ABSTRACT
Chapter 7 focuses on affective dimensions of pleasure and beauty and their potential to serve exclusionary ends in populist movements. Through a discussion of populist movements in the United States and the United Kingdom, the chapter demonstrates that populism exhibits a tendency to mobilise pleasure and humour in divisive and antagonistic ways. The chapter then considers traditions of pleasure and beauty within Applied and political theatre practices, distilling insights about the ways that these qualities can facilitate agonistic interactions that retain pluralism and fluidity. In particular, Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Circus is discussed as an example of practice that utilises pleasure and beauty in a popular context. The insights drawn from this example suggest that some practices might be especially adept at situating pleasure and beauty within collaborative environments that produce more positive political interaction.
