Towards the Rooting of Utopia in the Imagination of Politics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51427/cet.sdc.2025.3.4.7

Keywords:

Visions of Utopia, Resistance, Political Theatre, Artistic Imagination, End of Times

Abstract

The times we live today, one might claim, are defined by a growing notion of finitude. The covid19 pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine heightened an already perennial sense of permanent crisis. The famous quote attributed to Fredric Jameson seems to have undergone a semantic twist: “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” is no longer a slogan of anti-capitalist rhetoric; it's just a blunt truism. Indeed, today it is very easy to imagine the end of the world. The severity and monumentality of the issues that afflict the world today are inciting a central question for artists: in the face of an imminent catastrophe, what is the use of performing arts at the end of times?

Utopian (or dystopian) fiction has always dealt with the envisioning of a future anchored in scenarios based on “What-if” or “If-Only” premises (Thaler, 2022). In this paper I aim to combine a speculative reflection grounded on utopian studies and in political theatre. I am considering performing arts as a valid tool to defy the end of times and to fight for the rooting of (artistic) utopia in the imagination of politics, trusting that art and theatre will be able to help us invent scenarios that today seem impossible or that we have not yet managed to conceive.

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Author Biography

, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon / Centre for Theatre Studies (FLUL)

Rui Pina Coelho (Évora, 1975), Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, and Head of the Centre for Theatre Studies (Lisbon). Since 2010, he works with Teatro Experimental do Porto (TEP) as a playwright and dramaturg. He is the author of, among other titles, A hora do crime: A violência na dramaturgia britânica do pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial (1951–1967) (Peter Lang, 2016). He recently coordinated the volume Contemporary Portuguese Theatre: Experimentalism, Politics and Utopia [Working Title] (TNDMII/Bicho do Mato, 2017).

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Published

2025-06-22

How to Cite

Rui. (2025). Towards the Rooting of Utopia in the Imagination of Politics. Sinais De Cena, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.51427/cet.sdc.2025.3.4.7

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 4 (2025): Performance, ecology and the end of the world

Section

Thematic dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Rui Pina Coelho

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