A Disturbance. . . What Would You Do?

An idea immediately came to mind when I read Amanda's post about theatrical disturbances.  I absolutely love the television show What Would You Do?  For those of you who are not familiar with the ABC series, host John Quinones sets up scenes of conflict or illegal activity in public settings while hidden cameras videotape the scene.  The whole premise of the show is to see how bystanders will react as the hired actors do things such as throw homophobic, racist, or sexist slurs, physically abuse someone, leave their child in a hot car, disrespect wait staff, and many more.   Interestingly, they do many variations of the study.  For example, they may start with a man verbally and physically abusing his girlfriend in a public park.  The next study may be that the couple are in less appealing clothing.  The next study may be that the girlfriend is black and the boyfriend is white; and, the next study may be that the roles reverse and the girlfriend is the one physically abusing her boyfriend.  As the experiment goes on, psychology professors, teachers, and bystanders watch and discuss the video with Quiñones, explaining and making inferences on the reactions.  The show also makes a point to create scenarios based on issues popping up in the media currently.  Check out the youtube links below and allow yourself to be sucked in to hours upon hours of What Would You Do?

I think that this show is extremely effective.  It can be very touching, but also very disturbing.  I absolutely believe this is a form of theatre.  It does exactly what Artaud and Brecht speak of.  It breaks the convention of the way life is presented.  I think that this television series is a form of theatre of cruelty.  Artaud states in No More Masterpieces that "on the level of performance, it is not the cruelty we can exercise upon each other by hacking at each other's bodies, carving up our personal anatomies, or, like Assyrian emperors, sending parcels of human ears, noses, or neatly detached nostrils through the mail, but the much more terrible and necessary cruelty which things can exercise against us. We are not free. And the sky can still fall on our heads. And the theater has been created to teach us that first of all."  How absolutely right is Artaud when he speaks of our freedom?  Many of the bystanders who watch their own reactions on tape after doing nothing say things like, "I didn't know what to do" or "I was always taught to mind my own business."  Really?  You were taught to mind your own business when you see someone being physically assaulted?  Our society is bound by constraints that we are totally unaware of until we are thrown smack-dab in the middle of a test.  I think that's why What Would You Do? is so powerful.  It puts the audience to the test.  A REAL TEST.  They can remain an audience member and just watch in horror or they can do what Brecht hoped for a become so moved that a part of the scene and make an effort to affect some change.  Either way they are affected.  It think  this also makes this television series a form of activism theatre.  The series is a part of a national network and has to go through a large process to have the ability to even film where they do.  They also are in contact with the police departments so as not to create a disturbance.  It's organized, but also impromptu.  A mixture of an organized protest and and a protest play with the message continuing to be, "Stand up.  Say something.  Do what's right." AWESOME!!!!!

Racial Profiling:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDanZpek5iM

Public Abuse:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXSU1xUXBM

Transgender Children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtytuVs-Kks