Social Media as Critical Stage: Controversy, Debate and Democracy

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the ways in which social media is transforming the practices of review, critique and commentary that are so critical to theatre makers’ relationships with their audiences, and thus to theatre’s position, power and legacy in the public sphere. As scholars such as Lynne Conner (2013), Christopher Balme (2014) and Toni Sant (2014, 2013, 2009, 2008) have suggested, social media technologies are providing new opportunities for the public to discuss, debate and play a role in determining the meanings of theatre works. A detailed analysis of online debates about controversial works such as Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B, Peta Brady’s Ugly Mugs and Rita Marcalo’s Involuntary Dances shows how spectators use these technologies to push for particular readings of marginalised people and communities depicted on stage. Though traditional criticism operates on a logic of authority , this new user-created criticism operates on a logic of authenticity , changing the way in which theatre practices shape, and are shaped by, the supposedly democratic public debate the draw their many spectators and stakeholders into.