Performative justice? The role of theatre and performance in facilitating transitional justice

Interactions between theatre and performance studies and trauma and memory studies have grown in depth and ampleur in the last two decades. Theatre and performance can offer new perspectives on, and potential coping mechanisms for, dealing with trauma that are also salient to other fields of study, such as transitional justice. Literature on transitional justice deals with the question of how societies can deal with violence and trauma inflicted by predecessor regimes. This literature stands to be enriched by theatre and performance scholars’ experience with the transformation of trauma, violence, complexity and confusion. Yet, the dominance of legal practitioners in this field has given rise to a learned blind spot for theatre and performance studies, and also scholars in the field of theatre and performance studies themselves have been reluctant to address transitional justice practitioners and scholars. This article proposes a normative and praxis-based perspective on the potential and desirability of integrating insights from the field of theatre and performance studies into transitional justice studies. I do not consider one specific – set of – plays, but rather the techniques and assumptions which theatre makers have been using in their work in transitional societies. The article urges theatre and performance scholars to engage more fully with the domain of transitional justice, in order to increase the legitimacy of performance-based initiatives in the context of transitional justice interventions and to recast some of the basic assumptions of the transitional justice architecture.