Justifying Theatre in Organisational Analysis: A Carnivalesque Alternative?

Abstract

Drawing upon recent developments in “post‐dramatic theatre”, this article inquires how the aesthetics and art of theatre has been justified and used in the organisational context and tries to re‐imagine possible relations between theatre and organisation. Referring to the simultaneously provocative and self‐reflective staging of Dostojevski’s “The Idiot” by the German director Castorf, we suggest to break up an all‐too‐easily established relationship between theatre and organisation and to demand that the “art” of theatre in organisations requires a performative demonstration that there is always an other way of organising. A carnivalesque relationship between theatre and organisation is conceived as a performative (and, hence, political) assemblage playing out hybridity, riskiness, and irony.

Keywords:

• Post‐Dramatic Theatre
• Carnival
• Riskiness
• Corporate Theatre
• Metaphoric Analysis
• Castorf

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Timon Beyes

Dr. Chris Steyaert, Research Institute for Organizational Psychology, University of St Gallen, Varnbüelstrasse 19, CH‐9000 St Gallen, Switzerland; Email: [email protected]