Theatre Studies Research Articles

Maeterlinck’s Poetic Symbolism in Trei piese triste (Three Sad Plays)

This article proposes an analysis of a staging from Maeterlinck (Trei piese triste/ Three Sad Plays) based on some poems of the author (from Fifteen Songs – Three Little Maids They Did to Death, Maidens with Bounden Eyes, There Were Three Sisters Fain to Die). Drawing on theatre studies and biographical criticism, poetics (of water and dreams) and theories of the soul, our aim is to account for the main themes of the symbolist current as envisaged by the Belgian author.

Do Students with Different Genders Have a Different Perception of Temperature, Thermal Comfort, Learning and Clothing?

Workers of different genders have different demand for thermal comfort. If the thermal environment of the classroom is unsatisfactory, it may harm learning performance. Therefore, it is worth further exploring whether there is a perception difference between students of different genders in thermal comfort. Although differences in thermal comfort between different genders, ages and clothes have been found by many types of research recently, there are few experiments to research the influence of gender differences on thermal comfort among students in educational architecture. This paper aims to research whether there are differences in the perception of thermal comfort, clothing and temperature among students of different genders of UCL in the lecture theatre. The research objective is to obtain relevant data based on the combination of objective and subjective investigation, analyze the data with T-test and Correlation, and compare the data to research the differences and the reasons behind them. There is no gender difference in thermal comfort among students in the individual lecture theatre study, but there is a significant gender difference in the all lecture theatre study. In LT05b, no correlation was found between the clothing of different genders and thermal comfort, but a strong linear negative correlation was found between thermal preference and thermal comfort variables of the male group. There is no correlation between the clothing and thermal comfort of students in all the lecture theatre, while there is a strong negative correlation between thermal preference and thermal comfort. Finally, the conclusion of this study provides some data support for UCL to improve lecture theatre conditions (thermal environment). When the thermal environment of the lecture theatre satisfies the thermal comfort and effective learning needs of students, female students should be fully considered.

Studying the Impact of Reading Literature on Reconstructing the Reader’s Perspective “Insights from The Writings of Ahlem Mosteghanemi and Mario Bellatin”

This article is an attempt to highlight the potential impact of written literary texts in reshaping the readers’ emotional rationality. The focal points of this research demonstrate the emotional mirroring that is portrayed between the readers of Ahlem Mosteghanemi and her trilogy narrators, compared to the emotional sensitivity engendered among Mario Bellatin’s readers and his creative narrators. The research paper aims at exploring the influence of these parallel emotional ties upon readers’ social parameters of reality. In this regard, some of the writers’ most challenging writings are examined according to literary analysis, constructive psychology and some scientific evaluations of theatrical studies. The findings display that reading literary works contributes effectively in reshaping the social perspective, through empowering the readers to reverse the social monitoring from a pre- set external level to the original individual level. Additionally, the study shows that renewing the reader’s perspective matters in updating the presentation of both the person and the society.

