Redemptive Theatre: When the Performance Is in the Silence

In this short frame for a creative research project, we outline a theatrical form that we are tentatively calling “redemptive theatre” – theatre that tells stories of people struggling with a mistake, a burden of guilt or an experience of being wronged. We created this form in the context of privileged South Africans navigating the landscape of systemic injustice and unconscious bias. We have performed the first version of redemptive theatre three times and, through a participatory action research process, documented the form and its principles as outlined here. The process has shown itself to consist of three distinct phases: first, identification of the story; second, developing the script; and third, the performance. After the initial identification process, it was performed and reworked three times to produce the current structural design. We present this design to encourage performances that reframe dominant and habitual narratives, disrupt boundaries, challenge stereotypes and give people a chance to redeem themselves, both in their own eyes and in other people’s. The form of redemptive theatre aligns with Jacques Rancière’s idea of an aesthetic regime and the concept of democracy as a redistribution of what can be seen, heard and experienced. By framing stories that are politically unpopular, we bring stories to the fore that are silenced (unseen and unheard).