POSTDRAMATIC THEATER

Postdramatic Theater is a non-absolute and stylistic historical concept that attempts

to describe a set of artistic expressions that occur in Europe from the 60s to the present.

Concept defined by Hans-Thies Lehmann in his book Postdramatisches Theater, where the

“postdramatic theater” overcomes its state of literary autarky, to open up and dissolve in the

fabric of the spectacle, so that the deep meaning of the theatrical event is no longer located

in the text and now moves through the entire mise-en-scene.

The term postdramatic comes from two basic concepts, drama and postdrama,

which is postmodernism. Postdramatic theater moves away from the political, rational and

ethical pretensions of modernity.

Lehmann suggested the term “postdramatic theater” as a key notion for the study of

contemporary theatrical manifestations, inventorying the avant-garde scenic forms of the

early 20th century and their aesthetic evolution towards a type of artistic creation that

developed more strongly during the 80's and 90's.

The postdramatic concept is chosen by the author for its analogy with the aesthetics

of Postmodernism, an aesthetic movement that spread in different artistic spheres starting in

the 1960s.

The category "postdramatic theater" proposes at least a double tension. The first

tension results from the affirmation of the autonomy of scenic art with respect to drama,

something that numerous creators defended since the beginning of the 20th century and that

gave rise to some of the interesting lines of production and experimentation both in the

avant-garde era and during the second post world war. It is a tension, because the
affirmation of autonomy does not constitute in itself a denial of the text, or even of the

drama, but rather the establishment of a field of creation from which collaboration or

dialogue with literature (dramatic or no), like the redefinition of the very concept of

"drama." Postdramatic theater is not a theater without drama, but a theater that poses a

conflict with the bourgeois concept of theater, which had endorsed the hegemony of literary

drama over the stage spectacle.

The second tension results from the vindication of theater as a medium once the

crisis of the dramatic seemed to favor the transition towards a space of diffuse borders, first

understood from the category of “narrative” and later from the category of

“performativity”. . Maintaining the category "theater" associated with "postdramatic"

implies recognizing the potential of the old medium, the theatrical institution in its social

and aesthetic dimensions, even when the physical medium (the theater composed of

audience and stage) can sometimes be called into question. or abandoned and despite the

fact that theatrical representation can sometimes be considered a transposition of a social

theatricality at the service of the dominant system.

From this double tension, Professor Lehman approaches the ambitious task of

offering an analytical framework for understanding contemporary stage creation. A

consequence of the first tension is the establishment of a constant dialogue with the

categories of poetics and with studies on drama and dramaturgy, necessarily complemented

(since a hegemonic value is no longer granted to drama over the stage), with contributions

from philosophy, literary theory, visual culture studies, anthropology and performance

studies, necessary to address the complexity of the postdramatic scene. A consequence of

the second tension is the maintenance of a referential field that is situated in the artistic
field, but with a peculiarity: the object of study is constituted as a repertoire of ephemeral

works, recoverable in the memory of the privileged spectator (which is in this case the

author of the book himself), and to place it in the intellectual experience of a dialogue with

the artists and writers who produced them.

"Postdramatic" not only redefines the category of "theater," it includes in its

composite form the redefinition of the category of "drama." We could consider

postdramatic theater as a different form of dramatic theater, one that arises from the

acceptance of a concept of drama that no longer depends on the definitions proposed by

Aristotle or Hegel, and whose crisis Peter Szondi dealt with, but on a definition which

derives from the reflections of numerous creators of the 20th century, from Gordon Craig to

Antonin Artaud, who conceived the dramatic as a conflict or a search that no text alone can

contain.

Hans-Thies Lehmann perceives in what he calls the prehistory of postdramatic

theater, the presence of the neo-avant-garde, with names such as John Cage, Allan Kaprow,

Yves Klein...; and the historical avant-garde, especially symbolism, surrealism, and

expressionism. From the world of art, a transition towards the theatrical in the form of

exhibition is established, this is observed, as Hans-Thies Lehmann tells us, for example in

“The International Exhibition of Surrealism”, which was rated by André Bretón – leading

artist of the surrealist movement – as a Work of art event.

