A Performative Inquiry Framework for Collective Memory in Contemporary Theatre

Thesis Abstract

This study investigates how performative inquiry can illuminate the workings of collective memory within contemporary theatre, addressing a gap where memory is often treated as retrospective content rather than as an active, co-constructed process between performers and audiences. The problem situates theatre as a site where memory is produced, contested, and mobilized through embodied practices, dramaturgy, and audience engagement, yet existing frameworks frequently overlook the situated, relational dynamics that render memory performative. The aim is to develop a robust framework—A Performative Inquiry Framework for Collective Memory in Contemporary Theatre—that articulates how memory emerges through rehearsal, staging, and spectator reception, and to apply this framework to empirical cases to test its explanatory power. Specific objectives are (1) to delineate a theoretical synthesis drawing on Bakhtin’s dialogism, Butler’s performativity, and Schechner’s performative turn to ground memory as an emergent practice; (2) to operationalize performative inquiry as a methodological toolkit for analysing memory productions in performance; (3) to examine how contemporary plays encode, negotiate, and reframe collective memory through dramaturgy, direction, design, and actor training; (4) to assess audience interpretive reception and its feedback effects on ongoing memory construction; and (5) to propose a reflexive framework for practice-based researchers and theatre-makers to interrogate memory as a live, co-created phenomenon. The study utilizes a mixed-methods design with sequential phases. In Phase 1, a qualitative corpus study analyzes four contemporary productions from Western Europe and East Asia, each selected for explicit engagement with national or diasporic memory (n=4 plays; performance seasons ranging 2018–2024). Phase 2 employs practitioner-based case studies involving 12 professional theatre-makers (directors, dramaturgs, designers) and 6 theatre audiences per production (n=24 practitioners, n=24 audience groups), using semi-structured interviews, rehearsal journals, and note-taking during performances to capture processual memory work. Data collection instruments include a standardized interview guide informed by Bakhtinian dialogism and Butlerian performativity, rehearsal diaries, and audience response sheets. Phase 3 employs thematic analysis to identify recurring performative strategies (e.g., mortised memory, reframing, and memory-work dramaturgy) and social semiotics to interpret symbolic resources across staging, sound, and space. Validity is enhanced through triangulation across interviews, performance transcripts, and audience observations, as well as member checking with participating artists. Reliability is addressed through coding consistency checks and intercoder agreement (Cohen’s kappa > .80). Quantitative elements include a structured content analysis of stage design features and audience ratings of memory salience, analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression analysis to explore associations between dramaturgic strategies and perceived memory resonance (p<.05). Theoretically, the framework integrates performativity theory (Butler), dialogic memory (Bakhtin), and performative anthropology (Turner) with theatre studies concepts of mise-en-scène, dramaturgy, and audience engagement, producing a model that explains how memory is enacted, negotiated, and circulated in contemporary theatre. Expected findings indicate that memory is produced through iterative cycles of performance and reception, with higher memory salience linked to co-presence in shared space, participatory dramaturgy, and multimodal cues (voice, gesture, scenography) that mobilize collective memory as a dynamic, evolving construct rather than a fixed archive. The study anticipates identifying a core set of performative inquiry operations—presence, provocation, re-framing, and communal interpretation—that reliably predict memory-driven audience engagement across varied cultural contexts. The contribution to knowledge lies in operationalizing performative inquiry as a deliberate, transferable framework for analysing collective memory in theatre, offering a validated toolkit for researchers and practitioners to examine memory as an emergent social practice. The principal conclusion posits that contemporary theatre functions as a critical site for reconstituting collective memory through participatory, dialogic formation, where memory becomes a living, negotiated artifact rather than a static store of past events. Recommendations include the dissemination of the framework through practitioner-researcher workshops, development of an open-access coding scheme and analytic rubric, and further cross-cultural studies examining memory-work in different theatrical traditions to enhance the framework’s generalizability.