An arts-based autoethnographic exploration of a Black woman witnessing Slave Play: The audience’s the thing

Abstract

This autoethnographic arts-based study explores how racial composition of theatre audiences impacts a Black woman’s witnessing experience during a play that contends with racial trauma. Employing Christine Mayor’s embodied tableau method, it examines the experience of a Black drama therapist viewing Jeremy O’Harris’ Slave Play three different times – twice in the context of predominantly white audiences and once with a predominantly Black audience. The research question was ‘how does racial composition of the audience impact the experience of witnessing Slave Play for the Black drama therapist?’ What I found was that witnessing performances about racial trauma in predominantly white audiences increased my feelings of discomfort, invasive exposure and decreased capacity for presence. Conversely, witnessing performances about racial trauma during a BLACK OUT theatre performance fostered and inspired connection, joy and presence. These relational–cultural complexities underscore the necessity of considering audience composition, engagement and responses when exploring topics related to racial trauma in performance. They furthermore underscore the relational potentials of theatre audiences for drama therapy performances and beyond.