Stanford Drama

Inspired by the work of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, this dissertation tries to answer the question: Why are popular theater forms useful for doing revolutionary political theater?

Chapter 1 looks at the works of a variety of theater and literary critics and anthropologists to identify some of the distinctive characteristics of popular theater common to forms as diverse as minstrel shows and circus clowining. In the process it suggests how these elements tend towards a revolutionary perspective. The category "festive-revolutionary" is used to identify this distinctive type of popular theater.

Chapter 2 outlines the development of popular theater in France. It shows popular theater's actual and associative relationship to revolution, as well as the way popular forms grew in opposition to theater forms sanctioned by religious and political powers.

Chapter 3 uses the puppet show "Punch and Judy" to explore how a single popular form translates the general revolutionary perspective of the popular into distinctive characters, actions and themes. The distinct elements of a single tradition can be seen as a variety of tactics that are used to ridicule structures of power and avoid the possibility of repression.

Chapter 4 looks at the specific issue of the use of stereotypes in popular forms in the context of the American minstrel show. It proposes that sterotypes can, to some extent, be used in a positive way to redefine negative images.

The work of the San Francisco Mime troupe is used throughout the text as an example of contemporary popular theater. Chapter 5 focuses more specifically and in depth on their work, asking, how it has changed since the 1960s, and whether the revolutionary potential of popular forms still helps the troupe's political project. The Troupe's 1988 production Ripped Van Winkle is used to underline the persistent need for festive-revolutionary theater, even in a time of political complacency.