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Paper short abstract

How can anthropologists represent other-than-human beings? And how can we retell their stories through theatre? Based on reflection of a year-long process of creating and performing theatre play about more-than-human coexistence and resistance we present practice-inspired insights on these topics.

Paper long abstract

The issue of representation is an anthropological constant. What dilemmas arise when retelling stories about humans, plants, animals, and minerals through theatre performances? To answer this question, we draw on the year-long collaboration between students of anthropology and performative arts that led to the creation of the theater piece Krtek, Kámen, Kyanid (Mole, Stone, Cyanide). Based on multiple ethnographic studies, the play explores how animals, plants, and other living and nonliving beings—from moles to the Tatra Mountains—can defy human plans and transform our notions of coexistence. The final performance is a mosaic of stories of more-than-human resistance, unruliness, and the challenges of multispecies cohabitation.

The question of representation was key to the creative process, often causing friction between different disciplinary backgrounds. Ethnographers asked whether it was appropriate to portray "animal voices," as James Scott does in In Praise of Floods (2025), or to trace the ways in which non-humans co-constitute our shared worlds, as Anna Tsing does in The Mushroom at the End of the World (2015). Members of the project with theatre experience asked how to make the performance more understandable and reduce the number of monologues.

Reflecting on the creative process, reviews, and follow-up discussions, we present how the interviewing of embodied fieldwork and performing experiences can help with inhibiting empathy and emotional connection with non-humans on one hand and enrich the research practices as well.