Estado Vegetal—Manuela Infante

Abstract

For Manuela Infante, theatre is not first and foremost a place for the telling of stories, but a laboratory for embodied philosophy making. She takes her inspiration from theory and philosophy and works in extended periods of theoretical and scenic research. Estado Vegetal (2017) is a one-person show inspired by the work of plant philosopher Michael Marder and plant neurologist Stefano Mancuso, as well as various other posthumanist and new materialist thinkers. This chapter presents a close reading of Estado Vegetal from the perspective of the dramaturgical mode of looking introduced in Chap. 3 and traces aspects of the creative process. The chapter identifies several characteristics of the modes of thinking through practice of the makers and makes observations about the role of dramaturgy in this practice.