Insights

Can Democracy Survive Without Theater?

By Ciji Guerin

“We’ve got a president who undercuts the rule of law and attacks the press. We’ve got misinformation and social media attacks fueling fear and division across the country. How can seeing a play put a dent in all of that?”

-An anonymous pragmatic

As I walk through the world today, I find myself traveling through an infinite chain that interlinks my personal self, my family, my community, my nation and the world. For better and worse. I see the better side of this infinite chain when my husband and I work with people in other states and countries from the privacy of our home, allowing us to spend more time with our children than our parents did. I see the fragility of it when I buy cheap goods, made in different countries from around the globe, that allow me to enjoy a lifestyle I couldn’t otherwise afford, but also adds to the instability of our current job market. I see the worst of it when I watch a rising portion of our national income go to the top one percent, in the steady rise in poverty and the growing number of makeshift homes constructed of tarps and cardboard tucked between buildings and beneath overpasses, and in the increasingly tense arguments about immigration as the numbers in our immigrant populations grow.

Instability is in the air. People are clashing. Right-wing nationalism is on the rise in Europe, partisan polarization has taken over the U.S. Congress, protests are happening in our city streets, and our last presidential election split people apart—sister from brother and neighbor from neighbor.

As I bear witness to it, I can’t help but wonder, “Can our democracy survive this level of strife?”

Tribal Polarization, Tyrants, Democracy and Theater

It’s often cited in theater circles how the birth of the theater in ancient Athens gave birth to its democracy.

Athens was once so divided, so polarized a city-state that nearly two centuries of continual internal disputes and hostilities lead to a series of tyrannical strongmen rising into power. But then the Athenian dictator, Pisistratus, tired of the constant fighting amongst his people, decided to do something audacious: He started the Athenian annual theater festival. At the time, the only public theater events that were held were loosely structured choral shows performed in separate areas of the city to each of the different tribes. Pisistratus brought all of the theater events across the city-state together, had them performed in one place, at one time, and made them the heart of a great civic celebration.

As the tribes gathered at this common space and shared in this common experience, a revolutionary change occurred: The performances started to include the stories of women, immigrants, and slaves who had never had any voice in the polis before. As these new perspectives emerged, the loosely structured choral shows began to transform into the first Greek plays and planted a seed of doubt into each of the tribes’ polarized beliefs. As the festival continued, the seeds took root and created a sea change in the Athenian consciousness, allowing for a cohesive Athenian identity to arise. The theater then became solidified as a place of serious, dramatic and comic dialogue, a place where unconventional ideas could be explored and statements could be made that weren’t likely to be welcomed into the public sphere otherwise. Within a single generation, democracy was born.

Theater as an Active and Timely Cultural Force

I find attending a live performance invigorating because anything can happen. The endless possibilities give it an exciting delicacy that’s palpable, visceral and leaves me breathless. It’s also a collective experience that can’t be found on social media, television, film or anything that requires a screen.

It is this intimate, communal aspect of the theater that gives it the power to tend to the fragile bonds of our interconnected world at every point along the line: from the self to family, community, nation and world. Theater magically drops us into realms of experience unlike our own, broadening our perspectives and enhancing our capacity for compassion. It imaginatively addresses the difficult issues we face as an individual, community, city, nation and world. It creates spheres of dialogue where tough questions provoked by these issues can be asked and addressed. Communally. The theatre is the place where unconventional ideas are explored and statements are made that ignite democratic discourse, challenge polarized beliefs and plant seeds that can take root and awaken a more cohesive national and international identity.

Believe it?

Well, we’re about to bring forth a real-world context that, we hope, can begin the journey to comity and understanding. Over the next few months, we’ll feature eight personal essays by company members that will tell the tales of a theater experience that has broadened or changed their perspectives, and deepened their connections to others.

Join us.

If you’ve had a theater experience that has changed your outlook, share your story with us in the comment sections below. Or come to one of our events and begin a conversation.

Here’s to connecting on a deeper level.