This is my first issue as Senior Editor of Theatre Research International. As I have worked I have been conscious of the editors who have preceded me, first and foremost Elaine Aston. Her wit, insight and generosity have been models for me over the three years we worked together. Now, as she has ended her term and I have begun mine, I am more aware than ever of the precedent she has established. I will have to work very hard to match her editorial discernment, wisdom and creativity. But I am also aware of a legacy from previous editors – Freddie Rokem (with whom Elaine was privileged to work as Associate Editor), Christopher Balme (currently President of the International Federation for Theatre Research) and Brian Singleton (also a past IFTR President). What this means to me is that I am privileged to inherit a journal that has long been recognized as a leader across the globe for the best in original content and methodology. Joining me is the new Associate Editor, Paul Rae from the National University of Singapore. He has already proven to be an invaluable colleague, and I am happily anticipating our work together on TRI over the next three years.

Although a rather recent convention, sitting in the dark looking at others in the light has become a standard element of going to see a theatrical performance. Before the introduction of powered lighting systems that focused light on the stage, however, audiences and actors alike were bathed in a shared illumination. As life outside the theatre becomes ever more exposed by light, what are the possibilities presented for and by a performance that takes place in darkness? In this article I discuss these possibilities as they were explored in Chris Goode's Who You Are, a performance commissioned by Tate Modern for Experiences of the Dark, a series of talks, presentations and other works inside Miroslaw Balka's giant installation How It Is.

This article examines the flash mob dance Glow by the Afro-Norwegian duo Madcon, which was performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway, in 2010. The dance was modelled on the format of popular Wii dance games, and coordinated black and white dancers, families, mass publics and prerecorded and live footage in order to choreograph European ‘unity in diversity’. The use of black dancers as avatars urging dancing crowds towards greater kinaesthetic sensitivity raises the questions of how race is figured in neo-liberal visions of cosmopolitan Europe, and what role gaming technology plays in facilitating cross-racial empathy and ethical responsiveness at a time when solidarity is fraying as a consequence of fiscal crises and austerity measures. Finally, the article considers Afro-European academic, activist and artistic practices as alternatives to neo-liberal regimes of race.

In a short video documenting the occupation of a stage at the Théâtre de la Ville in France, a group of young Christian protesters are shown interrupting the scheduled theatre production of Romeo Castellucci's On the Concept of the Face of Christ (October 2011). A number of security personnel emerge onto the stage and a physical struggle erupts with the Christians; bodies push and pull against each other in an unscheduled theatre of religiously motivated protest. Finally, a group of police march purposefully onto the stage and close down the Christians’ protest. I will argue that the affirmative use of the police to shut down the Christians’ protest undermines a philosophy of the public sphere that positions the theatre stage as a possible site of dissensus. My intention is to problematize the police presence on the stage, with a view to restoring the vision of the theatre as a public sphere in which dissensus may be supported rather than policed.

Roysten Abel's The Manganiyar Seduction is perhaps the most popular performance of Indian folk music on the global festival market today. This performance of Rajasthani folk music is an apt exemplification of an auto-exoticism framed as cultural commodity. Its mise en scène of musicians framed, literally, by illuminated red square boxes ‘theatricalizes’ Rajasthan's folk culture of orality and gives the performance a quality of strangeness that borders on theatre and music, contemporary and traditional. The ‘dazzling’ union of the Manganiyars' music and the scenography of Amsterdam's red-light district engendered an exotic seduction that garnered rave reviews on its global tour. This paper examines the production's performative interstices: the in-betweenness of sound and sight where aural tradition is ‘spectacularized’. It will also analyse the shifting convergences of tradition and cultural consumption and further interrogates the role of reception in the construction of such ‘exotic’ spectacles.