Protest – Institution – Engagement: An Inevitably Incomplete Exploration of Constructed Institutions and Artivism in Performative Practice

Abstract

This article offers an overview of several different streams of politically engaged theatre and performance: constructed liminal institutions and on-site protest-based performance actions, what has been termed artivism (activism + art). Delving across cultural and national borders, “Protest – Institution – Engagement” explores different forms and theories of active political theatre. It explores the dramaturgy of protest and the impact of a recent flurry of protest movements to the trial and tribunal format of the documentary theatre tradition, to engaged theatre practice using judicial structures, emergent activist performance actions that take their inspiration from protest movements. “Protest – Institution – Engagement” explores theatre and performance outside of the binary of real and unreal often applied to the realm of theatre.  By blurring the boundary between activism and art, it reveals how performance, as an embodied practice, can provide both a socio-political/socio-cultural commentary as well as actually engaging with the real world and inducing (or at least the potential for) real change.