investigates the reception of the performance, focusing particularly on the impact of the multi-national and multi-ethnic make-up of the performance ensemble that included African-Americans, Caucasian Americans, Britons, people from Turkey, Canada, and of Chinese origin. ‘T’