It Ain't over 'Til ...?(The Political Connotations of the Curtain Call) (Critical Essay‪)‬

The absence of a curtain call, like many absences, speaks more loudly than its presence. This paper emerges in response to Brink Productions/Budgie Lung Theatre's performance of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis in Adelaide, October 2004. Struck by the vehement response of a proportion of the audience to the failure of the actors to return to the emptied stage to 'take a bow', I began to ponder the crucial, liminal position of this act that has long survived the disappearance of the actual curtain itself. As a result of this informal musing, I suggest that the absent curtain call is not mere aesthetic conceit, but political choice. **********