Postdramatic theatre

The notion of postdramatic theatre was established by German theatre researcher Hans-Thies Lehmann in his book Postdramatic Theatre, 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.

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.

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

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), Heiner Müller (Berlin), Robert Wilson (New York City), The Wooster Group (New York City), Richard Foreman (New York City), Big Art Group (New York City), Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers and Needcompany, Frank Castorf (Berlin), Josef Szeiler/TheaterAngelusNovus (Vienna), Elfriede Jelinek (Vienna), Heiner Goebbels (Frankfurt), Verdensteatret (Oslo), Alvis Hermanis (Riga), Forced Entertainment (Sheffield), Teater Moment (Stockholm), and the Apocryphal Theatre (London).

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