TY - JOUR AU - Layton, James PY - 2019/11/25 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - A Unity of Experience: The Shared Rhythms of Only Wolves and Lions JF - PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research JA - PARtake VL - 1 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.33011/partake.v1i2.367 UR - https://partakejournal.org/index.php/partake/article/view/367 SP - AB - <p>‘Only wolves and lions eat alone, you should not eat, not even a snack, on your own’</p><p>These words from Epicurus are the stimulus for Unfinished Business’ <em>Only Wolves and Lions</em>, a participatory performance in which the audience share a meal, a conversation, a provocation. Joining others in a shared event, individual natural rhythms were consolidated as tensions inherent in the late capitalist Western world were explored.</p><p>Since its commodification, time has become an increasingly scarce resource for most people, as a pertinacious expectation of productivity in both work and leisure activities grows exponentially. Investing time in the shared activities of preparing and eating a meal in <em>Only Wolves and Lions</em>, a sense of solidarity was developed as participants addressed the crisis of a lost sense of community.</p><p>This article explores ways in which individual rhythms gradually became a collective, shared rhythm, and forged a unity of experience through participation. Writing from an autoethnographic perspective, I draw on Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis and Bergson’s notion of pure duration to assert that participation in <em>Only Wolves and Lions</em> resulted in a sense of duration distinct from the homogenous, clock-measured time that regulates economic production as an authoritarian force in late capitalist society.</p> ER -