Refugee performance: aesthetic representation and accountability in playback theatre

Abstract

This essay seeks to unpack some of the issues concerning representation when performing refugee stories using playback theatre. It questions the reductive influence of narrative structure and, using the framework of artist as ethnographer, it argues that strong aesthetic production is required to overcome the dampening effect of empathy when performing personal stories in refugee/asylum contexts. The tension that emerges among the key imperatives of accountable, accurate and aesthetic representation in refugee performance is then explored as a dialogic space.

Keywords:

• asylum performance
• representation
• playback theatre
• aesthetic transformation
• personal narrative

Notes

1. The ethnicity of company members: a Greek-Australian and a Jewish-Australian, while other company members identify as Australian with Anglo-Saxon ancestry.