Since surrealism, few theatrical works were made but they had great influence on

the new theater; their essential characteristics would be to contain "Magical images and a

political gesture of revolt against the frameworks of theatrical practice." The fact of

questioning and rebelling against tradition implies a type of innovative theater that plays
with its representational limits. We must not forget that it was a practice that "contains the

requirement of a type of performance art." The resource of provocation was evident, they

played with the borders of fiction and reality, for example, the actors were among the

audience, and "the performers appeared as themselves and as the characters represented at

the same time." There were also performances and voices in the middle of the audience

with which the artists and actors were confused and camouflaged. In general, there was

some violence until it reached its maximum expression in the form of a shot fired from the

audience.

CHARACTERISTICS

The postdramatic show questions the founding principles of staging: it is no longer

constructed or perceived as a unit, but rather through fragments, sometimes contradictory,

that do not converge towards an accumulation whose climax is the end; The work does not

appear as something finished or fixed, but rather the random and chance are an inherent

part of the show. The meaning, the articulating principle of traditional staging, is also

questioned.

We aspire to an emancipated spectator who does not place himself in a subordinate

relationship with the show, nor assume that it is the bearer of a meaning defined in advance

by the author and/or the director; meaning that he alone must interpret. The viewer is a

producer of meaning, not an interpreter.

Fiction is dispensed with as an articulating convention. Theater no longer

represents, but rather manifests itself as an autonomous reality, something that happens on

stage and that does not recognize its foundation of truth in the representation of something
else. The construction of a fable (in the sense of a story) is completely avoided, with all its

attributes: dialogues, characters, dramatic situation. The text is no longer the main element

on which the show is structured.

Postdramatic theater questions the limits of each particular artistic field,

incorporating procedures from other arts (dance, music, plastic arts, video) and creating a

hybridization of languages that puts the separation between the arts in crisis. This theater is

receptive to the inclusion of new technologies (videos, Internet, mobile phones, etc.), as

well as the 'participation' and/or mediation of the public through these formats.

In general terms, when Lehmann delves into the analysis of this new theatrical

concept, he identifies the de-hierarchization of contemporary theatrical devices where the

text ceases to be the main element on which the work is structured, building a non-

representative relationship between the word and the rest of the materials that build the

scene, which results, as Óscar Cornago explains, "A space open to a constellation of

languages on which a system of tensions is built that functions through relationships of

contrast, opposition or complementarity, resulting in a fragmentation effect that questions

the ideas of unity, totality, hierarchy or coherence.

Postdramatic theater, which is still a reflection on theater itself, stands as an all-out

defense of this immediacy and collective sense that characterizes the theatrical field and

that can only be captured from its being, not only as a process, but for the process. Finally,

we speak of an emotional experience that enters through the senses, immediately, and that

is only made possible through the act of sharing a space and time.
 AUTHORS

ROBERT WILSON: Director, set designer and actor. He is an author in all fields

whose work, from the end of the 1960s, has already included avant-garde theatrical

features. Wilson had severe stuttering problems, until, in 1958, finishing high school in his

hometown, he worked on it with the ballet dancer, Mrs. Byrd Hoffman, who gave her dance

classes and with whom she managed to overcome her speech problems.

In 1969, he founded an experimental performance company, the Byrd Hoffman

Watermill Foundation (named after the teacher who helped him overcome his severe

stutter). With this company, he created his most important works, first, from 1969, The

King of Spain and The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud. He began working on opera in

the early 1970s, creating Einstein on the Beach with Philip Glass, which brought the two

artists world fame. Wilson is known for pushing the boundaries of theater. His works are

characterized by their austere style, very slow movement, and often extreme scale in space

or time.

