Addressing Urgencies of Democratic Interaction in the Public Spherean: Attempt to Facilitate Disagreement on Audience Dramaturgies of Disagreement

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In the research project 'Dramaturgies of Disagreement in Contemporary Theatre,' I examined how theatre performances dramaturgically work with substantial disagreement within audiences and non audiences. In the first part of this article, I present and discuss the cultural politi cal context, the societal backdrop, and the agenda of this research. I argue for the need to deal critically with normative prem ises and closures in this research. In the second part, I exemplify how a move from a normative point of departure towards a more descriptive approach may be realised. I start this part by presenting the applied sociological theory of communities of disa greements (Iversen 2014), before I describe, analyse, and compare three Norwegian par ticipatory performances from recent years. I propose the metaphorical terms of theatre as either arena , laboratory, or catalyst for communities of disagreement to highlight differences between the dramaturgical approaches. I further examine how the rela tion between the limited public space of the theatre and the wider public sphere is con ceptualised differently in the three cases. Finally, I relate the analysed dramaturgies to a spectrum of political theory that spans from deliberative to agonistic democracy to further illuminate and facilitate legit imate disagreement on dramaturgies of disagreement. Art does not need any justification. Yet public funding of the arts in democratic societies is dependent on such justifica tions. And no public funding results in poor conditions for the arts. That means, art is dependent on justifications after all. As a theatre researcher, I contribute to the form ation, affirmation, and negotiation of such justifications, whether I am aware of it and intentionally partake or not. The Nordic welfare states are known for their (relatively) extensive support of the arts. However, the traditionally pre sumed societal consensus on this support has been showing signs of weakness for a while. Hence, the Arts Council Norway and the Danish Arts Foundation11 have called attention to the need for renewed strategies of legitimisation. Their latest research pro gramme, 'Arts and Social Communities,' has been motivated by this need. My research into dramaturgies of disagreement in con temporary theatre has been funded by this programme. What I present and discuss in this article reflects my experiences of con tributing to this programme.