Hearing the Political, Sounding Death: The Human Microphone and Motus’s Alexis. Una tragedia greca (2010)

This article examines the acoustic dimensions of forms of collective performance and action at the interface of art and the political. Following an introduction to the dramaturgic function of acoustics in contemporary theatre, Jacques Rancière’s concept of the aesthetic of the political is explored with reference to the radio ballets of the Hamburg-based performance group Ligna. The Occupy movement’s collective practice of the “human microphone” and the Antigone performance Alexis. Una tragedia greca by the Italian theatre group Motus (2010) are also discussed. The choral speaking and use of music here bridge the liminal space between the individual and the collective, between death and life, between political isolation and worldwide empathy.