Performing Iraq: Staging Identity in Contemporary Iraqi Theatre and Performance Art

Objectives: This article explores how contemporary Iraqi theatre and performance art—both inside Iraq and in the diaspora—stage contested versions of Iraqi identity. It examines how plays and performance pieces negotiate religion, sectarianism, gender, political violence, and national belonging in the decades before and after 2003, and how theatre-makers mobilize ritual, myth, and the body to imagine “Performing Iraq” on stage and in public space. Methods: Using qualitative, text- and performance-based analysis, the study focuses on four overlapping strands: post-2003 theatre in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities; politically engaged work by major directors such as Jawad al-Assadi; protest-oriented performance and “theatre of anger” in the 2010s and 2020s; and diasporic theatre and performance in Europe. It draws on published playtexts, interviews, critical essays, and documentation of live and video-recorded performances. Results: The study shows that Iraqi theatre and performance art constitute a key arena in which religion, politics, and national identity are renegotiated. Post-2003 plays inside Iraq move from allegorical treatments of power toward explicit critique and protest dramaturgies; mythical and religious figures such as Ishtar and Tammuz are reactivated to address occupation and sectarianism; diaspora performances employ shock, humour, and hybrid aesthetics to address Western audiences while maintaining Iraqi frames of reference; and performance art across Iraq and the diaspora uses the body as a site where martyrdom, trauma, and resistance are inscribed and contested. Conclusions: Taken together, these practices stage Iraq not as a fixed essence but as an ongoing, performative project in which identity is continually questioned, fragmented, and reimagined through theatrical and performative experimentation.