Ethics of Spectatorship and the Performance of Violence on Stage

This essay explores this positioning of the theatre spectator as witness in performances that aim to raise awareness of public traumatic events such as human rights abuses, civil wars, and genocides. In doing so, it considers two radically different models of audience response: Baz Kershaw’s concept of ‘theatrical efficacy’ which he developed in relation to politically or socially committed, often community-based, performance, and Jill Dolan’s concept of the ‘utopian performative’, an essentially affective communal response to live performance which is not explicitly concerned with motivating the audience to take action. These models variously complicate and illuminate the role of the spectator/witness at the performance event, and the process of witnessing and bearing witness.