Conclusion

Abstract

Theatre and performance in the Asia Pacific display qualities of both adaptability and resilience in the face of liquid modernity whilst retaining the ability to make distinctive statements about, and present physical embodiments of, local problems in the contemporary era. The speed of travel and communications, the state of constant change, the global flows of image, music, movement, language and media, the compulsion to consume, the privatization of services and the individualization of work and social life — the hallmarks of Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity — are highly visible themes in the theatre and performance of the region. Parallel to the many ambivalent representations of the social and personal impact of liquid modernity, theatre and performance have developed a flexibility in form and deep connection to place that makes the art form, ironically, one of the abiding, more solid, constants of social and cultural life.