Theater and Politics

Theater and Politics Zygmunt Hübner. Jadwiga Kosicka, editor and translator Foreword by Daniel Gerould. Afterword by Andrzej Wajda Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1992. pp. xvi+222. $51.95 cloth, $19.95 paper

Although the title of Zygmunt Hübner's thought-provoking Theater and Politics establishes a connection between these two realms of human endeavor, Hübner does his best in the ensuing text to erase the conjunction, demonstrating how the two activities are inextricably linked. To be sure, the lead in the relationship, as characterized by Hübner, most often falls to politics. That is, theatrical production always takes place in a political context, and, because someone must sponsor it, theatre always makes someone's point.

However, there is also a sense in which politics needs theatre to get its message across, and it is possible for theatre to become the tail that wags the dog, challenging the status quo and the holder(s) of power. Thus, Hübner wants to show how theatre is an inherently political activity and not just some potential adjunct-complicitous or adversarial-to politics.

For Hübner, politics is "action aimed at seizing power and then holding it once it has been seized" (2), while theatre is "an institution of social life that promotes artistic activity" (5). In this approach, Hübner takes a traditional view of political power. It is something one possesses and uses, not an impersonal, pervasive mechanism as in the theory of Foucault. It is important to note this, as the dangers and programs outlined for the theatre stand against the backdrop of the use of power as a means of indoctrination and control, most specifically as practiced by states. The theatre, as a social institution, will either contribute to or threaten the holding...