The Power of Stillness in Theatre
Keywords:
live performance, stillness, spectator/creator, body perception, connection, body dynamic, close-up, electric air, emotions, energyAbstract
This article examines the origins of blackface in European theatrical traditions, examining its ideological foundations and historical expressions from antiquity to the present. It examines how European performance cultures have historically mobilised blackness as a performative and racialised construct, going beyond the often American-centric interpretation of blackface. The study aims to reveal how the visual and embodied motifs of blackface have been used in popular entertainment, judicial spectacles, and religious rituals to articulate changing but enduring forms of racial othering. The approach emphasises the ways in which these activities influenced the creation of cultural identities, the aesthetics of exoticism, and larger systems of colonial authority. The paper concludes by arguing that blackface in Europe is a unique and deeply ingrained cultural matrix that necessitates critical historical analysis rather than being a derivation of American minstrelsy. The article reorients the discussion of race and representation in European theatre and performance studies by placing these traditions inside their respective settings.
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