Browsing by Subject "political theatre"

This master’s thesis combines two realms that have received only minor attention: Anti-trafficking theatre activism and the research of theatre audience experiences. The study is a data-driven qualitative content analysis of theatre audience’s reception experiences considering the activist theatre performance, Item No 316, on the topic of human trafficking. The performance was staged seventeen times in the spring of 2013, in eight cities in Finland. The aim of this study is to clarify the function of activist theatre in relation to its audiences. This is done through the case of Item No 316. The data was gathered firstly through semi-structured group interviews with voluntary audience members right after the performances, and secondly by an e-mail questionnaire five months later. Altogether 30 spectators were interviewed in Turku, Tampere, Jyväskylä and Joensuu, and 24 of them later responded to the questionnaire. The data was analysed using qualitative content analysis and supporting quantitative content specification. The central theoretical background corresponding to the findings consists of media scholar Roger Silverstone’s theory of ‘proper distance’, theatre scholar Lib Taylor’s concept of ‘emotional enlistment’ and theatre scholar Peter Eversmann’s analysis of the theatrical experience. The main results have to do with conceptions of the theatre medium, its most efficient means, the shared and individual aspects of its audience experiences, the change of thinking and action provoked by it and – most importantly – the influentiality of theatrical emotions and the experienced increase in proximity of the performance and its topic. Theatre was conceived as a medium that enhances the experience of proximity with the distant suffering Others more than other media, and its capability to affect emotionally through theatricality and living body media was seen as a highly efficient provoker of change. The findings of this study defend the activist theatre medium’s capability to engage its audiences on various levels: Firstly, into focusing on the delivered mediation of factual information and stories; secondly, into relating, identifying and empathising with the victims of social injustice as distant Others; and thirdly, into an ongoing mental process about the relevance and influence of the mediated social injustice for themselves and their everyday lives. Therefore, according to this study’s audience experiences, the potential that theatre has to offer to activist causes might be considerable.