‘Dissident Acts’ puts the audience in the spotlight

What part does the audience play in the theater? While actors are elevated on a brightly-lit stage, audience members remain silently shrouded in darkness. The Barnard theater department’s production, “Dissident Acts: 3 Plays,”—which runs from Nov. 19-21—is a trio of plays designed to turn the tables, exploring the audience’s role in theater.

The performance’s plays include Samuel Beckett’s “Catastrophe” , Slawomir Mrozek’s “The Police” and Václav Havel’s “Unveiling.” The consistent character of the Director, who has been introduced from Beckett’s “Catastrophe,” fluidly connects all three plays into a riveting performance discussing humanity, art, and politics. Theater, here, functions as a mode of representation for contemporary issues and also serves to “interrogate the politics of our present,” as explained on the CUArts website.

Assistant professor of theater Hana Worthen, who worked with the actors on “Dissident Acts: 3 Plays,” explained that there is a “strain of absurdism” throughout the plays, allowing them to satirically critique society and the various spheres of life. Worthen chose these three particular plays because they “use theater as the metaphor and mechanism of the state,” confronting social and political issues. But although the plays were written within specific historical contexts, the audience is urged to think about the plays’ relevance to current events.

“Dissident Acts: 3 Plays” will also move off-campus as part of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ “Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe” Festival. Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Europe, the five-month festival explores the way in which the performing arts contributed to the revolutions and fall of Communism. The festival director, Gary Cherniakhovsky, understands firsthand the difficulty of dissident works, having directed in the former Soviet Union. Beckett’s “Catastrophe” is even dedicated to Havel, who was, at the time, imprisoned by Czech authorities.

Though audience members will still sit in the dark at Minor Latham Playhouse, the plays hope to shed some light on the viewer’s importance to the spectacle.