THEATRE AS COUNTER-HISTORY IN ESTONIA: THE CASE OF “BB AT NIGHT”

Abstract

The theatres of Estonia celebrated the centenary of Estonian Republic by staging performances depicting different decades of the country’s history. The article dis - cus ses one of these performances “BB at Night” that staged the 1940s. The per formance is based on a novel of the same title that tells the story of Berthold Brecht’s journey to Finland during the Second World War. The aim of the article is to show – by describing three particular scenes from the performance and using the theories of Jacques Rancière, more precisely his notion of dissensus to analyse these scenes – how a performance that is not political per se could be received as political. By inviting audience members to participate in certain scenes, the bodies of theatre visitors are politicized, and the performance becomes aesthetically political and politically aesthetical.