ORANGE PEEL: (ANTI-)DIDACTIC POLITICAL DRAMA AND ITS IDEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

This paper examines the figure of the theatre audience in
contemporary Serbian political drama and theatre, proceeding from the
assumption that the audience constitutes a key site for the articulation of
power, knowledge and ideology. The analysis focuses on Maja Pelević’s
play Orange Peel (2006), which is interpreted within the broader
framework of public discourse on political theatre, including the positions
articulated by Kokan Mladenović. Drawing on insights from cultural
studies, reception theory, Bourdieu’s concept of class distinction, as well
as contemporary feminist and intersectional approaches, the paper
explores the ways in which the audience is constructed as “ignorant”,
“passive”, or “equal”, and how implicit hierarchies are reproduced within
these constructions.
Particular attention is devoted to the tension between didacticism and the
emancipatory aspirations of political theatre, as well as to the question of
who is granted the right to speak within theatrical discourse. The analysis
demonstrates that, despite efforts toward democratization and dialogue,
contemporary models of political theatre often retain subtle forms of
didacticism and exclusion, both at the level of representation and
reception. In this sense, the paper points to the necessity of a more radical
re-examination of internal structures of power within theatre, in order to
enable a genuinely participatory and egalitarian understanding of the
relationship between stage and audience.