In the introductory lines of this volume the editors emphasize their mission to ‘ask whether and how performance can unsettle normative narratives on crises and inside/outside binaries’ (p. 3). In the following eleven chapters, somehow arbitrarily grouped into three sections (named ‘Returns’, ‘Paradoxes’ and ‘Interpreters’), the authors mainly try to develop their own respective methodologies to cope with the new, paradoxical nature of political, societal and economic issues stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.
According to the editors’ view, clearly substantiated by material evidence presented in this collection, a radically new political dynamic is taking place on the European continent. In this space, marked by three main political centres – London, Berlin and Athens – new forms of subjectivity have arisen, significantly determined by the introduction of unprecedented austerity measures, along with ever-stricter border policies. The ensuing resistance to such circumstances took unexpected new forms, which have challenged the usual categorical apparatus and artistic modes of representation.
A number of chapters function as case studies, dealing with particular performances that took place in Greece or in the UK, while others try to propose new theoretical approaches capable of grasping new, emerging aesthetic phenomena and artistic procedures. In the latter group, Florian Thamer and Tina Turnheim combine Brecht's Lehrstück theory with the concept of politics of care, coining the notion of theatre of care, a mode of performance that ‘talk[s] “with” someone, and not “for” someone’, thus eschewing art's often patronizing stance (p. 79). During the protests which occurred after 2008 across Europe and the US, care work proved to be essential in providing social infrastructure necessary for continuous participation in exhausting political procedures, especially to the indignados movement in Spain and occupiers of Syntagma Square in Athens (p. 92). Applying such experiences in theatre may enable participants – performers and audiences alike – to challenge existing perspectives on possible alternative social or political arrangements, and therefore to evade the ‘spectre of fatalism’ (p. 82) that permeates the cultural sphere. At this moment their suggestion remains on the theoretical level, and its application is to be proved in empirical conditions.
On the other side, Rachel Clements's contribution analyses the case surrounding the documentary play The Riots – commissioned by and performed at London's Tricycle Theatre – and its radical challenging of official narratives on the 2011 Tottenham riots. In her effort to get trustworthy spoken evidence, the playwright, Gillian Slovo, tried to gather information on the riots by setting up a confidential telephone line and talking to some of the community leaders, but substantial material was eventually obtained from documentary filmmakers working on the same issue. Based on such evidence, the play consistently opposes the governmental tendency to depoliticize social turmoil by pointing to wider historical context and pre-existing community tensions. Clements perspicuously stresses the political frame, singling out austerity measures as a trigger for outbursts of social dissatisfaction.
While most chapters draw heavily on postmodernist epistemology, Louise Owen's contribution – almost historical-materialist in its approach – stands out in its conceptual and analytical rigour and political perspicacity. She demonstrates the genealogy of the National Theatre of Great Britain from its nineteenth-century status of paramount cultural institution to contemporary incongruence with economic demands coming from the political authorities. At that point classical sociological description would probably end, but she goes on to expose the manner in which these claims structure the repertoire, thus amply proving that aesthetic choices are always political ones.
Although not coherent in tone, approach or methodology, the contributions included in this volume offer a variety of possible perspectives on the ongoing crisis, and some provocative theses well worthy of reflecting upon. And yet, considering the vast amount of literature dedicated to the 2008 crisis that is firmly based on political economy's systematic stance – such as Varoufakis's Global Minotaur (2011) or Seymour's Against Austerity (2014) – it is somehow surprising that the authors consult almost none of it when dealing with contradictions of contemporary capitalism. Thus, although meticulously elaborated, most of the approaches lack the systematic perspective necessary in confronting the complexity of actual capitalist dynamics.
