The PM was filmed introducing his new cabinet by getting them to answer in unison how many hospitals, how many buses etc.
he was planning to provide. This is ‘performance politics’, the remanipulation of a ‘stage’ (here the Cabinet Office) and its ‘performers’ (MPs) to send a message to an ‘audience’ (us). Another example would be Dominic Cummings’s attire, resembling that of a protesting sixth-former. To get rid of him, performance theory would suggest, the PM should just tell him to wear a suit and tie.
The Roman emperor Augustus too saw his life as a performance. On his deathbed in ad 14, he said to those round him: ‘If this play has any merit, clap and dismiss us joyfully’, as if he were some Greek mime actor. One ‘stage’ he manipulated was the area of the forum where, under the republic, fierce political debates had taken place.
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