Pedagogy of modern Ukrainian theater: on the way to artistic synthesis

Statement of the problem. Modern Ukrainian theatre studies, based on the theatre practice of the 20th – 21st centuries, pay considerable attention to the issues of evolution of the directing and acting art, theatre pedagogy, synthesis of traditional and innovative forms of education for creative youth. These explorations acquire special importance in the context of today’s theatre art, marked by the creative and pedagogical searches of Ukrainian theatre masters. The article is about the artistic and cultural situation in modern theatre education in Ukraine, the search for education models for actors and directors, about the role of the theatre school and teachers – heads of creative workshops – in this process. This topic, expressing the unique picture of Ukrainian theatre pedagogy at the beginning of the 21st century, has not yet become the subject of special consideration in theatre studies. At the moment, there are no fundamental studies that would highlight the pedagogical activity of masters of modern Ukrainian theatre, but there are theoretical works of directors and actors that touch on the problems of modern theatre art and the theatre school of Ukraine. The purpose of the proposed study is to summarises the pedagogical experience of theatre artists of Ukraine, directors, and actors who, in the process of forming the professional skills and spiritual culture of theatre students, actively include in the educational cycle of the special disciplines as playing musical instruments, plastic arts, history and theory of music, jazz improvisations, vocal ensemble, etc. Methodology. The basis for the search of expanding the methods for the education of modern theatre students for the article’s author became, first of all, theoretical, practical, and pedagogical achievements of outstanding masters of modern Ukrainian theatre, which are for us the embodiment of professional, aesthetic and methodological searches in the realm of acting and directing art, as well as the author’s own long-term creative experience acquired during acting, directing and teaching work. Working out the mechanisms of universalization of the methodological base of academic art education in the theatre school, the author of the article notes the trends and directions of innovative approaches, which determine the ways of forming a creative personality in the process of reforming theatre education in Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the research is conditioned by the study of the peculiarities of pedagogical ideas, methods and techniques of modern theatrical personalities, actors, directors, and theatre teachers. From the theatre schools and areas of training of Ukrainian artists, those whose searches are aimed at creating conditions for the manifestation and development of versatile talents of the personality of the future master of the stage have been selected. The latter means the development of the future theatrical specialist’s acting, directing, musical, plastic, and intellectual properties under the guidance of theatre teachers giving special disciplines, such as “Directing”, “Acting skills”, “Choreography”, “Vocal”, “Stage movement”, “Plastic education of directors”, “Work of a director with a composer”, “History and Theory of Music”, which are taught with the involvement of the latest pedagogical technologies and demonstrate originality of the teachers’ artistic thinking. Results and conclusions. The tendency to experiment and innovation has always distinguished the best representatives of the Ukrainian theatre school, the creative achievements of many of which are related to the use in pedagogical practice, in addition to professional subjects (directing, acting), a cycle of special disciplines. At the same time, special attention is paid to music (vocals, playing musical instruments, history and theory of music), plastic (choreography, pantomime) and physical education. The multifaceted creative and pedagogical activity of the masters of modern Ukrainian theatre, which unfolded in the 20th and early 21st centuries, became the forerunner of the searches of the last decade and witnessed innovative explorations of Ukrainian theatre pedagogy. Today, the experience of the National University “Ostroh Academy” is of significant importance for improving the learning process, in the methodology of which the principle of organic combination of K. Stanislavsky’s system, a metaphorical approach to creating a stage image according to the “transformation method” of L. Kurbas, with the pedagogical technologies of “play theatre” is laid down. In our opinion, it is the personal method of professional training of Ukrainian actors and directors under the author’s master’s program “Metatheatre” of the director and theatre teacher of the Ostroh Academy O. Liptsyn that gives reasons to assert that various facets of the artistic traditions of the Ukrainian avant-garde theatre, whose leader in Ukraine was Les Kurbas, are clearly manifested in the innovative ideas and searches of his followers, influence the formation of innovative technologies of the modern theatre school, which significantly expands the creative possibilities of acting and directing art, and becomes an integral component of the stage pedagogy in Ukraine.

The theatre of development: dramaturgy, actors and performances in the ‘workshop space’

This article explores performance within development spaces. Dramaturgy, a concept deriving from theatre studies, can be understood as an analytical lens that examines the various roles and performances of different ‘actors’ in particular social spaces. While there is literature exploring the use of the arts, such as applied theatre and dance, in development interventions, this article looks at the roles, performances and actors in development spaces. By analysing the subtle yet explicit composites of workshop spaces in development, in particular those engaging with arts-based methodologies, we can see how multiple and simultaneous performances converge. These performances are insightful in their own right and represent and enact a theatre of their own. Using a workshop in Sierra Leone as a case study, we explore the various dynamics at play within the ‘workshop space’ of development. We illustrate how these frequently overlooked and subtle elements in development are critical to understanding the perceptions and embodiment of what constitutes and enacts the theatre of development.

