Weeks before Luigi Mangione allegedly shot and killed healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan, an audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music confronted a fictional fascist actor during the play Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists. The play, written by Tiago Rodrigues, explores a Portuguese family’s ethical debate over the assassination of a fascist politician. The audience became emotionally engaged, chanting for the actor’s fictional demise, highlighting theatre’s power to galvanize collective political sentiment.
Rodrigues conceived the play in response to a Portuguese judge’s leniency toward violent offenders, evolving his narrative to reflect a near-future where fascism resurged. The performance acted as a communal ritual, transforming the audience from passive spectators into a politicized entity. Rodrigues emphasized that theatre can provoke thought and engagement far more effectively than social media, drawing parallels between political playwrights and left-wing organizers.
The piece reflects on the historical context of anti-fascist theatre, beginning with Bertolt Brecht, who aimed to challenge audience comfort through his epic theatre. Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children portrays the horrors of war without seeking audience empathy, while Eugène Ionesco’s Rhinoceros uses absurdity to depict the insidious rise of fascism among the complacent populace.
Other notable anti-fascist works include Wallace Shawn’s plays, which dissect how fascism manipulates morality, and Eric Bentley’s Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, which documents the Red Scare through real testimonies. Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine employs traditional storytelling to call for a direct confrontation against fascism.
The article concludes by emphasizing the need for communal spaces like theatre as platforms for political discourse and collective engagement in times of increasing political violence and repression. With social media devolving into reactionary spaces, live theatre offers a unique avenue to process political realities and inspire action against fascism and autocracy.
