ABSTRACT
The theatrical – theatre – must seem the most unlikely candidate as a potential jurisprudence. Han-Thies Lehmann captures precisely the mood that sits behind theatrical jurisprudence, a practice that is impatient with the presumption that the philosophical and abstract ought be conceived as jurisprudential perfection. Theatre, rather than operating contra what is good, seeks to achieve what is good as a form of practised humanity. Antonin Artaud’s insistence that theatre can’t be created by ‘just anyone’, and requires preparation must seem perplexing, even more so when it is understood that preparation is not just learning lines or being told where to stand or what to wear or when to frown or smile. Through a range of manoeuvres, law would adopt Sir Francis Bacon’s logics to construct doctrines and principles, practices and attitudes to construct law as a field devoid of lifeworlds, negating the factors that speak to the theatrical.
