From Deconstruction to Reconstruction: A Habermasian Framework for Contemporary Political Theatre

Abstract

Equally suspicious of old didacticisms and current relativisms, British political theatre has found a new assertiveness in verbatim plays, composed using direct quotations from testimonies and documents. Whilst the reliance on authenticity underpinning this form needs to be – and has been – problematized, the vigour of ‘real’ voices on stage radically tests the assumptions of postmodern theory. This article proposes an alternative framework, based on the philosophy of Jürgen Habermas, the leading figure of the Frankfurt School's second generation and a known challenger of postmodernism. Habermas has elaborated a critique of modernity that retains those aspects of the modern project still offering a qualified promise of emancipation. This approach leads to a better understanding of the residual potential of political theatre in the present age. From the seminal notion of the ‘public sphere’ (the locus, distinct from state and market, where private individuals gather together as a public to debate matters of common concern) to the later emphasis on ‘reconstruction’ (an attempt to explain the presumably universal bases of rationality), Habermasian theory proves effective where deconstructive strategies show their limits. This analysis revisits the concept of the public sphere as it has evolved and then applies it to recent verbatim productions by Out of Joint Theatre Company and the Tricycle Theatre, exploring both political and aesthetical elements. The author's contention is that verbatim theatre, in expanding the public sphere and promoting an intersubjective version of truth, is able to take political theatre beyond the confines of postmodernism.