Placeholder, by Catherine Bisset
Inspired by academic research carried out by members of CECTON, Catherine Bisset has created an engaging new work that imagines what it was like to be a performer of colour in pre-revolutionary Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). Placeholder is a dialogue for a solo performer who performs a conversation between ‘Minette’ and her absent, enslaved mother. Set in the playhouse in Port-au-Prince in 1790, the play takes as its starting point the idea that the gaps in the archives, the lacunae in texts, and the holes in the narrative are themselves acts of violence and suppression.
Written and performed by Catherine Bisset
Dramaturgy by Jaïrus Obayomi
Directed by Flavia D’Avila
Placeholder was premiered at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh as part of the Being Human Festival on 17 November 2021. A recording of that performance is available here (NB the show lasts an hour, followed by a break and a Q&A). Subsequent performances have taken place at the Byre Theatre, St Andrews (9 February 2022) and, on 30 September 2023, as part of the Edinburgh Multicultural Festival. The play was published by Salamander Street in October 2023.