b'T3 Journal - Student Writing in Drama, University of Exeter 2019-20and a governmental desire to silence and pacify the people.(Murer 2014: 161). The third set of characters was the They were power personified. Therefore their objective,audience. Kawalerowicz & Biggs use the term vicarious acting on behalf of the government, was to stop the revolt.participants (2015: 675). These vicarious participants, They did this by creating barricades with their shields andparticularly the media, not only witnessed the riots but police vans, dispersing looters using dogs and batons, andhad individual interpretations of them. According to mounted police rode into crowds of youth to scatter themT.V Reed, to stage protest is to enter into the domain (Quinn & Lewis 2011). of the arts, a fact that is arguably more important than ever in the increasingly media-saturated contemporary The rioters were an unorganised collective. Other thanworld (2016: 78). The media were fundamental to making communication through BlackBerry Messenger, theythe riots performative. Their objective was not only to acted as isolated individuals, bringing their personaldocument the historical uprising but to use it to facilitate experiences, emotions and intentions to the violence. particular messages. Theorists, during the events and after, The initial spark for the riots was the murder of Markquestionedthe coverage, examining how spontaneous, Duggan: a climax in the enduring story of Western race- uncoordinated action came to be read through mass media inflected police brutality. Feelings of loss for the Dugganspectacle as dismissible and intolerable images of criminal family soon turned to fury at the injustice of Marks deathgangs to be policed (Murer 2014: 161). They spread the and the lack of any serious investigation into the incident.aforementioned slanderous perspective of the working Therefore, the objectives of those close to the event orclass and Mark Duggan. Beswick states that, [i]n the greatly affected by it shifted. They used the riots as a lastmainstream newspaper press Mark Duggan was initially resort, committing to action when words, unregistereddescribed as a violent gangster with a criminal past [] by government and society, were no longer enough. Asand as such his killing was euphemistically justified in the chaos ensued, more people joined, fueled by their owninterests of order and public safety (Beswick, 2019: 59). frustrations. Their objectives were various, and different.By doing so, the media recast the rioters: they changed the For example, Murer states that the 2011 events were aboutstory. Instead of representing the authentic reactions from many young people asserting their equality to consumeordinary people, the riots were now down to opportunistic in a market environment from which they have beencriminal gangs. excluded (Murer 2014: 164). Despite the riots beingrooted in an arguably just cause against police brutality,In T.V. Reeds chapter Protest as Artistic Expression (2018), this intention was lost by some rioters, consumed insteadhe recounts the history of protest and its development to by desire. The irony is that, even when being defiant,hold creative potential and act as theatre. He argues that arguably revolutionary, the people comply. Whilstall public action involves a degree of performance on the brainwashed by the capitalist consumerist agenda, theysocial stage when we view public action as ritual, and lost track of the power their protest possessed. identity as performance (Reed 2016: 85). The concept of the social stage is key to this essays argument: if all events In this case, the rioters were the protagonists. As isare witnessed by the global public (as made possible by positioned in Dramaturgy and Social Movements, socialmodern broadcasting), then these events are essentially movements can be described as dramas in which protag- performative and it can be analysed using dramaturgy. onists and antagonists compete to affect audiencesOne can critique real social exchange, its objectives and interpretations of power relations (Benford & Hunt,effects, as one could an artistic movement or installation. 1992). In all social movements there are divisions betweenExamining the three types of character objectives in a those leading the narrative/movement, and those reactingStanislavskian way builds a whole picture of the cast: it to it. The rioters, and their two protagonist objectives:grants access to the motivation behind the different sides one for justice against racial oppression, the other againstand their actions.exclusion from consumer culture; were founded on an ultimate frustration at the oppression of the marginalised.The second area of dramaturgical analysis will be The drama of the riot provided an alternative voice forsupported by the theories of Bertolt Brecht and his interest the otherwise voiceless. Those that didnt and dont havein Gestus. Gestus is the social commentary of a characters a say in politics could show their dissatisfaction andclass and status using physical manifestations; gestic acting contempt for the Government. The predominantly youngarises from - and draws attention to - a characters social crowd were tired of being ignored as political subjectsstanding, which can only be understood in relation to 36'