Contributors

Sunil Agnani, associate professor in English and history at the University of Illinois Chicago, is the author of a book on Denis Diderot and Edmund Burke, Hating Empire Properly: The Two Indies and Limits of Enlightenment Anticolonialism (recipient of the 2014 Harry Levin Prize for Best First Book from the American Comparative Literature Association), which examines the role of ressentiment and revenge in European anticolonial thought of the Enlightenment.Jason Fitzgerald is assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he specializes in theater studies and post-1945 US cultural history. He is currently working on a book about the late 1960s US theatrical avant-garde, with an essay from that project published in Modern Drama. He was formerly the book review editor for Theatre Journal and is an assistant editor at boundary 2.Joshua Lam is assistant professor of English at Michigan State University. His research focuses on race, science, and technology in US literature. His current book project examines racialized automaton figures in the modernist era; a second project focuses on racial objectification in contemporary experimental Black poetry. His essays have appeared in the Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Journal of Modern Literature, College Literature, Callaloo, The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism and Technology, and The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century.Robert D. Richardson is the author of Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind (1986), Emerson: The Mind on Fire (1995), and William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism (2006).

Art Decoration in Theatrical Productions as a Means of Scenographic Formation of Space

The purpose of the research is to find out the role of scenery in theatrical productions, their types and features of their creation by a production designer. The research methodology is based on the complex use of methods of modern art history, which are aimed at the theoretical and artistic-practical understanding of scenery in theatrical productions; the method of art-historical analysis is used, which makes it possible to investigate the trends of the cultural development of theatre technologies; empirical material is studied in a combination of art studies, theatre studies, cultural studies, and historical approaches; the method of formal and stylistic analysis allows revealing the artistic features of scenographic solutions. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the article is one of the first analytical works in which the author tries to reveal the multifaceted role of scenery in theatrical productions by analysing the definitions of "scenery”, “theatrical and decorative art”, “scenography” that describe the artistic design of theatrical productions. Conclusions. In the process of analysing the role of scenery in theatrical productions, a completely objective impression was formed that scenery is a type of fine art related to the artistic design of a theatrical performance, the elements of which were rooted in antiquity and with minor changes have reached our days and consist of decorations, noise design, lighting, and props, actors' costumes and make-up. Each element has its own function in achieving theatrical expressiveness, which as a whole creates a single artistic whole, the purpose of which is to create the illusion of a place for a theatrical performance. Scenery in theatrical productions is created by a production designer according to the director's idea, which are closely related to the theatre itself, its development and general trends in modern art and modern theatre, the arrangement of theatre premises and the stage, lighting techniques, equipment and many other conditions. The analysis of the definitions of “scenery”, “theatrical and decorative art”, “scenography”, which are used to describe the artistic design of the stage and space in different ways in the scientific and artistic literature, makes it possible to conclude that the scenery is an important part of almost any theatrical performance, and many theatre artists are recognised as independent creators.
 Key words: scenery; decorative arts; scenography; theatre and decorative arts; theatre artist.

Theatre Direction of Peter Hall: Specificity of Artistic Interpretation of W. Shakespeare's Dramaturgy

