Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Notes for the Traveller: Introduction to the Journey Ahead

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 1-16

3. Landscapes of Aftermath

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 17-55

4. Performing Museums and Memorial Bodies: Theatre in the Shadows of the Crematoria

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 56-100

5. Vietnam: ‘Not the bullshit story in the Lonely Planet’

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 101-128

6. ‘Here was the place’: (Re)Performing Khmer Rouge Archives of Violence

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 129-160

7. Lost in Our Own Land: Re-Enacting Colonial Violence

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 161-187

8. ‘The world watched’: Witnessing Genocide

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 188-214

9. Phantom Speak

   • Emma Willis

   Pages 215-220

10. Back Matter

    Pages 221-237

    PDF

Works of theatre that depict grievous histories derive their force from making audible voices of the past. Such performances, theatrical or tourist, require the attentive belief of spectators. This engaging new study explores how theatricality works in each instance and how 'playing the part' of the listener can be understood in ethical terms.

• Dark tourism
• Spectatorship
• Ethics
• ethics
• genocide
• landscape
• landscapes
• performance
• play
• theatre
• violence

"Emma Willis's worthy project, Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship, places works for the theatre in dialogue with place-based memorials. Willis offers us practice-centered analysis for diverse objects of study. Following Willis as she takes on the challenges of these ethical/aesthetic encounters, readers will appreciate the book's ethorough research, sound argumentation, and elegant prose. An ambitious project effectively realized, this is insightful scholarship about a timely subject." - Laurie Beth Clark, University of Wisconsin, USA

Emma Willis is an academic and artist based in Aotearoa New Zealand where she teaches Drama at the University of Auckland. In addition to publishing performance criticism, she works as a writer, director and dramaturge in theatre, dance and radio.

Policies and ethics