A pragmatics of change: testing political theory in theatrical practice

This essay explores how change happens in the everyday experience of individuals and how dramatic and theatrical interventions may play a part in such change processes. It seeks to overcome the historical tendency in political theatre movements towards factionalism in a desire to promote a unitary model of change or specific dramatic technique. Instead, it seeks to capture the potential of practices in drama, theatre and performance to contribute to social change by finding ways of connecting aesthetically derived experience to the lived experience of change. It seeks to restore the agency of the spectator to our thinking about how performances might be used by their audiences as individuals seek to change their societies. The focus is, then, on a pragmatic approach to political performance, concentrating on the contributions it can make in any given situation.