Exhibiting the nation: identity and (post)colonial aesthetics in Hannah Khalil’s a museum in Baghdad

Hannah Khalil’s play A Museum in Baghdad and its 2019 staging by the Royal Shakespeare Company focus on the complex relationship between museum and theatre as memory institutions. This relationship was enhanced by metatheatrical connections between the performance of the museum on stage, the accompanying displays in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre lobby and gift shop, and the spectators who entered the Swan Theatre auditorium. The exploration of the intricate exchange between performance, space, and audience reveals the paramount importance of two specific issues: the politics of display and the performative aspect of nation-making within national institutions. Using postcolonial and decolonial frameworks, my analysis probes the ways in which theatre may offer a better understanding of dramaturgies of display in museums through the exposure and critique of the complex cultural and social challenges that emerge from the interdependence between national cultural institutions and official narratives of belonging (such as the lack of representation of marginalized communities, homogenized views of cultural development, or targeted financial support for institutions that adhere to state narratives). Khalil’s theatrical depiction of the political intricacies of curatorial decision-making allows for a sobering examination of both the role of museums in the creation of national narratives of identity and the responsibility of the theatre to uncover the cultural mechanisms used to enforce such narratives.