Theatre and Human Rights after 1945

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: Theatre and the Rise of Human Rights

   1. Introduction: Theatre and the Rise of Human Rights

      • Mary Luckhurst, Emilie Morin

      Pages 1-17

3. Colonial Legacies and the Unspeakable

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19

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   2. Unspeakable Tragedies: Censorship and the New Political Theatre of the Algerian War of Independence

      • Emilie Morin

      Pages 21-38

   3. Beyond Articulation: Brian Friel, Civil Rights, and the Northern Irish Conflict

      • Michael McAteer

      Pages 39-54

4. Unspeakability and Ethnicity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 55-55

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   2. ‘Lapsing into Democracy’: Magnet Theatre and the Drama of Unspeakability in the New South Africa

      • Mark Fleishman

      Pages 57-73

   3. The Great Australian Silence: Aboriginal Theatre and Human Rights

      • Maryrose Casey

      Pages 74-89

5. Returning Histories, Listening, and Trauma

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. Disappearing History: Listening and Trauma in Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden

      • Cathy Caruth

      Pages 93-109

   3. Hungry Ghosts and Inalienable Remains: Performing Rights of Repatriation

      • Emma Cox

      Pages 110-127

   4. Representing Genocide at Home: Ishi, Again

      • Catherine M. Cole

      Pages 128-150

6. Theatres of Advocacy and Western Liberalism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. The Politics of Telling and Workers’ Rights: the Case of Mike Daisey

      • Carol Martin

      Pages 153-170

   3. Gender-based Violence and Human Rights: Participatory Theatre in Post-Genocide Rwanda

      • Ananda Breed

      Pages 171-189

   4. Jalila Baccar and Tunisian Theatre: ‘We Will Not Be Silent’

      • Marvin Carlson

      Pages 190-206

7. Militancy and Contemporary Invisibilities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207

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   2. Defixio: Disability and the Speakable Legacy of John Belluso

      • Michael M. Chemers

      Pages 209-227

   3. Theatre and Elder Abuse

      • Mary Luckhurst

      Pages 228-240

8. Back Matter

   Pages 241-254

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This volume investigates the rise of human rights discourses manifested in the global spectrum of theatre and performance since 1945. Essays address topics such as disability, discrimination indigenous rights, torture, gender violence, genocide and elder abuse.

• Theatre of Human Rights
• Contemporary Performance
• Political Theatre
• democracy
• drama
• human rights
• theatre
• tragedy

“Editors … have collected an impressive range of international perspectives on human rights and theatre. … What the volume as a whole achieves is an insistence on theatre’s roles in wider cultural (often global) contexts that are about testimony, the recognition of past injustices, mediation, advocacy, and potential catharsis. Contributors offer engaging accounts of examples from a range of places (and eras) in which performance speaks of and through human rights abuses at the level of institutions, states, and international collusion.” (Aylwyn Walsh, New Theatre Quarterly, Vol. 33 (1), February, 2017)

“I describe this book as vital to playwrights, artistic directors and serious artistic thinkers alike. … I learned much from this book and itwill assist my own work as a playwright. … I suggest that whether you are a theatre practitioner or an audience member, your stage experience will be improved by reading these essays. As I said at the outset, Mary Luckhurst and Emilie Morin have compiled and edited a vital series of essays.” (Hubert O’Hearn, San Diego Book Review, October, 2015)

"This book defines vitally important new territory in thinking about the intersection of theatre, social engagement, and human rights. Nuanced readings of 20th and 21st-century performance practices investigate the unique role of theatre in relation to issues such as post-conflict violence, torture, elder abuse, political censorship, corporate labour practices, and disability. Cathy Caruth analyses the politics of listening and Catherine Cole writes magisterially on institutional ethics and the performance of genocide. This is a brilliant expose of the way performance can sometimes transcend and sometimes spectacularly fail in the wake of the famously unspeakable horrors of Auschwitz." - Yoni Prior, Deakin University, Australia

"This volume examines the critical and performative valency of 'unspeakability', by sensitively investigating its meanings within various historical and political contexts. Engaging with protest theatres in northern Africa, disability, indigenous rights, elderabuse, torture, sexual violence, and the ethical protocols of repatriating human remains, it offers an impressively diverse set of agendas on human rights. Theatre and Human Rights interrogates the 'unspeakable' in ways that will resonate with everyone and for a long time to come." - Joanne Tompkins, University of Queensland, Australia

• University of Melbourne, UK

  Mary Luckhurst, Emilie Morin

• University of York, UK

  Mary Luckhurst, Emilie Morin

Ananda Breed, University of East London, UK Marvin Carlson, City University of New York, USA Cathy Caruth, Cornell University, USA Maryrose Casey, Monash University, Australia Michael M. Chemers, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA Catherine M. Cole, University of California, Berkeley, USA Emma Cox, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK Mark Fleishman, University of Cape Town, South Africa Mary Luckhurst, University of Melbourne, Australia Michael McAteer, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary Carol Martin, New York University, USA Emilie Morin, University of York, UK

Policies and ethics