Introduction

Since the earliest recorded times, theatre has been considered an art available to the community with three possible functions: acceptance of the status quo, protest against existing regimes, and entertainment. At some moments in history, theatrical performances have even taken on the explicit political purposes of protest and criticism, or propaganda and consensus-building, sometimes reaching forms of outright militancy by affiliation to parties or forms of government. Moreover, if we assume, as we propose, a broad and performative notion of theatre practices1, that includes creative processes during workshops, games, feasts, celebrations, street demonstrations, happenings, performances in public spaces and events, then the connections between performing arts and practices (on one side) and politics (on the other) become all the more numerous. From this perspective, theatres are an intermediate process of interaction between representative and delegated power systems and those whom they purport to represent. A multiplicity of media have helped both parts of the power relationship, in spite of the complexities encountered, to shape the dynamics of collective well-being. But, in modern times, the correlation between theatres and political power has become increasingly problematic, to the point that today we feel compelled to question it and create opportunities for study and reflection that bring it back to the centre of debate.