Introduction

Abstract

Introduction The Theatre Colloquium sponsored by the Department of French at the University of Toronto in November 1980 set itself a difficult - perhaps impossible - task: to discover the characteristics peculiar to theatre, to define theatricality. Members of the Colloquium challenged, and not infrequently rejected, traditional concepts, especially the compartmentalizing of longestablished disciplines; and they debated the historic and unhappy dichotomy between performers and scholars. These papers from the Colloquium have been organized around four major themes in contemporary theatre research. The first section comprises essays about the influence of recent research in semiotics and structuralism on the written text and theatrical discourse. Thus, Joseph Melan~on applies the theories of Greimas, and Jeannette Laillou Savona, those of Anne Ubersfeld and ofthe Englisb speech-act theorists. Pierre Gobin is also influenced by Anne Ubersfeld, and by Etienne Souriau; WladimiJ Krysinski uses the fundamental theories of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida; and Karen Laughlin employs those of G6rard Genette and Lucien Diillenbach. Production is the theme of the second group of papers, in which three important practitioners speak of their own work. Richard Schechner gives an account of his experimental production of Genet's Balcony in New York; Micbael Kirby offers a theory and demonstration of structuralist theatre; and Armand Gatti delivers a remarkable personal statement inspired by his adventures in mounting the production of The Durruti Column in an industrial suburb of Brussels. A brief page records a collective experience of the theatre shared by Dick Higgins. The observers also take their tum: Bernard Dort examines the particular place of the producer/creator in the twentieth-century theatre, while Odette Asian recounts the contrasting methods used by the directors Giorgio Strehler and Victor Garcia. The section closes with the renowned semiotician Anne Ubersfeld studying the pleasure felt by the spectator. 2 Introduction The third and shortest section contains two essays on the relations of theatre and culture. Masao Yamaguchi brings his concerns as a cultural anthropologist to a brief discussion of the 1apanese sense of theatricality, which is allied to a mystic perception ofdanger and transcendence. Derrick de Kerckhove's paper, its original conception paying homage to our late colleague Marshall McLuhan, suggests a redefinition of theatre in terms of the development of the alphabet and printing. The essays on peTjormance which form the last part ofthe volume offernot a conclusion, but rather an invitation to question still more closely the phenomenon of theatre. That is the intention of Chantal Pontbriand and Philip Monk in giving some basic considerations towards a theoretical description of this contemporary North American form. In the final essay, 10sette Feral, influenced by Lacan, attempts an analysis of peTjormance in which she broaches the problem of the subject on stage and in space. The conclusions reached vary as much as the approaches used, yet the aim of the different essays remains consistent: to define theatre and its special nature, whether on the stage or on the printed page. Each writer seeks a better understanding of theatre, while maintaining a clear distinction between theatre and the other arts whose forms it may seem momentarily to adopt. The notion of theatricality presides everyWhere, as each contributor in succession attempts to define it, to capture it. This quest gives the volume its unity. A French booklength version of the Colloquium proceedings is planned by Didier (Canada). We are indebted to the following for their support of the Colloque ThMtraliterrheory of Drama and Performance: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; President 1.M. Ham, University of Toronto; Professor 1.F. Leyerle, Dean, School of Graduate Studies; Professor A.M. Kruger, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science; Professor Mario Valdes, Chairman, Programme in Comparative Literature; Professor P.W. Fox, Principal, and Professor R. Van Fossen, Dean, Erindale College; Professor B.S. Merrilees, Chairman, Department of French; Trinity College, University of Toronto; Le Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres, France; Les Services Culturels du Consulat General de France it Toronto; Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, University of Toronto; and Les Films Ariane. This volume would not have been possible without the assistance of the following colleagues who generously undertook the difficult task oftranslation: Pierre Bouillaguet, Ruby Cohn, Charles lose, C.R. Parsons...