Balancing Acts

Abstract

This article examines how theatricality, specifically metatheatricality, functions in the depiction of perpetrators of violence and considers this from an ethical perspective. Performances that dwell on the ideologies and behaviours of perpetrators of violence are difficult to stage and present a range of ethical problems, including whether it is appropriate to grant the privilege of ‘presence’ to such figures, the risk of reiterating violent ideology, the risk of occluding the experiences of the victims and sensitivity to survivors of violence. These ethical problems in turn generate a set of aesthetic problems. This article focuses on two case studies where metatheatrical devices are used as a response to the challenges outlined above: Manifesto 2083 (2012), a solo performance about mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik by Danish theatre-makers Christian Lollike, Olaf Højgaard and Tanja Diers; and Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary about Indonesian government death squads of the 1960s, The Act of Killing (2012). While metatheatricality may at first glance seem to negate theatricality through pointing to the constructedness of theatrical illusion, I draw from Samuel Weber’s explanation of theatricality, in particular his notion of ‘linked separation,’ to suggest that metatheatricality, in fact, constitutes an intensification of theatricality. Moreover, I propose that the concept of ‘linked separation’ provides an effective critical lens through which to scrutinize the ethical dimensions of the uses of metatheatricality as a response to violence.

Notes

1 There is some concord between Weber’s concept of linked separation and Gilles Deleuze’s notion of inclusive disjunction. While there is not the scope to explore this connection here, it may be that Weber’s understanding of theatricality may help to tease out a theatrical dimension to inclusive disjunction.

2 The unpublished playscript cited Christian Lollike, Olaf Højgaard and Tanya Diers as co-athors, whereas the press material lists Lollike as playwright, Diers as dramaturge and Lollike and Højgaard as co-developers of the idea. The unpublished play is not paginated. I have therefore provided scene numbers as the best guide to where cited passages are located in the text.

3 The actor in the original production, Olaf Højgaard, played a version of himself – his character was called ‘Olaf’ – although writer Christian Lollike’s experiences equally informed the text. In an early scene, for example, Olaf describes having a meeting with CaféTeatret where they ‘decided to make a play based on the manifesto. That’s when my hunt for Anders Breivik began’ (scene 3). This was Lollike rather than Olaf’s experience.

4 The relationship between power, violence and theatricality and the manner in which spectacle is used in the service of violence has been discussed at length by Rhustom Barucha (2014), Jenny Hughes (2011), Sara Brady (2012) and others (see References).

5 The play was first performed in New Zealand at the Basement Theatre in Auckland, 2015, directed by Anders Falstie-Jensen and performed by Edwin Wright.

6 For a fuller examination of the relationship between Emanuel Levinas’s concept of the face of the other and theatricality, Jon Erickson’s (1999) work provides an excellent discussion (see References)

7 Giorgio Agamben provides a detailed discussion of this notion of the evaporation of meaning, which he likens to terror, in his analysis of Balzac’s short story, ‘The Unknown Masterpiece’ (1999).