Abstract
This article examines the motivations behind, and what can occur when, in extremis performance (theatre that represents death, threats to life, extreme suffering, violence or depravity on stage in explicit ways) is combined with theatre of the real. I argue a reality claim can offset charges of exploitation and lend an importance or authority to in extremis performance, but it can create a volatility which produces unintended effects and mis-readings. In analysing this volatility and how it arises, I draw on elements such as Josette Féral's theory of the aesthetic of shock, deep fakes, witnessing and visual perception. At the centre of the article is a case study, the 2017 touring production Out in Africa, written and directed by Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom, which had a very short season at the Arcola Theatre in London. In the one man show, the actor Steve Karier tells the audience his real story of having travelled to South Africa and been captured by kidnappers along with a group of white tourists. The captors flee and leave the group to descend into murder and cannibalism. Karier says he wants to share his in-extremis experience with an audience as a way of self-healing. The production had a very short season, with apparently no reviews. This, combined with it being the first time Grootboom's work had appeared in Europe, made it possible to get a sense of an unmediated reading of the production and to observe and analyse its unintended and generative effects.