Making Change from Within: Political Adaptation as Activism

Abstract

Political Adaptation in Canadian Theatre, by Kailin Wright, is an excellent addition to the discourse on theatre adaptations. Wright applies theories of adaptation, identification, performance, Indigenous dramaturgy, and speech acts to define political adaptation as distinct from adaptation “proper”. She contends that political adaptations activate publics or, in her terms, “dispublics,” toward changed perspectives on inherited narratives. Seminal to her argument is Michel Pêcheux’s tripartite terminology, which describes the relationship of the spectator to mainstream culture as identification, counteridentification, and disidentification.