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the artistic interpretation of W. Shakespeare's drama by the British theatre director Peter Hall and to develop a periodisation of his interpretive strategies in the second half of the 20th century. Research methodology. The research is based on the achievements of the domestic school of theatre studies and the principles of study and analysis of the play, in relation to the historical and cultural context, as well as in relation to the worldview and individuality of the director. The research methodology is based on the traditions of domestic theatre and art studies and modern approaches that combine the methods of related humanitarian disciplines – cultural studies, philosophy, and aesthetics. A complex theatre analysis of the features of the artistic interpretation of W. Shakespeare's plays by P. Hall determines the logic of the research: Through the identification of the director's orientation of the drama, the formation of the principles of play theatre in the director's reading of W. Shakespeare's plays, to the definition of the aesthetic foundations of Peter Hall's direction. The bibliographical method, the method of art analysis, the stylistic method, the systematic method, and the method of comparative analysis are applied. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the fact that, for the first time, it attempts a comprehensive art analysis of the interpretive strategies of the British director Peter Hall in the context of W. Shakespeare's theatrical discourse of the second half of the 20th century (on the material of the performances “Coriolanus”, “War of the Roses”, “Henry VI”, and “Hamlet”); little-known facts from the life and work of P. Hall were introduced into domestic scientific circulation, and an art analysis of the director's most resonant performances was carried out; for the first time, the periodisation of P. Hall's work is proposed, based on the analysis of his performances from the perspective of the given theme, the study of the specifics of the artistic interpretation of W. Shakespeare's drama and the evolution of the master's philosophical and aesthetic vision. Conclusions. The figure of Peter Hall is one of the most significant in the history of British theatre of the 20th and early 20th centuries. The famous theatre director changed the situation and, in many ways, determined the direction of the development of the British theatre by creating repertory troupes based mainly on the works of W. Shakespeare. Based on the art analysis of Peter Hall's work from the perspective of the given topic, the periodisation of his interpretive strategies was developed in accordance with the specifics of the artistic interpretation of W. Shakespeare's drama and the evolution of the director's philosophical and aesthetic vision in the second half of the 20th century. The first period, 1955–1959, is characterised by high creative activity and the ease with which the young director masters the theatrical language, the system of stage thinking of the English theatre of the 1940s–1950s, develops an author's handwriting, emphasising devotion to traditions; performances are distinguished by the delicacy of the reading of W. Shakespeare's drama, aesthetic perfection and the presence of meaningful and verified innovation (for instance, “Twelfth Night”, 1958). The second period, 1959–1968, is characterised by mastering and rethinking the problematics and poetics of W. Shakespeare's drama; in the performances of the 1960s, the aesthetics of the deromantic Brechtian style of P. Hall was formed; the emphasis in productions shifts to the problem of repetition of historical patterns, to the de-aestheticization of events and historical figures; the stylistics of interpretative thought and modern theatrical vocabulary receive a new development. The third period, 1968–1970s, is characterised by the desire to preserve the theatrical tradition from excessive conceptualisation of direction; the strengthening of the importance of protecting W. Shakespeare's drama from modernist interpretations and P. Hall's desire to convey to the viewer the full content of the world's masterpieces due to an in-depth study of the classical text. The fourth period, 1980–1990, marked by the creation and development of a new style of Shakespearean productions, caused by the rethinking of approaches to the figurative translation of classical drama into stage language in accordance with the trends of postmodernism.
 Key words: Peter Hall, theatre direction, dramaturgy, W. Shakespeare, interpretive strategies, Royal Shakespeare Company.

Pertunjukan Beralas Bumi Beratap Langit: Investigasi Keaktoran dan Ruang melalui Site-Specific

Acting is considered as a way of art, the experience of acting placed as an aesthetic sublimation. The process can be seen from the development of the actor who was originally the subject of language turning into the subject of desire to become the subject of encouragement. Central to the Site-specific approach is a concern to the potential of unconventional spaces. The development of theatrical studies, particularly on actors and space, there seems to be little clarity on the parameters of this approach and it appears to have become a flexible term in which many manifestations have begun to accumulate. The Site-Specific approach seeks to use unique site landscape properties. Locations were chosen based on their ability to reinforce storytelling and form a clearer backgrounf for actors in a theatrical production. This paper aims to investigate a personalized Site-specific approach to performance interests in order to provide insight into the modes of acting and actors as subjects in theatrical performances. The practicality of the site-specific approach to the theater stage model resulted in the following conclusions: 1) natural sets create an atmosphere of intimacy, 2) help actors feel active immersion in the world that is being played, and 3) provide rich cultural visualizations that are relevant to the actor's image.

METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY THEATER AND DECORATION ART

Formation of a complex of methods of scientific knowledge of the phenomen on of art of artistic design of theater performances in order to identify scientifically grounded ways to improve scenography and increase the theoretical and methodological level of scenographic creativity of professional training of theater and artistic personnel. From the point of view of the methodology, the analysis of the art of contemporary stage has become complex and relies on philosophical, aesthetic, art, cultural, sociopsychological and historical approaches in combination with applied theatrical science. Among the methods of analysis, the leading place in the study of transformational problems of the stage is given to the system-structural method. From this point of view, the scenography can be considered as a figurative-plastic system consisting of certain artistic elements (fine arts, design architecture, costume architecture, design, etc.), and at the artistic and synthetic level as a subsystem of the general system of theatrical art, which is in relation to the scenography by the context and source of artistic influences that determine the forms and content of theatrical and decorative creativity.

The study of the first epic Turkish theater play titled Keşanlı Ali Destanı in the context of cultural displacement

Bu çalışma, Haldun Taner’in ilk epik Türk tiyatro oyunu olarak kabul edilen Keşanlı Ali Destanı (1964) adlı eserini ve eserin The Ballad of Ali of Keshan (1967/1976) başlığını taşıyan İngilizce çevirisini kültürleraşırı aktarım ve çeviri süreçleri bağlamında ele almayı amaçlamaktadır. İlk kez 1964 yılında sahnelenen oyun, geleneksel seyirlik oyunlarına kattığı yenilikçi nitelikle Türk kültür dizgesinde bir tiyatro olayıdır. Eser, Brechtçi epik tiyatro ile kurduğu ilişkinin bir sonucu olarak kültürlerarası bir karşılaşmanın ürünü ve farklı dizgelerin bireşimi olarak nitelendirilmektedir. Oyun ayrıca dilden dile çevrilerek dünyanın birçok ülkesinde sahnelenmiş, dolayısıyla bir kez daha çok yönlü bir kültürleraşırı hareketin konusu olmuştur. Çalışmada öncelikle eserin konu olduğu yer değiştirme hareketi üzerinde durulmaktadır. Keşanlı Ali Destanı’nın çoğuldizgedeki konumunu tartışmak üzere Itamar Even-Zohar’ın Çoğuldizge Kuramı’na ve kültür repertuarı kavramına başvurulmaktadır. Eser ardından, epik tiyatro türünün Türk kültür dizgesindeki ilk örneği olması dolayısıyla göstergelerarası çeviri bağlamında ele alınmaktadır. Bunun sebebi, oyunun teatral gösterge dizgeleri arasında geçen bir dönüştürme [transmutation] işlemi sonucunda inşa edilmiş olmasıdır. Çalışmanın bir sonraki aşamasında, eserin farklı dillere çeviri macerası ve Nüvit Özdoğru tarafından yapılmış olan İngilizce çevirisi, erek metne eklenmiş olan Çevirmenin Notu kapsamında irdelenmektedir. Theo Hermans’ın çeviri anlatıda Çevirmen’in Sesi kavramının bir temsili olarak ele alınan bu yan metin kapsamında yapılan betimleyici çalışma, epik tiyatronun unsurlarını Türk kültür dizgesinin imkânlarıyla yorumlayarak bünyesine katan oyunun, ardından dillerarası çeviri yoluyla bu kez farklı bir kültürde konumlanarak geçirdiği dönüşümü Çevirmen’in Sesi’nin sunduğu bildiriler dâhilinde açığa çıkarmaktadır. Bu çok aşamalı inceleme sonucunda, Keşanlı Ali Destanı’nın kültürleraşırı yer değiştirme hareketi ve çok yönlü çeviri macerası gözler önüne serilmektedir.

