The Theatres Act (1968), documentary theatre and the actor's ‘overwhelming reality’

ABSTRACT

This article examines the turbulent debates in Cabinet and Parliament that took place in 1967–8 during the passing of the Theatres Act—the piece of legislation that abolished the Lord Chamberlain's jurisdiction over British theatre. These debates were characterized by a concern about how the abolition of theatre censorship might impact on the representation of living and recently deceased persons by actors onstage. Leading politicians at the time were especially fretful about the possible effects of satire and documentary drama on the reputations of iconic historical and political figures. The article explores these arguments, noting how they give expression to underlying anxieties about the function and affect of acting in fact-based theatre. Over the past fifteen or so years, coinciding with the revival and proliferation of forms of documentary theatre across western theatre cultures, these anxieties about acting have resurfaced in the discourse of theatre practitioners. Indeed, I argue that contemporary fact-based theatre often protects the primacy of testimony by attempting to delimit the phenomenal power and ‘overwhelming reality’ of the actor in performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Theatres Act (1968)
• theatre censorship
• documentary theatre
• tribunal theatre
• verbatim theatre
• acting