Performative counter-storytelling can be a powerful experience for both the artists who create these stories and the audiences who witness them. This study examined audience responses to a counter-narrative (entitled “AMKA”) performed by Africans in Australia which intended to present more complex, holistic, and strengths-based representations of their communities than those currently circulated by dominant discourses. Guided by a critical whiteness lens, the study explored how 34 self-identifying white audience members interpreted the performance and how they questioned whiteness by assuming the role of implicated witnesses. Following thematic analysis of mixed closed- and open-ended post-performance survey responses, audience members made connections between the content of AMKA and the contemporary political and cultural contexts in which it was performed and began to examine their positions of privilege and power. This study has provided evidence for the potential of political theater in creating spaces of encounter whereby responsible listening positions can be nurtured in the journey toward dismantling personal, and potentially structural, racially-based injustices.

中文翻译：

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表演性是政治性的：通过戏剧使用反故事为暗示见证创造空间

对于创作这些故事的艺术家和见证它们的观众来说，表演性的反故事讲述都是一种强大的体验。这项研究调查了观众对澳大利亚非洲人进行的反叙事（名为“AMKA”）的反应，该反叙事旨在呈现比目前主流话语传播的更复杂、更全面和基于优势的社区表征。在批判性白人镜头的指导下，该研究探索了 34 名自我认同的白人观众如何解释表演，以及他们如何通过假设有牵连的证人的角色来质疑白人。在对混合封闭式和开放式绩效后调查答复进行专题分析之后，观众将 AMKA 的内容与表演时所处的当代政治和文化背景联系起来，并开始审视他们的特权和权力地位。这项研究为政治戏剧在创造相遇空间方面的潜力提供了证据，从而可以在消除个人的、潜在的结构性的、基于种族的不公正的过程中培养负责任的倾听立场。