Dialectical Collaborative Theatre: Practising equality by facilitating non-material ideology in the production process

What is it about?

This article discusses the relationship between ethics and ideology and how this relationship forms the basis of the practice of BloodWater Theatre, a collective I formed to explore equality in collaborative theatre-making. Now more than ever, at a time where inequality is being challenged in all aspects of society, we have a responsibility as artists to reflect on our privilege (or lack thereof) and to take radical action. Inequality is prevalent in all types of theatre processes and productions, even in oppositional theatre. I developed Dialectical Collaborative Theatre (DCT) to explore how artists and theatre academics can make equality and shared ownership central to our practice. DCT is developed from Marx’s theory of ‘capital’ and ‘cooperation’. Using the practice of BloodWater Theatre developed from DCT, I explore the tensions between performance as a product, and performance as a process. I propose a rethinking of the enduring association of “utility” with capitalist objectives of productivity and profit, proposing instead Bentham’s ethical formulations of utility. I propose DCT as one of the tangible ways artists can grow their commitment to translating ethical principles into practice and thereby embed equality in collaborative theatre-making and performance.

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Why is it important?

As artists, we need to find a methodological approach to embedding equality in our practice. As performance scholars, we need to develop a range of critical lenses to help us analyse our observations of equality/inequality. As spectators, participants or consumers of art, we need to be challenged on the ethics of the aesthetics we value. DCT provides artists, academics and audiences with a toolkit to help us in our analysis and practice of equality.

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