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Queering Show Trials: The Judge’s Body as a Site for the Metamorphosis of Violence

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Abstract

This provocation explores how the use of the judge’s body in my experimental act SHOW.TRIAL. facilitates the subversion of authoritative violence inherent to show trials. Proposing a comparative lens to the theatrical tribunals conducted by Milo Rau, this critical self-reflection offers a queer dramaturgy for alternative justice-doing. Through the transformation of queer spaces into impermanent courts and through the exposed and punished body of the performer/judge, the work proposes a BDSM-esque judicial ritual promising the opportunity to release pain, rage, and grief. Where Rau’s tribunals supress their performative pretence, and particularly make an effort to conceal their political agenda under the guise of a fair, objective proceeding, SHOW.TRIAL. admits to its subjectivity, capriciousness and powerlessness. Consequently, the catharsis this performance offers is not the release of conflict through resolution, but the sharing of the burden to carry it. Through an embodied metamorphosis of conflict to release, the work transforms the violent site of the court into a space of commiseration and emancipation.

Keywords: Show trial, performance art, queer performance, bdsm, theatre and law, Penal Colony

How to Cite:

Lapid-Mashall, K., (2025) “Queering Show Trials: The Judge’s Body as a Site for the Metamorphosis of Violence”, Documenta 43(1): 10, 265–285. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/documenta.93836