In addition to his theater work, Wilson creates sculptures, drawings and furniture

designs. For Wilson, the theatrical experience is, above all, to stop thinking literary, to stop

confusing the scene with the literary space. This is a confusion that would be represented

by naturalistic theater, in which it is customary to offer a story that follows a thread of the

word and makes emotion its visual highlight. For Wilson, however, addressing a formal

thought is think abstractly. Abstract thinking must allow us to create a new vocabulary for a

scene exhausted with words.

understands that all theater is, whether you like it or not.

Wilson's scene is built with chromatic sensations that are vibrations of air and light.

The palette of his works creates paintings that often recall other compositions, those of

other painters. In fact, it should be said that the formal structure of Wilson's shows,

laboriously built over the years, today allows him to harmoniously integrate almost any

pictorial trend, almost all possible plastic findings.

The most important part of theater is light, according to Wilson, as it is concerned

with how images are defined on the stage, which has practically everything to do with the

light that is placed on a given object. He feels that lighting design can really bring the

production to life. Light always assumes the function of an actor, and as such it is

considered by Wilson, who makes it the foundation that helps us hear and see.

The visual script thus becomes a literary structure that organizes a vocabulary of

space and the gaze: it contains what can be seen and the way in which the vision will be

modulated. The light is omnipresent not only because of the scene it creates but because,

like a mirror, the scene is illuminated from within. The light that is turned on inside

responds to the light produced by the scene. The light bulbs have their role as actors, as do

the neons: fluorescent tubes suspended in the air, creating tables or seats, drawing

geometric contours or columns, or tearing the sky with their colored signatures. Light as an

actor inside and outside the scene.

The actors do not occupy the space and time of the scene, they construct it. Their

movements trace the scenic coordinates. All the actors (the lights and the chairs, the houses
or the characters) are presences and movements in and with space. The actors sculpt the

space, sharpening the viewer's gaze. The light acts by illuminating and giving its own

texture to the other objects-actors that offer their presence: each actor usually has a separate

light that identifies it.

HEINER MULLER: German playwright, poet and writer. Considered one of the

most important figures of German theater of the 20th century. He is probably the most

important post-war German playwright, at least he is the most staged and contradictory of

all. He was born in Eppendorf, Germany on January 9, 1929. He died in Berlin, December

30, 1995.

His literature was born and developed on the frontier of the Cold War, with the

express objective of pushing society to its limits and making reality impossible. Following

in Brecht's footsteps, they reveal as anti-theatrical pieces that thematize the challenges of

History in general and the 20th century in particular, they are the negative image of a world

free of fear, pain and violence. His texts are as complex and convoluted as reality itself,

which is why his conceptions increasingly revolve around a theater that is close to the

abstract, multidimensional, of free associations, impossible to be the object of unilateral

appropriation.

His theater is inspired both by current affairs (the Russian invasion of Budapest and

Prague) and by the great classical myths (based on Sophocles, Aeschylus and Shakespeare).

His fragmentary works represent a significant contribution to contemporary dramaturgy and

postdramatic theater.
 In the 1950s, Müller became one of the most important playwrights in the German

Democratic Republic and won the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1959. However, his relations

with the East German regime began to deteriorate following the premiere of his drama Die

Umsiedlerin (The Settler), which was subject to censorship in 1961 after a single

performance. Müller was expelled from the Writers' Association that same year. The East

German government kept Müller's works under guard for the next few years, preventing the

release of Der Bau (Construction Work) in 1965 and censoring Mauser in the early 1970s.

Müller began working with West German theater groups and companies during the 1970s

and 1980s, directing the premiere of some of their best-known works in Munich (Germania

Tod in Berlin, 1978), Essen ( Die Hamletmaschine (Hamletmachine), 1979) and Bochum

(Der Auftrag (The Mission), 1982).

