55 How to be an Activist: Tell the Truth and be a Trickster Ophelia Mills This essay was originally written in response to the question: “Taking into account political, economic and philosophical contexts, and with reference to specific practical examples, discuss the value of theatrical forms and aesthetics for activist groups in the 21st century” (DRA2087). In Ancient Rome, poet Juvenal describes the leaders as using “Bread and Circuses”; their society had become distracted by the spectacle of commodities and entertainment. Nigel Farage recently appeared on the popular ITV programme I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, and people are spending their hard-earned money on the M&S Colin the Caterpillar cake. The 21st century has become completely engulfed by the spectacle, failing to remember political and social injustices. Political theatre has been intertwined with left-wing activism for decades. From the agitprop of the 70s and 80s to Brechtian theories: performance has held great value for left-wing activism, both grassroots and global. However, academics and society itself have had extensive debates about the value of these forms in effecting real change beyond the performance space. Political theatre groups seem to expand in times of economic and political uncertainty. From the economic downfall of Thatcherism to Wall Street, to now. The 21st century has fallen into a right-wing capitalist society with the ever-growing commodification and privatisation of truth. However, activist groups such as Lung Theatre, CIRCA [Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army], the Dyke Project, etc., demonstrate the power of breaking the spectacle of deception through the forms of Verbatim Theatre and Clowning. This essay will argue that both of these aesthetic genres hold high value for modern activist groups, focusing on left-wing Eurocentric activism, drawing on Debord’s theory of the “Society of the Spectacle” (Debord 2012). Verbatim theatre, as a form, is itself a protest hegemony due to its epistemological weight. Verbatim theatre became popular in the 60s and 70s, largely through the “Stoke Method” and Peter Cheeseman’s documentary theatre. Cheeseman focused on work voicing the industrialisation and working class of Stoke-on-Trent. Cheeseman worked on verbatim plays such as Fight for Shelton Bar!, focusing on the voices of steelworkers and the loss of jobs for people in working-class areas, offering a breakdown of the spectacle of what people commonly believe. In this case, people believed that capitalisation and industrialisation of steelwork would be beneficial, but it affected the working class and put hundreds of people out of work. Hence, the need for the “truth” and voices to be heard by society to dismantle the spectacle. “The clown is the ‘puer aeternus’, the eternal child in all of us,’’ writes Jan
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