ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author expands on W. S. Jean Graham-Jones poem and to propose that art in general, but theatre in particular, performs an important social function as a ‘constructed space’ of radical empathy. He proposes that the power of this space applies as much to the actual physical building of a theatre and theatre company, as it does to the abstract space of a play in performance. Inside the constructed space of art we encounter each other in our fully human forms and those fully human forms contain, for example, darkness, terror, violence and illicit desire. The constructed space and the democratic space were born at the same moment. This double birth seems to speak to a self-evident truth which is this: without access to the constructed space we cannot have true democracy. Finally, the author proposes that the presence of such constructed spaces of art is essential to the proper functioning of democracy in a city.