‘Droughts and Flooding Rains’: Ecology and Australian Theatre in the 1950s

This article uses historical-ecological insights for a re-reading of two little-known mid-twentieth-century Australian plays, Oriel Gray’s The Torrents and Eunice Hanger’s Flood, which highlight developments relevant to the environmental disasters of today. In particular, the article focuses on the significance of key cultural assumptions embedded in the texts – and a revival of The Torrents in 2019 – including those to do with land use in a period of accelerating development. This approach offers new insights into the dominance of mining, irrigation, and dam-building activities within the Australian ethos, landscape, and economy. One of these insights is the framing of development as progressive. The article thus also examines how development projected as progressive takes place amid the continuing denial of prior occupation of the land by First Nations peoples and of knowledge systems developed over thousands of years. The intersectional settler-colonialist-ecocritical approach here seeks to capture the compounding ecosystem that is modern Australian theatre and its critique. The intention is not to apply revisionist critiques of 1950s plays but to explore the historical relationship between humans, colonialism, and the physical environment over time. Denise Varney is Professor of Theatre Studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her research is in modern and contemporary theatre and performance, with published work in the areas of ecocriticism, feminism, and Australian theatre. Her most recent book is Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage 1960–2018 (Sydney University Press, 2021).

Playwriting Manuals, 1888–1925: Jerome K. Jerome, Alfred Hennequin, Agnes Platt, and Moses Malevinsky

Since the 1990s, there has been a large number of ‘how-to’ manuals published in English for aspiring playwrights. By and large, these texts treat the pedagogy of playwriting as a recent phenomenon. However, a series of relatively unknown books from the mid-nineteenth century were written with the purpose of teaching the craft of dramatic writing, emphasizing the importance of a hands-on understanding of the theatre and the individual roles within it. This article argues that, while these books are representative of the historical context in which they were written, they also contain advice which is still useful for playwrights, along with fascinating individual characteristics. Texts featured include one of the earliest manuals discovered, written by the anonymous ‘A Dramatist’; a text by the first (known) woman to write a how-to manual in English; and a book which uses a mathematical formula as a foundation for writing a script. Karen Morash is Lead Academic Tutor on the BA Theatre Studies at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. She is a playwright and poet, and works as a dramaturg with the theatre company Head for Heights.

“Beralas Bumi Beratap Langit”: An Investigation of Creating Role and Space through Site-Specific

This article is devoted to the analysis of theatre performances “Beralas Bumi Beratap Langit” which uses a site-specific method. Central to the site-specific approach is concern to the potential of unconventional spaces. The site-specific approach seeks to use the unique landscape properties of the site, locations selected based on their ability to amplify storytelling and form a clearer background for the actors in a theatrical production. This approach in theatre studies, especially with regard to actors and spaces, seems to offer breadth and bridges to the creating role and the flexibility which many representations come together, site-specific is then used as a method that helps in achieving character through learning and creating acting, from the Covid-19 pandemic intervention which changed at least most of the methods in learning acting and other creative processes. This article aims to investigate a site-specific approach that is personalized in the interest of providing insight or catalysts on the mode of acting and actors as subjects in theatrical performances. Using the ethnographic method, data were obtained on the creative process during the preparation of the show by the “Panggung Bercerita” theatre community. Practical investigation of a site-specific approach to the theatre stage method yields the following conclusions: 1) natural sets create an atmosphere of intimacy, 2) helps actors feel immersion into the world being played, and 3) provides rich and culturally relevant visualizations of the actor's image.

Modern director’s reflections of Dmytro Bortniansky’s «Sokil» and «Alkid» in the Lviv national opera

Purpose of Research. The purpose of the research is to analyze Andreas Weirich's directing of the operas «Le Faucon» and «Alcide» by D. Bortniansky on the stage of the Lviv National Opera. Methodology. The methodology of the research is based on an interdisciplinary approach that allows us to use the knowledge from the history of music culture, musicology, theatre studies, performing arts, contemporary theatre, etc. To achieve the goal of the research, the author has used the following methods: a historical one (to analyze the genesis of the creation and production of D. Bortniansky's operas «Le Faucon» and «Alcide»); an analysis (to highlight ethical and aesthetic narratives and images of the operas «Le Faucon» and «Alcide»); a comparative method (to analyze the differences between Andreas Weirich's directorial versions of the opera «Alcide» and its innovation in its synthesis with the opera «Le Faucon»). Scientific Novelty. The scientific novelty of the research is the analysis of Andreas Weirich's directorial interpretations of Dmytro Bortniansky's operas at the Lviv National Opera. Conclusions. Thus, the performances of D. Bortniansky's operas «Le Faucon» and «Alcide» in 2021 at the Lviv National Opera by Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv and German director Andreas Weirich are a model of the renaissance of national traditions and Ukrainian content in the context of modern European culture. The innovativeness, ethical and aesthetic narratives, and synthetic nature of the combination of two different operas reveal the heuristic potential of the reflection on the internal conflict of the modern individual by the classics of national musical culture.
 Key words: «Sokil », «Alcide», Dmytro Bortniansky, opera, director, theatre, stage design, modern theatre, image.

