Staging international communism: British–Australian radical theatre connections

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Milner ◽  
Cathy Brigden
Keyword(s):  
Radical Theatre

scholarly journals Books about postdramatic theatre

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-171
Author(s):  
Vera V. Kotelevskaya
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Transformative Power ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
The Times ◽  
Radical Theatre ◽  
Bodily Contact ◽  
Self Reference

The review considers three books on post-dramatic theatre (in various studies it is also called anti-mimetic, radical, post-modern theatre, metatheatre, etc.). Different concepts of post-dramatic theatre are brought together by what may be considered as experiments per se, overcoming or problematizing genre and media boundaries, neutralizing binary oppositions, such as subject – object, playwright – director, platform – hall, actor – character, etc. I analyze the concept of H.-T. Lehmann (“Postdramatic theatre: 1999), who argues concerning the main feature of the “radical theatre” in weakening the connection with the text of the play, “re-theatricalization”, and rejection of the mimesis. For E. Fischer-Lichte (“Ästhetik des Performativen”, 2004 / “The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics”, 2008), the main feature of the newest theatre is “performativity” – the production of aesthetic meaning within the event of a performance, and not in the perception of an artifact by an observing subject. The criteria for the so called “performative turn” in drama and theatre, which, according to Fischer-Lichte, are self-reference, materiality, bodily contact, the liminality of aesthetic experience, and the transformation of the spectator. The neoconservative point of view of G. Stadelmaier (“Director’s Theatre. On the Scenes of the Spirit of the Times”, 2016), which expresses nostalgia for the tradition, is considered as polemic in respect to the innovations of the post-drama

scholarly journals Centre Stage: Radical Theatre in America, 1925-1934

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Virginia Hagelstein Marquardt
Keyword(s):  
Radical Theatre

Expressing the Unspoken: Hysterical Performance as Radical Theatre

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOANNA TOWNSEND-ROBINSON
Keyword(s):  
Radical Theatre

Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy and the Modern World. By Rush Rehm. London: Duckworth, 2003; pp. 174. £10.99 paper.

2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 324-326
Author(s):  
Edmund P. Cueva
Keyword(s):  
Greek Tragedy ◽  
The United States ◽  
East Timor ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Original Form ◽  
Performance Study ◽  
States Government ◽  
Radical Theatre ◽  
Study Performance

In this brief but concentrated text, Rush Rehm attempts to go back to the “radical nature of Greek tragedy” (9), by which he means that he wants to go back to the roots, foundations, and sources of this ancient genre. Rehm carries out his plan in an unusual yet personal way: Dispersed throughout his study of the genre are his personal observations on such matters as the involvement of the United States government in Nicaragua, Haiti, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Chile, Granada, Panama, East Timor, Israel, and Cuba. The events of 9/11 are also central to the later chapters. These political statements and forays aside, the author makes clear in his “Introduction: Timely Thoughts” that the “stage per se—understood as a place for artistic enactments like Greek tragedy—has lost much of its power and significance” (13). Rehm has an equally negative disposition to performance study, performance theory, and a modern stage that has departed from the challenges posed by the “original form of ancient tragedy” (17). Radical Theatre: Greek Tragedy and the Modern World is a stimulating read and worthy of note.

scholarly journals “This Is Father Berrigan Speaking from the Underground”: Daniel Berrigan SJ and the Conception of a Radical Theatre

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Benjamin Halligan
Keyword(s):  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Radical Theatre

The letter “Father Berrigan Speaks to the Actors from Underground” suggests the conception of a radical theatre, intended as a contribution to a cultural front against the US government as it escalated the war in Vietnam. Berrigan’s dramatization of the trial in which he and fellow antiwar activists were arraigned for publicly burning draft cards in 1968, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, coincided with Berrigan’s efforts to continue his ministry while a fugitive.

Culture and Political Change: British Radical Theatre in Recent History

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Anna Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Spatial Relationships ◽  
Performance Space ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Radical Theatre

To speak of placing any theatre work within its ‘social and political context’ has become almost a matter of course, but, at the same time, the epistemological problems presented by the proliferation of critical theory based on fragmented views of society (or society as fragments), proposing tentative opinions and ‘open readings’, makes this a difficult task and expresses the insecurity of the age. The pluralistic accommodations demanded by theories based on identity, for example, can add to this insecurity. It may become ‘safer’ and considered virtuous to offer ‘partial readings’, thus suggesting a democratization of thought which I would argue is frequently spurious. What often results is a disjunction between theory and materiality. Life is experienced through materiality, action cannot be indeterminate, though it may imply indeterminacy. When the actors appear in the performance space to create a relationship with their audience, this action is predicated by material decisions. The size of the space, positioning of the audience, spatial relationships beween actors and set, textures and colours, and when to turn the lights on and off are all the subject of prior consideration conditioned by the intentions of the play's producers. What do they want the play to do? Why are they doing it? They seek an audience in order to expose ideas and to create a theatrical experience. These ideas may be confused or contradictory but they exist. Moreover since all creative work is derivative in some sense (in that it is based on pre-existent tradition), theatre makers cannot claim to be innocent observers. It is naive to suggest that theatre may be somehow ‘neutral’ or ‘open’ since all meaning is constructed on the basis of prior knowledge. Thus I am proposing that there is a crucial dialectical relationship between theory and practice.

Educational Drama and Radical Theatre Practice

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (29) ◽  
pp. 81-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Lacey ◽  
Brian Woolland
Keyword(s):  
Paulo Freire ◽  
Drama In Education ◽  
Educational Drama ◽  
Education Project ◽  
Dramatic Structure ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Radical Theatre ◽  
Oriented System

In the early issues ofNew Theatre Quarterly, David Hornbrook initiated a debate on the role and techniques of drama-in-education to which several other notable practitioners subsequently contributed. Since then, the continuing need to defend the very existence of drama within a curriculum-oriented system has perhaps disinclined drama-in-education workers from a theoretical exploration of their methods and purposes. But the argument that the subject should be concerned with theatre practice has, suggest Stephen Lacey and Brian Woolland, overlooked the reality that drama-in-education, in important and fundamental ways, alreadyreflectsat its own level certain kinds of innovative theatre practice – and they illustrate their arguments from the work of Brecht, Boal, and Paulo Freire, comparing the models they offer with a drama-in-education project as realized by a class of twelve-year-olds in a typical comprehensive. The article concludes with the authors' own analysis of the approaches to character and to dramatic structure employed, and how these reflect a ‘radical theatre practice’ with which practitioners in present-day ‘mainstream’ theatre might profitably engage.

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