On Uncomfortable Theatre and Cozy Revolution

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary trend of participatory performance pieces that seek to arouse discomfort in spectators and contemplates the radical potential of pieces that instead solicit coziness. Through it, Lynch highlights and deconstructs common assumptions about affect and politics in participatory theatre. The author begins by delineating the terms of the discussion, defining participatory performance broadly: as works that directly or indirectly invite the physical and/or intellectual participation of their audiences. In doing so, she connects more conventional forms of participatory theatre (which ask for spectators’ physical involvement), with modes of performance like direct audience address that more subtly call for participation and are often left out of discussions of participation and performance. Noting that “cozy” modes of affect associated with warmth and care may more often be scrutinized for their political potential, Lynch argues that performances that employ discomfort as part of their political strategies, which might be similarly limited, are often not subject to the same scrutiny. Using Adam Lazarus’s bouffon piece Daughter as a grounding example, she then explores some of the limits of discomfort as an approach to political engagement. Lynch discusses how discomfort can be deployed in reductive ways that may in some cases undermine the political points these pieces strive to make by centring the status quo and disproportionately distributing discomfort across heterogeneous audiences. Finally, as a counterpoint to the way uncomfortable theatre is often conceptualized, she offers some brief thoughts on what revolutionary theatre that engages with coziness might look like or be.