The spectator as witness? Binlids as case study.

This article examines the effect of testimonial drama for the spectator who is placed in the position of receiver to the testimony. It considers the en vogue critical call to transform spectators into 'witnesses' and asks whether testimonial plays, in which characters bear witness, facilitate that transformation. I examine an extreme form of dramatized witnessing, Dubbeljoint Productions/JustUs Theatre Company's Binlids (1997), in which real people take the stage as witnesses. I argue that, paradoxically, the on-stage behaviour of witnesses is not conducive to producing spectatorial witnesses, because the character's desire for agency forecloses the range of possible audience reactions. Moreover, the reception history of Binlids demonstrates that any attempt to formulate the spectator as an engaged 'witness' may collapse under the multiplicity of responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]