Performativity in Estonian Political Theatre of the 2010s

Abstract

The main political theatre of the 2010s in Estonia was Teater NO99 (2005–2019), which created several experimental projects. The performance Tallinn — Our City (2010) was a tour through the Old Town, during which the guide revealed corruption schemes with the real estate in which city government and personally mayor Edgar Savisaar were allegedly involved. The fictitious political movement Unified Estonia with the final performance United Estonia Assembly (2010) existed for 44 days and copied unfair campaigning of parliamentary parties, thereby predicting the rise of hyper-populism in the 2010s. The documentary production Meeting of the Leadership of the Reform Party (2012) was devoted to a real investigation into the suspicious financing of the ruling party. The musical Savisaar (2015), released during the parliamentary elections, foresaw the fall of the chairman of the Estonian Centre Party, Edgar Savisaar, who had held power for too long. At the same time, the performance activated the followers of the politician, which led to the fact that the year of the performance's release marked the highest level of electoral activity. Performances From the Second Glance (2016) and I’d Rather Dance with You (2016) gathered Estonian and Russian-speaking audience in theatre halls to talk about the problems that had accumulated in society. The play Will Be/Won’t Be: Estonia in 100 Years (2018) was based on the surveys of children and students: the younger generation should choose which way of development Estonia would take. By participating in interactive voting, viewers themselves decided what kind of Estonia they wanted to see: multicultural, technological, nationalistic, ecological Estonia. There could be distinguished three strategies of performativity in the political theater of Estonia: 1) role reversal, when the audience becomes participants in the production and realizes themselves as subjects of the political process, and the active political forces (government, party) turn out to be spectators of an unpredictable theatrical action; 2) usage of space outside the theater (city, media, social networks) to signify how public spaces become the stage for real politics; 3) erasing the line between art and reality, when a fictitious process exists along with the real political process and even affects it.