PHYSICAL METAPHOR

PHYSICAL METAPHOR

Generator: explicitly named on Day 1 and repeatedly demonstrated in Lloyd’s Open Lecture.

A physical metaphor occurs when an object, gesture, body, relation, or space does more than decorate an idea: it creates a physical condition through which the idea becomes perceptible.

In Enter Achilles, the pub is a social environment of British masculinity. The pint glass is a beautiful everyday object and a potential weapon, becoming a metaphor for attraction and violence within masculinity. The forced-perspective set makes the men appear bigger than the pub, physically expressing their occupation of the social space.

In Can We Talk About This?, the set gradually moves forward and reduces the performers’ available space. The shrinking room becomes a physical metaphor for diminishing space for speech.

Physical metaphor is not an abstract symbol placed on top of action. It emerges from what the object or space actually does.