Postdramatic theatre

The notion of "postdramatic theatre" was established by German theatre researcher Hans-Thies Lehmann in his 1999 book with the same title, summarizing a number of tendencies and stylistic traits occurring in avant-garde theatre since the end of the 1960s. The theatre which Lehmann calls postdramatic is not primarily focused on the drama in itself, but evolves a performative aesthetic in which the text of the performance is put in a special relation to the material situation of the performance and the stage.

Thus postdramatic theatre is more striving to produce an effect amongst the spectators than to remain true to the text. Lehmann locates what he calls 'the new theatre' as part of ‘a simultaneous and multi-perspectival form of perceiving’; this, he argues is brought about, in large part, by a reaction to the dominance of the written text (2006: 16).

The new theatre, Lehmann asserts, is characterised by, amongst other things, the ‘use and combination of heterogeneous styles’ (ibid: 26), it situates itself as after or beyond dialogue (ibid: 31) and incorporates the notion of the ‘performer as theme and protagonist’ (ibid: 25).[1]

In its most radical varieties, postdramatic theatre knows no "plot" at all, but concentrates fully on the interaction between performer and audience.

Some names associated with postdramatic theatre are Tadeusz Kantor (Krakow), Heiner Müller (Berlin), Robert Wilson (New York City), The Wooster Group (New York City), Isla van Tricht (York), Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany, Frank Castorf (Berlin), Josef Szeiler/TheaterAngelusNovus (Vienna), Heiner Goebbels (Frankfurt), Alvis Hermanis (Riga), Forced Entertainment (Sheffield), Teater Moment (Stockholm), Apocryphal Theatre (London), and Transversal Theater Company (Amsterdam and Los Angeles).

Literature

References

  1. ↑ Hans-Thies Lehmann: Postdramatic Theatre. translated and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby, Routledge, London and New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-26813-4.