The facts of history are important, but try telling that to a classroom full of bored youngsters. One way to liven up the subject is to show that real people lived through historical events. Drama academic Stephanie Jenkins argues that learning becomes fun when learners care about what they are asked to remember. And one way to encourage caring is to perform the stories of the past, using museums as theatre spaces. Here she explains the idea, using an example from her work in South Africa – where the past is painful but shapes current social issues and future citizens.
What is museum theatre and how does it bring history to life?
Museum theatre is a form of performance that uses acting and other theatrical techniques within a museum, gallery or historical space (such as a historical building) to bring the exhibitions “to life”.
Performers act out historical people and narratives that have been researched. It’s a way for people to encounter the past through experience rather than just facts.
Bringing the past into the museum space through performance offers an opportunity to gain attention and foster potential for further engagement with the historical topic.
How have you used museum theatre to teach South African history?
One example was a play I developed called Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause, which was performed at the KwaMuhle Museum in Durban, South Africa, during March 2020. It was connected to the Grade 11 history syllabus with the aim of connecting what was learnt in class to the historical site of the museum.
The building this museum is housed in used to be the Native Administration Department. Under the apartheid system of racial segregation, black people had to carry a passbook (also referred to as a dompas) which gave them permission to be present in certain areas of a city for work. They had to apply for it and get it approved at this building, which would often mean waiting in long lines in the Durban heat.
The performance dramatised some of those people’s experiences, in the place where they’d had them. The actor guides spoke the recorded words of actual historical people, many of whom had stood in the spaces where the audience was standing. Their words had been recorded in various texts, newspaper articles and interviews conducted by officials at the museum in the early 1990s. (The pass system was abolished in 1986.)
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Part of the experience for learners was to interact with objects, using all their senses, to spark creative thought processes and dialogue.
For example, they had to hold a replica passbook during the performance. Some reported that it felt “demeaning”, “stressful”, “oppressive”, or “scary”. The passbook “prop” helped them to experience how surveillance and fear can be used to control people.
In museum theatre like this, learners interact with the characters and learn about the past by observing, and often participating in, the performed action. By encouraging the learners to be part of the action, and surrounded by the exhibitions to which the performance is speaking, the learners are encouraged to be more active in their learning.
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The use of actors provides the opportunity for the learners to personally connect to the history and to care about the characters. Historical people are given a “face”, a three-dimensional body and a voice, making history look human and less removed from the present. Empathy, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, is an important skill to learn. And it connects what is taught with the learner’s own life, making it relevant and easier to remember.
What did you learn from this performance?
The performance was used to challenge both notions around what learning about history is like (in terms of classroom and book learning) and what a run-of-the-mill museum visit is “supposed” to evoke. The performance attempted to encourage learners to be part of the historical experience rather than just “absorb facts”.
From the feedback collected from the learners, it is clear that using performance to re-enact narratives from the past works well in gaining their attention and personal connection to the histories, and to the actual site as well. Many did not know much about this place (in their city) before the performance.
One learner noted that reading about history should feel personal but noted that “this (the performance) felt more personal … I didn’t expect it to”.
Why does it matter?
Performance in museums can be one way that an interest in history, and in turn wider societal issues, is cultivated from a young age.
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While the present is vital to our wellbeing, ignoring the past creates citizens who do not have a proper grasp of various historical contexts, which is necessary to better understand where and who we are now. We cannot attempt to change current social issues if we do not understand how the past has influenced these problems.
Stephanie Jenkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.