The listening chamber: experiencing scenography in Pan Pan’s All That Fall

ABSTRACT This article explores how scenography, specifically the visual-aural-spatial elements of a performance, shapes the response of an audience by acting as either a guiding element to a performance or its primary meaning. Through the case study of Pan Pan Theatre’s All That Fall (2011) in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, this article investigates how the sound, lighting and spatial designs exploit the audience’s embodied responses. In conjunction with in-depth performance analysis, this article will utilise audience feedback and theatre practitioner interviews in order to investigate how scenography organises the relationship of the audience to the performance through the active foregrounding of perception, as well as demonstrating the evolving theatrical engagements/responses to Beckett’s work.

Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum by Katrin Sieg

Reviewed by: Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum by Katrin Sieg Sol Izquierdo de la Viña Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum. By Katrin Sieg. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021. Pp. 326 + 16 illustrations. Cloth $80. Paper $34.95. ISBN 9780472075102. Given the museum's historical alliance with the European colonial project, it has long been the target of anti-racist and decolonial interventions. Following major efforts by activists, curatorial proposals have emerged to challenge museums so as to bring the crimes of colonialism into public debate and urge for reparations. In Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum, Katrin Sieg examines the process in which museums review the colonial past, confront its continuities and work towards healing. The book meticulously surveys the crucial decolonial work initiated by activists, academics, and artists, which has prompted the actions of bigger institutions. By developing a wide theoretical apparatus and analyzing decisive exhibitions, it sheds light on a process still in progress. Approaching the issue from a background in theater studies, Sieg presents the museum as a stage on which to choreograph revisited narratives of European history. By including in its parcours the visitors' bodies, its rooms facilitate the performative experience of mourning and encourage a utopian anti-imperial future. Her position is nevertheless shrewd regarding the troubles and complex steps involved in decolonizing museums. She recognizes the burdens facing historic museums given their role as instruments of imperial powers that scientifically justified and publicly presented racism, and she acknowledges Europe's difficulties in detaching itself from this "colonial gaze." Therefore, besides the need to scrutinize this institution and its forms of representation, she argues that a decolonization process requires deep institutional and structural transformations. The book begins with an introductory chapter that presents a historical overview as well as vertebral concepts for decolonial theories. Sieg deepens the "labor of mourning", as formulated by Paul Gilroy, arguing that it is needed to overcome colonial melancholia as well as retraumatization, and thus essential to healing colonial wounds. Through a survey of key post/decolonial literature, her study offers an indispensable conceptual framework to comprehend the complex and urgent challenges of decolonization. Moreover, the first portion of the book maps out different critical interventions that ignited the flame of decolonization, thus situating the origins of this process in social movements. Chapter two focuses on ethnology museums that have avoided confronting their colonial legacy, instead reframing themselves as world museums with suspect claims to multiculturalism. One paradigmatic example is the controversial case of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin that exercised a "rebranding of the imperial past as cosmopolitan heritage" (49). Several activist platforms came together and positioned themselves against the expensive architectural project, vehemently [End Page 609] calling for the restitution of human remains and cultural assets guarded in Berlin's ethnological collections. The activists' actions around the Humboldt Forum have been essential to bringing this debate into the public sphere and putting pressure on German institutions. In the same way, the project "Colonialism in a Box" (2011), documented in chapter 3, recounts an intervention at the German History Museum in Berlin. Sieg observes the museum's linear triumphalist narrative, which due to its "colonial aphasia" is unthinkingly aligned with colonial violence. On the contrary, the project "Colonialism in a Box" challenged the narrative by looking at instances of asymmetrical relations with the colonized territories and offering "contrapuntal readings" (Edward Said) of objects in the permanent exhibition. Thus, by documenting pioneering efforts of grassroots activism, often overlooked in academic publications, Sieg's first three chapters elucidate the reasons and goals of the decolonial agenda. As a response to "Colonialism in a Box," the German History Museum developed the exhibition project German Colonialism: Fragments of its Past and Present (2016–2017), which is thoroughly analyzed in the book's central part (chapters 4–6). This section examines singular curatorial strategies and articulates a critical assessment of decolonial practices in museology. Sieg praises the exhibition's focus on Afro-German stories throughout colonial and postcolonial history, its inclusion of the perspectives of Black curators, and avoidance of violent and racist images that perpetuate the dehumanizing colonial gaze. As she states...

