Theatre and the Good: The Value of Collaborative Play By Mark Fe ...

Chapter Two

Theatre and Social Formation

I wanted to do. I was doing something the actors wanted to do. They didn’t feel like quitting. They were able to be normal. They were able to be dignified. Even while our theatre is being shelled, they are affirming their right to be complete human beings and not just people cowering.

—Susan Sontag, describing her production of Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, 1994¹⁹

Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the social process of theatre-making. After looking beyond what are really literary criticisms, one finds that most writing on theatre concerns the theatre product: the inevitable and climactic performance of actors in the presence of a live audience. The stunning visions of Antonin Artaud and Jerzy Grotowski restore, it is true, an awareness of the sacrificial nature of acting, of the actor’s offering of herself or himself in a context of deep seriousness and within a sacred environment.²⁰