Tracks, Knots, Stage Tact and Boots: A Reflection

In this reflection I adopt Haraway’s “speculative fabulation” and “tangle of practices” as a motto for my exploration of the archive. Positioning myself as an artist-scholar who interprets the archive via practice, I recount my attempts to follow the tracks made by performer Eliza Winstanley-O’Flaherty and her husband Henry O’Flaherty during two tours of Van Diemen’s Land in 1841 and 1843. Following the intertextual and intertheatrical approach of Jacky Bratton and Gilli Bush-Bailey, I explore the possible meanings of “stage tact,” and how it was utilised by performers both on and off stage. When Eliza tactfully withdraws into the margins of history, I find myself distracted by her elusive and passionate husband. Dwelling in the difficult space between knowing and not-knowing, I share my insights as a writer/director watching performers from backstage, which allows me to experience an embodied understanding of stage tact.