His growing worldwide fame allowed Müller to once again gain more widespread

acceptance in East Germany. The last five years of his life he continued to live in Berlin

and worked throughout Germany and Europe, particularly producing performances of his

own works. He wrote few new dramatic texts, although, like Brecht, he produced much

poetry in his final years.

In 1990 he was invited to conduct Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Bayreuth

Festival (dedicated exclusively to the composer). The production premiered in 1993, being

the only one for the lyrical genre and considered a testament to its strong aesthetics. It was

received coldly the first year, but was quickly accepted and was a great success, remaining

on the bill until 1999. Musically it marked a milestone. It was directed by Daniel

Barenboim, in what is considered his best performance in this work, and vocally it featured

a solid cast led by Siegfried Jerusalem and Waltraud Meier.

the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1939. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, he

founded the Independent Theater and served as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, as

well as director of experimental theater in Krakow from 1942 to 1944.

After the war, he became known for his avant-garde work in stage design, including

designs for San Juan (1956) and Measure to Measure (1956). Specific changes to traditional

theater include stages extended toward the audience and the use of mannequins as real

actors. Disenchanted by the growing institutionalization of avant-garde art, in 1955 he

formed a new theatrical ensemble with a group of visual artists: Cricot 2. In the 1960s,

Cricot 2 performed in many theaters in Poland and abroad, gaining recognition for its

happenings on stage.

His interest was focused largely on absurdism and on the Polish writer and

playwright Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (also known as "Witkacy"). The stage productions

of Witkacy's plays The Cuttlefish (1953) and The Water Hen (1969) were seen as his

greatest achievements during this era. A 1972 performance of The Waterhen was described

as "the most talked about event at the Edinburgh Festival". In the 1970s, The Dead Class

(1975) was the most famous of his plays. In this work, Kantor himself plays a teacher who

presides over a class of apparently dead characters who are confronted by mannequins

representing their younger selves. Already in the 1950s, Kantor had begun to experiment

with the juxtaposition of mannequins and live actors. His last works in the 1980s were very

personal reflections. As in The Dead Class, he would sometimes represent himself on stage.
 In the 1990s, his work became famous in the United States through performances by

Ellen Stewart's Experimental Theater Club.

PINA BAUSCH: (Solingen, Germany. 1940-2009) Dancer, choreographer and

ballet director. Considered not only as the great figure of German expressionist dance, but

also as one of the main contemporary choreographers. Precursor of the Tanztheater, dance-

theater. He began his dance studies in 1955 at the Folkwang High School, directed by Kurt

Jooss. In 1958 he graduated in stage dance and dance pedagogy.

After receiving a scholarship in 1959, he moved to the United States to complete his

studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Pina Bausch's works do not follow a narrative

structure or a linear progression. They are built from series of episodes. Multiple

simultaneous stage actions, striking images, use of the specific experiences of its dancers,

daily activities, texts often addressed to the public and a great variety of music; They are

elements that bear the recognizable stamp of Bausch and that have become part of a lexicon

of dance-theater worldwide.

His work is characterized by the set of aesthetic-expressive ruptures, by the

elimination of the one-dimensional perspective, in favor of an open, expanded space, the

revaluation of the everyday dimension, the continuum of the human; In its apparently trivial

and pedestrian manifestations, it includes an openness to the word, to ambient noise, which

constitutes the emergence of concrete music at the service of dance; the abandonment of

classic decking for natural surfaces such as grass, dirt, dry leaves, flowers, and even water.

Reinvents the original movement of dance.

transgressive power. His "collage" style made of fragments is reminiscent of cinema, fine

arts and theater, establishing a new way of thinking about dance.

Among his creations are: Fragment (1961), Café Müller (1978), El lamento de la

emperatriz (1990), film, Danzón, (1995), Masurca Fogo (1998), Aqua (2001), Nefés

(2004), Vollmond (2006), "...Like the little moss on the stone oh yes, yes, yes..." (2009).