Auteur on the Road

Abstract

Strongly influenced by the aesthetic and philosophy both of Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty” and of Beckett’s minimalist writing and following course on the early-twentieth-century experiments in technique as well as form, directors from the 1960s onward responded to what Hungarian literary critic Peter Szondi described as “the crisis of drama,” which manifested itself in an “increasing tension between the formal requirements of Aristotelian drama and the demands of modern ‘epic’ social themes which could no longer be contained by this form” (quoted in Lehmann 2006, 2). It is worth examining the different ways in which auteurs, especially from the mid-1980s on, furthered and perfected the methods and discoveries of pioneers such as Jarry, Craig, Meyerhold, Appia, Stanislavski, Piscator, and Brecht, conscious that a more abstract type of theatre, in relation to the performance’s conception, design, and acting style, was gradually becoming a valid reality, almost a necessity in itself. Having acquired confidence in this shifting of emphasis from mimetic, plot-driven drama to an ever- fluid image-based performance where various media, textualities, cultures, and styles combine and collide, avant-garde directors in the West have been developing their own singular methods and stage idioms, contributing to the resolute establishment of auteur theatre, which is more than ever present in the wake of the twenty-first century.