Postdramatic theatre

The notion of postdramatic theatre was established by German theatre researcher Hans-Thies Lehmann in his book Postdramatic Theatre,[1] summarising 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. The post dramatic theatre attempts to mimic the unassembled and unorganized literature that a playwright sketches in the novel.

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.[2]

The new theatre, Lehmann asserts, is characterised by, amongst other things, the 'use and combination of heterogeneous styles',[3] it situates itself as after or beyond dialogue[4] and incorporates the notion of the 'performer as theme and protagonist'.[5]

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

Another way of using the notion is to describe plays with little or no drama, for instance the plays of Jon Fosse.

Some names associated with postdramatic theatre are Tadeusz Kantor (Krakow),[6] Heiner Müller (Berlin),[7] Robert Wilson (New York City),[8] The Wooster Group (New York City),[9] The Builders Association[10] (New York City), Giannina Braschi (San Juan, Puerto Rico),[11] Elizabeth LeCompte (New York City), Richard Foreman (New York City), Robert Lepage (Quebec, Canada), Pina Bausch (Wuppertal, Germany),[12] Big Art Group (New York City), Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany, Frank Castorf (Berlin), Josef Szeiler/TheaterAngelusNovus (Vienna), Elfriede Jelinek (Vienna),[13] Heiner Goebbels (Frankfurt),[14] Verdensteatret (Oslo), Alvis Hermanis (Riga), Forced Entertainment (Sheffield), Teater Moment (Stockholm), the Apocryphal Theatre (London),[15] The Sydney Front (Australia) and Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio (Italy), Pan Pan [16](Ireland), POST (Australia), Action Hero (United Kingdom), Nature Theatre of Oklahoma[17] (United States), and more.

A new generation of internationally working postdramatic directors is changing the big picture: Among them are Thomas Luz, Amir Reza Koohestani, Susanne Kennedy,[18] Dusan David Parizek, Yael Ronen, Simon Stone, Kai Tuchmann, Anna Bergmann, Bastian Kraft, Ulrich Rasche, Nicolas Stemann, and Kay Voges.[19]

Controversy

While the concept of the "postdramatic theatre" has become popular in theatre studies, the term is highly contested and is not without its critics. Most notably, the celebrated scholar Elinor Fuchs criticized Lehmann's overly broad application of the term in her review in TDR in 2008, noting that "With a single term, Lehmann re-creates three or more generations of theatrical outliers as a movement. Virtually every contemporary theatre artist and group of international note is here identified as a practitioner of the postdramatic."[20] Fuchs goes on to point out that Lehmann attempts to show the range of the postdramatic "by showing that it can contain all moods and modes, hieratic and profane, hermetic and popular, abstract and concretely physical. In the semiotic terms favored by the German critical tradition, Lehmann levels the traditional hierarchy of theatrical signs and at the same time multiplies sign systems."[20]

Several scholars, including Fuchs, have also noted that the concept of the postdramatic is not Lehmann's original idea, and that, in fact, the concept was first introduced by Andrzej Wirth of the Institut fur Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft and Richard Schechner, director of The Performance Group, and professor of Performance Studies at New York University.[21]

Further reading
  • Marijke Hoogenboom, Alexander Karschnia: NA(AR) HET THEATER - after theatre?, Amsterdam 2007, ISBN 978-90-812455-1-7
  • Boyle, Michael Shane, et al. Postdramatic Theatre and Form. Methuen Drama, 2021. ISBN 978-1350183308

References
  1. Lehmann (2006)
  2. Lehmann (2006), p. 16
  3. Lehmann (2006), p. 26
  4. Lehmann (2006), p. 31
  5. Lehmann (2006), p. 25
  6. "'Inspirational' unseen film of Tadeusz Kantor's last show before he died to be shown for first time". www.thefirstnews.com. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  7. ""What to Read Now: Mixed-Genre Literature," Giannina Braschi on Heiner Müller, Tadeus Kantor, and Witkiewicz". World Literature Today. 2012-08-06. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  8. Battaglia, Andy (2020-04-09). "Robert Wilson Debuts Viewing Room for Mesmerizing Video Portraits, Featuring Lady Gaga's Severed Head and Other Oddities". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  9. Parker-Starbuck, Jennifer (2009-01-01). "The play-within-the-film-within-the-play's the thing: re-transmitting analogue bodies in the Wooster Group's Hamlet". International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. 5 (1): 23–34. doi:10.1386/padm.5.1.23_1. ISSN 1479-4713.
  10. Jackson, Shannon (2013). "Postdramatic Labour in The Builders Association's Alladeen". Postdramatic Theatre and the Political. doi:10.5040/9781408183519.ch-008.
  11. Fierberg, Ruthie (11 September 2017). "13 Theatre Works That Responded to 9/11". Playbill. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  12. cs2-admin (2016-02-17). "In memoriam: Pina Bausch, Beautiful and Tragic, Solemn and Classic". Critical Stages/Scènes critiques. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  13. Jürs-Munby, Karen (2009-03-01). "The Resistant Text in Postdramatic Theatre: Performing Elfriede Jelinek's Sprachflächen". Performance Research. 14 (1): 46–56. doi:10.1080/13528160903113197. ISSN 1352-8165.
  14. Kalb, Jonathan (2018). "Samuel Beckett, Heiner Müller and Postdramatic Theater". Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui. 11: 74–83. doi:10.1163/18757405-01101012. ISSN 0927-3131. JSTOR 25781357.
  15. Haydon, Andrew (2008-11-11). "Andrew Haydon: Postdramatic theatre is no longer a closed book". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-27.
  16. "Pan Pan". Pan Pan. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  17. "OKTHEATER.ORG". www.oktheater.org. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  18. "Susanne Kennedy - People - Volksbühne Berlin". www.volksbuehne.berlin. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  19. Schmidt, Thomas. "The Post-Dramatic Turn in German Theatre". HowlRound. HowlRound. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  20. Fuchs, Elinor (Summer 2008). "Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies Lehmann and Karen Jürs-Munby (review)". TDR. 52 (2): 179.
  21. Fuchs, Elinor (Summer 2008). "Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies Lehmann and Karen Jürs-Munby (review)". TDR. 52 (2): 179–180.

Bibliography
  • Sugiera, Malgorzata (2004). Beyond Drama: Writing for Postdramatic Theatre. Theatre Research International, 29 (1), pp. 6–28. doi:10.1017/S0307883303001226
  • Lehmann, Hans-Thies (2006). Postdramatic Theatre. Translated and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-26813-4.
  • Fischer-Lichte, Erika; Wihstutz, Benjamin (2018). Transformative Aesthetics. Oxon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-05717-3.
  • Jürs-Munby, Karen; Carroll, Jerome; Giles, Steve (2014). Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance. Methuen Drama. ISBN 978-1408184868.
  • Fuchs, Elinor (Summer 2008). "Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies Lehmann and Karen Jürs-Munby (review)". TDR. 52 (2): 178–183.
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