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Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Just Stop Oil’s protest during The Tempest is an extension of theatre’s radical tradition
theconversation.com: The theatre has long staged and debated society’s most pressing concerns. But when protest moves beyond the script and into the theatre itself, the reaction can shift from applause to confusion, and even outrage.
1 comment:
Julian Grossman
said...
I feel somewhat split on how to feel about this. On the one hand, there is great historical precedent for activist groups inserting themselves into showings of traditional art. The famous Guerrilla Art Action Group, for instance, at one point protested against the Vietnam War by entering the lobby of the MoMA with bags of bull blood strapped to their bodies and wrestling with one another until the bags burst. Obviously the reason political performance art like this is so impactful is specifically because it invokes outrage and is impossible to ignore. Simultaneously, seeing this makes me kind of mad. The article talks about how the audience’s outrage may emerge from the loss of their control over what they are choosing to view, but personally the part of this that is the most frustrating is like … what the hell do you think you’re doing, walking onstage in the middle of a theatrical production? If I was stage managing a show and audience members—protesting or not—walked onstage, I would want them out of there as soon as possible, not just because of the interruption to the show but because of potential safety concerns. Not only is it not safe for people who aren’t performers or technicians to inhabit a stage in the middle of a production, but it may not necessarily be safe for the performers.
1 comment:
I feel somewhat split on how to feel about this. On the one hand, there is great historical precedent for activist groups inserting themselves into showings of traditional art. The famous Guerrilla Art Action Group, for instance, at one point protested against the Vietnam War by entering the lobby of the MoMA with bags of bull blood strapped to their bodies and wrestling with one another until the bags burst. Obviously the reason political performance art like this is so impactful is specifically because it invokes outrage and is impossible to ignore. Simultaneously, seeing this makes me kind of mad. The article talks about how the audience’s outrage may emerge from the loss of their control over what they are choosing to view, but personally the part of this that is the most frustrating is like … what the hell do you think you’re doing, walking onstage in the middle of a theatrical production? If I was stage managing a show and audience members—protesting or not—walked onstage, I would want them out of there as soon as possible, not just because of the interruption to the show but because of potential safety concerns. Not only is it not safe for people who aren’t performers or technicians to inhabit a stage in the middle of a production, but it may not necessarily be safe for the performers.
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