Historical intermediation in Theatre of the Real: the theatricalization of history in The Wooster Group’s Rumstick Road, The Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project, and Milo Rau’s Five Easy Pieces

In this contemporary moment, the re-presentation of ‘the real’ characterizes much of theatre performances. Theatre of the Real, in particular, revisits the past and gives performers, spectators, and any other contributors access to historical events for historical intervention. However, as the re- presentation of found material is fragmented in performances, where does testimony lie? Does the fragmentation of representational forms provide a critical distance of assessment in revisiting history, or does it make it unclear what exactly to intervene in? How do spectators respond, and how are they implicated as witnesses in the process? This paper addresses these questions by examining The Wooster Group's 'Rumstick Road' (1977), The Tectonic Theater Project's 'The Laramie Project' (2000), and Milo Rau's 'Five Easy Pieces' (2016), and exploring how Theatre of the Real functions as an intermediate site that enables those in the present to connect with and intervene in history. Through the findings, this paper posits that Theater of the Real’s intervention in history through the re-presentation of the past theatricalizes the way history is constructed in the archives.Bachelor of Art