Hilgartner’s Science on Stage (2000) uses a dramaturgical metaphor to argue that scientific expertise is both performed by particular actors and received (or not) by particularly situated audiences. In their comparative analysis of Jordan and Sweden, Elise Tancoigne and Marianne Noël present two recent examples of expert performances; they show that disparate states draw on expertise for similar purposes, pushing us to ask: when and why are such performances still credible to audiences in each country, and under what historical and cultural conditions?