The body in contemporary performance : a comparative and personal response to Nigel Jamieson's Honour Bound and Version 1.0's Wages of Spin

Many contemporary performances were staged throughout Sydney in 2006. This paper concentrates on two of these that I saw in close succession: Nigel Jamieson’s Honour Bound, which I saw at the Sydney Opera House on the 9th of August, and Version 1.0’s Wages of Spin, at Performance Space on the 16th of August. The temporal proximity of these performances is significant because it meant unavoidable comparison between the two. However, it wasn’t just their timing that invited comparison. They both dealt with similar political subjects and production techniques. One, however, affected me much more emotionally and physically than the other. This paper interrogates the similarities and differences between the two works, and uses a personal response to explore how my emotional reaction influenced my reception of the pieces’ subject matter.