Gob Squad’s Act of Rebellion – Revolution Now!

Abstract

With its recent production Revolution Now! (2010) the English-German performance collective Gob Squad tackles “the current mood of disengagement” of contemporary theatre as identified by Kritzer (218) and attempts to stir up a revolution by involving the audience and unwitting passers-by outside the theatrical venue as amateur revolutionaries. Yet the production neither adheres to a concrete political ideology, nor does it further specify the cause of discontent or the need for a revolution. Although it turns out that the public, ‘The People,’ is hardly ready for this improvised revolution, Gob Squad manage to unite performers, audience and passers-by in a temporary community that pursues the single goal of finding a member of the public who is willing to instigate the revolution. This is achieved primarily via the excessive use of mediatisation that connects stage, auditorium and the streets outside the venue by means of two-way live transmissions. The onstage revolution is thus projected into the ‘reality’ beyond the stage and the theatre whereas ‘reality’ is simultaneously framed and becomes part of the action on the stage. In the end, it remains questionable whether the revolution actually reaches ‘the masses’ or whether revolutionary activism is to be seen as an absurd or ineffectual performance that is moreover manipulated and distorted by its mediatisation. More striking is the sense of immediacy and authenticity evoked despite the mediatisation and overt theatricality as well as the feeling of individual responsibility for the performance. Since the spectators have to face themselves as projected onto the screens on the stage – in the roles of sceptics, passive observers or active revolutionaries – it becomes impossible for them to remain detached. In this sense, Gob Squad explore a new form of theatre able to challenge political disengagement by combining the immediacy of liveness with the inescapability of mediatisation.