ABSTRACT
Documentary theatre production in the US and UK accelerated soon after the terrorist attacks that struck the US on September 11, 2001. Many artists, critics, and scholars who watched in horror as the World Trade Center towers collapsed saw the event as a brutalizing resurgence of the real after decades of postmodern skepticism about the idea of objective truth. In her memoir Talk to Me, Anna Deavere Smith writes: "Education gives us more facts, more evidence, but it does not give us empathy. Documentary theatre often does social or political good by rendering visible abuses and injustices that might otherwise have been ignored, but greater visibility can also bring greater vulnerability. A protective attitude toward participants can hamper a documentary's capacity to view social issues and social actors critically, a problem that Jill Dolan addresses in her reading of The Laramie Project.
