This is the first book to interrogate the use of performance methodologies in the online space that engender participation in far-right, white supremacist and reactionary communities.

Drawing on theories of post-immersive and metamodern theatre practice, the book examines how participatory performance strategies manifest in postdigital spaces in a way that enables users of social media and virtual reality to rehearse, perform and participate in extremist ideologies as avatars and embodied subjects.

Through its eclectic mix of theatrical and digital case studies, this volume provides a unique perspective into the concept of the postdigital as a performance aesthetic embodying the chaos that contemporary audiences and artists have come to accept as a permanent political reality. Featuring the performance work of Javaad Alipoor, The Civilians, Fake Friends, Civic Digits, Ontroerend Goed, and an opening provocation by artist Luke Turner, it makes an urgent case for using theatrical examples to understand how post-democratic worlds are being created online to disrupt mainstream politics.

Moving from the interactivity of social media in Facebook and Twitter, to the monetization-focused social media of TikTok and Twitch, to the gamified socialisation of virtual realities, each chapter focuses on different manifestations of extremist politics in postdigital culture to consider how racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are performed as trolling, harassment campaigns, roleplaying and multiplayer gaming in online spaces. It argues that these performances produce immersive realities to incubate hateful ideas and behaviours that are then becoming normalized within public discourse.

Performance and Postdigital Extremism does not empathise with such ideologies but draws a crucial link between postdigital engagement and methods of contemporary performance to offer a new vocabulary for scholars across various disciplines to understand and process these dangerous movements, at a time in which our students are increasingly exposed to, or even participating in, these extremist communities.