Counterpublics Cause so Much Trouble: Oliver Frljić, Protest & Collectivity

Using Oliver Frljić’s highly controversial production of Klątwa (The Curse) at Warsaw’s Teatr Powszechny in 2017 as a starting point, this paper addresses the challenges of collectivity in theatre institutions and the forms of political participation they produce, both deliberately and unintentionally. Moving across performance sites (ensemble, protest, audience) the paper problematises easy assumptions around collectivity as an uncontested public good. Drawing on Michael Warner’s concept of “counterpublics,” Lease unpacks the ways in which publics need to be understood as plural rather than singular. The assertion of a singular public constitutes culture as autonomous in time and space, rather than porous, open to change and multivalent. This article argues that the emergence of rival publics and counterpublics challenge the assertion of a singular public and invites readers to interpret theatre performances and public protests collectively.