The Lithuanian theatre of the last decades has experienced numerous changes, especially dea ling with the most important elements of theatri cal performance: the text, the actor, and the spec tator. The object of the present research is the emerging postmodern representations in contem porary Lithuanian theatre of the last two decades. Special attention is paid to the recent develop ments that can be conceptualized in the frame work of postmodern and poststructural theory. Theatre critics are still debating about the influence of poststructuralism in performing arts, focusing mainly on the transformation of theatre from a marginal art form to the cultural metaphor, wide ly used by cultural theorists across the discipli nes. The question remains thought how this pro liferation of theatrical and performative metap hors challenges the traditional definitions of "the atre" or "performance". The change of the status of theatre in society, together with the theatricali zation of everyday life and the mediatization of culture by new technologies, suggest not only the redundancy of theatre in the contemporary Lithu anian society, but also a considerable shift in the function of its aesthetics. The new forms of representation in the Lithua nian theatre are closely linked with tradition as well as various influences from outside, which, in turn, form a kind of hybrid character of contempo rary performances. The main task of this research is the definition and analysis of postmodern mo des of representation in the contemporary Lithu anian theatre. These tendencies are closely linked together and deal with the transformation of the notions of language, body and perception in con temporary culture and critical theory. In this article, the self-reflexive nature of the Lithuanian theatre is explored in order to define and analyse the main reasons and implications of this postmodern strategy. The apprehension of the impossibility for innovations as well as the limits of traditional means of representation force contemporary theatre creators to question and re discover the status of theatre in the postcommu nist society. As the traditional notion of "theatre" is being transformed by changes in the socio-eco nomic situation, new technologies and popular culture, theatre artists are looking back at the past performances, theatre and cultural history, "non classical" forms of narration as well as the media and popular culture in order to investigate and challenge romantic and modern models of repre sentation. Theatre reflects and deconstructs its own past; it is from itself, its own substance that theatre proliferates by imitating, repeating, parodying, retracting its own representational devises. However, while analysing the new tendency towards self-reflexivity in the Lithuanian theatre, one has to move away from formalistic labels to more complex sociocultural contexts that influence these transformations as well as acknowledge the complex dialectic of disruption and reinven tion, produced by this kind of performances. A closer reading will find them concerned with nar rative frames and mental systems that subvert the traditional sense of meaning and perception in theatre. Postmodern self-reflexive strategies, present in the contemporary Lithuanian theatre, can be defi ned as resistance to the traditional constructions of reality and are conditioned by the following factors: the changes that occur in the notions of art, reality, representation, subject, and percep tion and are influenced by postmodern and po ststructural theories; the importance of theoreti cal reflection; the crises of the modern cult of innovation and the idea of progress; the theatrica lity of the contemporary cultural situation; the influence of the media, popular culture and new technologies and the shift in the role of the theatre in the transitional Lithuanian society. Self-reflexi ve strategies challenge the inherited modes of the atrical representation in at least two ways: dis turbing theatre means of expression and broader cultural assumptions about theatre. The Lithua nian theatre critics have been slow in recognising the possibility of the critical importance of self reflexive techniques, discussing them as a forma listic exercise, rather than an ideological/critical response to a crisis of credibility, faced by theatre during the last two decades. In fact, what is created by those strategies is the theatre questioning its ontology (presence, liveness), its means of repre sentation, and its aura of authenticity, authority and originality.
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May 1, 2005
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