1st Edition
The Dramatic Society Essays on Contemporary Performance and Political Theory
All societies are, by their very nature, dramatic. They present themselves, especially for those who want to look back in time, as a fascinating and confusing whole of theatrical events and constructions. Sometimes the theatre itself succeeds in capturing that fascination and confusion. This book describes the dramatic society in the form of case studies that link politics, history and culture.
The Dramatic Society uses selected plays to examine specific moments in history. Its range of subjects are extremely diverse, including Medea as an icon of terrorism, a choreography based upon Shakespeare’s As You Like It, horror movies about the German unification, a truth commission dealing with "human zoos", and the reconstruction of Ai Weiwei’s troubles with the tax authorities. This collection of insightful essays deals with theatrical performances – including happenings, installations and movies – of the past fifty years, with every chapter attempting to link artistic events with politics and political theory, from Hannah Arendt to Slavoj Žižek.
This is a revealing assessment of the ways in which drama and politics become intertwined, offering crucial insights for scholars and students of theatre studies, performance studies, contemporary politics and cultural studies.
1. The Horrible Return of the Heroines: Antigone and Medea in Performance in the Aftermath of 9/11 2. Political Explosion, Bodily Implosion: Ivo van Hove, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, and Their Alternative Shakespeares 3. A Caricature of Totalitarianism: Bertold Brecht and His Vulnerable Working Through of the Third Reich 4. Anatomy of a Genocide: Theatre About Rwanda, 1994 by Groupov, Milo Rau, and Others 5. The Wounded German Body: Christoph Schlingensief and the Scars of Postwar (Re)united Germany 6. The European Frontier: Thomas Bellinck’s Museum of Failures, and Other Imaginary Europes 7. The Temperament of the Judge: The Dispute Between Ai Weiwei and Chinese Authorities, Reenacted 8. Document, Drama, and Orientalism: Laila Soliman and Her Precarious Theatre of the Revolution 9. Truth, Justice, and Performative Knowledge: Chokri Ben Chikha, Truth Commissions, and (Neo)colonial Injustices 10. Revolution, Body, Language: Post-Communist Nostalgia in the Theatre of Willem de Wolf
Biography
Klaas Tindemans is head of research at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound (RITCS) in Brussels. He teaches dramaturgy and political theory at RITCS, and cultural history at the Royal Conservatoire Brussels (KCB) and is a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
