Sociologist Richard Sennett suggests remaking theatrical spaces for diverse crowds to act together
When Louis XIV sought to establish his power over France, he staged an eight-hour solo dance performance for members of the aristocracy who were virtually at war with one other. Combining music, dance, and visual spectacle, the aspiring ruler established light, order, and strength through his own embodied performance. It must have been physically overwhelming for the audience and the performer, and by the end of it, the Sun King emerged powerfully, with the authority to rule.
When words are failing, sociologist Richard Sennett explains in The Performer: Art, Life, Politics, a leader must draw on the spectacle of performance to arouse belief in their power. When he started writing the book, Sennett was shocked to find that political performance has a great deal in common with performance in high art. Sennett brings a particular interest and experience to the topic, as he was a professional cellist before a hand injury forced him to pursue a different career. He combines his personal experience with an in-depth study of historical theatrical spaces as well as contemporary politics.
The way in which Donald Trump invokes a particular rhythm in his speech, for example, allow his performance to overcome the fact that his words are stale, Sennett argues. The appeal of this type of performance becomes most dangerous when it is used to make institutional changes that will outlive the performance and the performer.
However, there are other connections between performance and society, that are “less depressing and frightening,” according to Sennett. There is potential to remake contemporary theatrical spaces and to restore some of the purpose they held in ancient Greece. With this book, Sennett calls for the creation of spaces where people who are not alike can mix and are physically engaged together. In that, performance is a social notion as much as it is political. The crowd moves from being spectators to being actors, actively engaged in pursuing a collective sense of power together.