I feel that many group conversations regarding theatre as a whole/what we're seeing here in Berlin have inevitably drifted towards a kind of bashing of American theatre as a whole (I myself am not exempt from being caught up from time to time in this negative attitude). To paraphrase part of a recent conversation, we are lucky enough in this moment to be able to visit a place like Berlin and witness work without fully knowing the politics that make up this theater community.
On the eve of attending Rimini Protokoll's work "Remote Mitte," however, I thought it would be interesting to highlight a group that arose out of discontent with the Berlin theatre scene. We've witnessed time and time again this blurring between reality and documentary that feels so specific to this moment in theater ("The Situation," "Small Town Boy"). It's caused me to reflect on what authenticity in theater means to me, the line between deception and theatricality, the effect that improvisation, or a rehearsed improvisation, has on an audience, and if there is indeed a place for real, unbridled improvisation on the stage. Rimini Protokoll is a group who is, likewise, grappling with authenticity and the theater, often bringing in non-actors, experts, to elaborate on a specific subject. One of their past shows, "Peter Heller Talks About Poultry Farming" literally consisted of a man, a real poultry farmer, standing on the stage and giving an hour long slideshow presentation about deep litter systems, key issues in feeding and slaughter. In this kind of performance, the real and the theatrical are blurred, representation and authenticity are questioned, and the theatrical space as a whole is brought under the microscope. Because something takes place in a black box theater, does that necessarily make it theater? I think as we go into tomorrow, participating in an event that takes place outside of a conventional theater, it will be interesting to key into not only how Rimini Protokoll is playing with authenticity, the line between reality and theatre, but also how they are pushing the boundaries of theatre through an exploration of space.
Hans Theis Lehman is a theorist I particularly like. As those from Global know he coined the term "post-dramatic" to describe the present moment. In Global I gave purposefully a rather crass and wholesale definition of the term. Many (Theis Lehman among) are still trying to sort out what exactly is meant by the term and how to express this moment of changing forms and ideas of what constitutes theatre. The philosopher (and theatre-lover) Alain Badiou writes about the "post-dramatic" in this way,
ReplyDelete". . . the theatre has outlived its usefulness, that it must be overcome from within itself and be deconstructed, that any form of representation should be criticized, that one must work toward a certain voluntary confusion between the arts of the visible and of sound, and organize an indiscernibility between theatre and the direct presence of life . . ."
Where Theis Lehman sees the "post-dramatic" as being the next wave, the game changer, the new theatre — Badiou seems (I'm not far enough along in the first book to get all definitive) to see it as fad and a destructive one at that.
Mary is on to something important here with asking us to engage in consciously looking at what authenticity in theatre means. After reading this I this authenticity should be added to a list of motifs from this experience of German theatre. It seems a lot of what we've seen is either overtly confronting what is true in a theatrical sense (Any one of Yael or Falks plays or even Lars performances) or it indirectly or accidentally makes us look at what theatrical reality is (Magic Flute, Real Magic, etc.)
Please do read the above and bring that mind to today in all ways.