Pausing on a Sunday: Sondheim and the Composition of the Secular in the American Musical

The abundance of Bible story–based plots and preponderance of Jewish lyricists in musical theatre suggests religion should play a central role in its study. Yet religion is not a major theme in musical theatre criticism. This article suggests this silence is a symptomatic forgetfulness of the default secular operative in American musical theatre and its analysts in theatre studies. Focusing on Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021) as an artist of particular accomplishment within the raced, gendered, and religious aesthetic of the American musical’s secularism, it examines “Sunday,” the Act One closer to Sunday in the Park with George (1984), as a climax of such expression. “Sunday” is an instruction manual on what the secular is, conveying in its lyrics, compositional location, and author’s autobiography the story of religion’s hiddenness in the American musical. Sondheim’s “Sunday” is a way to see how musical theatre regulates religion on stage.

Denise Varney, Patrick White’s Theatre: Australian Modernism on Stage, 1960–2018

This monograph provides a useful study of Patrick White’s plays in the context of modernism. Target audiences include theatre historians, theatre studies students, and theatre practitioners.

Musiikillistettua teatteria

Hitler and Blondi: A Musicalised, Postdramatic Theatre Performance 
 This article examines how music explores the central concepts of the postdramatic theatre work Hitler ja Blondi: kolmetoista laulua diktaattorille, saksanpaimenkoiralle ja pianolle (“Hitler and Blondi: Thirteen Songs for a Dictator, a German Shepherd and one Piano”), a co-production of the TTT-theatre in Tampere (premiered 19 Feb, 2020) and the Finnish National Theatre in Helsinki (fall season 2021). Due to COVID-19 restrictions several performances were postponed, and the commercial live recording was released for private use. Michael Baran’s non-linear script consists of both documentary and fictional texts throughout 13 scenes (called “songs”), a prologue and an epilogue. Some periods of the dictator’s life are narrated as monologues. Hitler’s role is especially written for a blond, elderly Finnish actress, Seela Sella, who is Jewish herself. The music is designed and composed by Juhani Nuorvala and Juhani Liimatainen with Kyösti Kallio as sound engineer. Since the cornerstones of the performance’s structure, aesthetics and theatrical means are transcoded from musical sign system, Hitler ja Blondi is approached as a musicalised theatre work. 
 The fundamental poetic idea of Hitler ja Blondi is the dialectic counterpoint between fascism and its opposing ideologies and aesthetics – represented musically through the opposed aesthetics of Richard Wagner and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Furthermore, the structure of the script resembles German Lied cycles, and the chained occurrences of Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke correspond to the recurrent refrain in rondo form. In general, the music and its large intertextual network is one of the performance’s central narrative means, and it opens up the potential for interpretation. Drawing from the recent theories and methodologies of music analysis and theatre studies, this article focuses on discussing 1) how popular songs and Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke extend the performance’s temporalities, thereby expressing the timelessness of fascism; 2) how the music presents Hannah Arendt’s view of the banality of evilness in Nuorvala’s Puolueohjelmalaulu (“The Song of Nazy Party’s Program”); and 3) how the author of this article experiences the dialectic counterpoint differently through life performance, and through the video recording.