An Enemy of Postdramatic Theatre? Or, What I Think About When I Think About Teaching Postdramatic Theatre

Abstract

This articulates a set of anxieties about teaching postdramatic theatre through a reading of Thomas Ostermeier’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. It offers a final assessment of the utility and strengths of Lehmann’s concept of postdramatic theatre with particular reference to questions of pedagogy, politics and aesthetics. In the epilogue to Postdramatic Theatre, Lehmann states that postdramatic theatre engages with a certain kind of pedagogy that deliberately formulates non-rational approaches to contesting the hegemony of consumer society. The chapter concludes by posing a series of questions about the future of Lehmann’s concept: does the vocabulary of postdramatic theatre operate as a practical pedagogical tool today? Do we need to formulate new, more invigorating ideas to engage with contemporary performance? And if so, what kind of vocabulary might displace Lehmann’s?