Joseph Baan

“How to untell a story that cannot be told but must be told.” – M. NourbeSe Philip

ALL RISE cross-examines the dramaturgical genealogies between the legal system and the theatre, both technologies whose insistence on intelligibility and narrative coherence renders conflict visible, narratable, and ultimately containable without imparting real ethical responsibility.

Working with the vector of the trial, a ritual in the legal system whose aim for “justice” often warrants its own violences, the work interrogates modalities of sovereignty under law. Juridical insistence on legibility and coherence—on performing plausibility—undercuts the fact that trauma is often incoherent.

Deploying the mise-en-scene of the courtroom in relation to that of theatre, ALL RISE performs the trial as a space of waiting in which conviction, coherence, and sense-making are perpetually delayed. The trial becomes a no-show; the roles of witness, judge, and advocate shared amongst both audience and performers.

The play contains spoken text in English. You can find the original texts and a German translation here:
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