Cruel and Unusual Performance: (Re)producing Capital Punishment on the U.S. Stage

Abstract

This dissertation examines theatrical representations of state-sanctioned executions in the U.S. from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century alongside real-life executions and federal capital punishment policy. Through an in-depth engagement with stage performance, contemporaneously circulating scholarly and legal discourses regarding the death penalty, and Foucauldian concepts of punishment, governmentality, and liberalism, my research reveals how theatre artists reformulated their works, genres, and the art form to engage and enter into a dialogue with oppressive death penalty politics. A majority of the stagings of death, dying, and the death penalty throughout the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries with which this dissertation engages did not simply (re)produce the conditions under which capital punishment in the U.S thrived. Rather, they reveal the nuanced ways in which theatre artists sought to consistently reassess their works, the genres, and the art form for the betterment of society. Moreover, when read through the lens of death penalty politics and stagings, these productions offer up new ways of understanding how liberalism was practiced throughout these eras. By turning to the theatre’s engagement with capital punishment and death penalty politics, nearly an additional century of critical engagement with the topic is unlocked, as Supreme Court cases surrounding the death penalty did not begin until 1879. Through plays by William Dunlap, Dion Boucicault, George Aiken, John Wexley, Elliott Lester, and Sophie Treadwell, as well as their relevant production records, this dissertation traces the development of execution on the U.S. stage alongside major wars in the country and major political, cultural, and technological developments that aided and/or hindered capital punishment. Through each work, not only are themes are liberalism read through in-depth critical readings, but also concepts of civility, security, and danger, which have proven paramount to the maintenance of capital punishment in the U.S.