Postdramatic Theatre and Form ed. by Michael Shane, Matt Cornish, and Brandon Woolf

Abstract

Reviewed by: Postdramatic Theatre and Form ed. by Michael Shane, Matt Cornish, and Brandon Woolf Peter A. Campbell Postdramatic Theatre and Form. Edited by Michael Shane Boyle, Matt Cornish, and Brandon Woolf. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2019. Cloth $144.00, Paper $53.99, eBook $114.20. 266 pages. 10 illustrations. Since its publication in 1999, Hans-Thies Lehmann's Postdramatic Theatre has become a critical site for discussion of contemporary theatre and performance, and the "postdramatic" has become a catch-all for a certain kind of experimental performance work that subverts traditional expectations of dramatic form and theatrical space. This new edited collection, Postdramatic Theatre and Form, includes contributions from an impressive selection of scholars from the United States and Europe, and serves as a critical retrospective on Lehmann's now twenty-year-old monograph as it focuses on the ways that the postdramatic relates to form. [End Page 159] The introduction by editors Michael Shane Boyle, Matt Cornish, and Brandon Woolf begins with the proposition that the study of theatrical form is "the simultaneous entwinement of the overlapping social mediations that give shape to theatre, and which theatre shapes in turn" (1). The chapters that follow demonstrate the efficacy of this approach as the contributing authors embrace contextual readings of both Lehmann and the works discussed in the terms of the postdramatic. The most compelling critique of Lehmann comes in Ryan Anthony Hatch's chapter midway through the collection, "Galleries: Resituating the Postdramatic Real." Hatch argues that Lehmann's "text suffers from an impoverished conception of the real" (133). He takes Lehmann's phrase "the irruption of the real" to task for its acontextual usage, arguing that the Lacanian origins of the phrase suggest that in any aesthetic event there is nothing outside of semblance—the "real" could only be the result of an accident, not a planned part of a performance. Similarly, Nicholas Ridout, in his chapter "Media: Intermission," uses Fredric Jameson's analysis of late capitalism to highlight Lehmann's observations of the role of media in everyday life. Ridout argues that Lehmann's highlighting of "interrupting" drama or theatre is not necessarily an "irruption" because it is already built into the modern versions of the form. As with Jameson's postmodern, there is no way outside, whether as a viewer of theatre or of a piece of video art. These formal analyses nicely complement the skeptical approaches to using "postdramatic" as a descriptive term for certain types of theatre and performance. Most chapters use the term to problematize methodologies that would valorize "experimental" theatre, instead analyzing the inherent complexities of attempts to create performances that do not rely on the world-building that often characterizes the theatrical production of dramatic texts. In her chapter, "Space: Postdramatic Geography in Post-Collapse Seattle," Jasmine Mahmoud examines Implied Violence, an experimental theatre collective that staged site-specific work in Great Recession-era Seattle, to interrogate the ways that performances and their aesthetics can depend on geography and real estate. For Mahmoud, the "post" in postdramatic refers to theatre that finds alternate spaces in part because of economic opportunity, or the lack thereof. Likewise, in "Festival: Conventional Disruption, or, Why Ann Liv Young Ruined Rebecca Patek's Show," Andrew Freidman shares a lively analysis of events at the American Realness Festival in New York City in 2014 that focuses not only on the art and the artists but on the institutional and economic structures that legitimize so-called postdramatic work. Matt Cornish, in turn, provides a valuable object lesson in the inherent privilege of much postdramatic theatre, and the different valorizations of dramatic form in the migrant theatres of contemporary Berlin. In his chapter "Migration: Common and Uncommon Grounds," he shows how the postdramatic, when institutionalized, can prevent marginalized populations like Turkish immigrants in Germany from using their stories to achieve certain kinds of political identity and power. [End Page 160] The discussion of the postdramatic also moves into the process of making theatre and performance. Kate Bredeson analyzes contemporary French theatres that emphasize scenography and landscape over drama and dialogue. Edith Cassiers, Timmy De Laet, and Luk Van den Dries explore the directing notebooks of Romeo Castellucci and Guy Cassiers...