Postdramatic Theatre and Postmodern Theatre: WTF? An introduction to Hans Theis Lehmann
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- A brief introduction to postdramatic and postmodern theatre as first theorised by Hans Theis Lehmann. The first in a series in which I briefly (and, hopefully, accessibly) introduce some core academic concepts and ideas.
In this first episode, I explain the scholarship of Han-Thies Lehmann as well as the theatre of Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane, Caryl Churchill, Forced Entertainment, Ontroerend Goed and GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN.
If you've enjoyed this video then please do check out the rest of my channel. I generally put out new videos every Tuesday and Friday discussing theatre and playwriting from the perspective of an aspirant and (some might say) emerging playwright, theatre maker and academic.
Twitter: @Tom_Nicholas
Website: www.tomnicholas.com
Thanks for watching!
Your explanation is incredible, Tom. You take us to the core of the posdramatic theatre in five minutes. That's a great achivement because you are quite amusing, you a committed to the content and you're giving us a good time. Thank you so much.
Love your channel. Makes it easier to understand some terms before diving in. Appreciate it a lot! Thank you!
Thanks mate! Nice one.
I've often struggled with the placement of 4.48 and Crave in the wider postdramatic categorisation. Taxonomy is of course limited, but through the process of directing 4.48 I really felt like there was something different going on. It feels more modernist than post in crucial ways, but that could just be where we took it. A text that calls for different implementations is one thing, but for each to feel absolutely necessary and inevitable is quite extraordinary.
Thank you for such a great discussion, Tom. Thanks to you I have found interesting ideas that I want to follow up on. It is the nicest feeling in the world when this happens, is it not? Hope you continue making more in this series.
Thanks Estha, really glad you found the video interesting; that's what I aim for!
Cool video! One thing I would like to add: I have the impression that the UK is less familiar with postdramatic theatre, partly because of its strong literary/dramatic tradition. In Holland, Belgium and Germany, however, I would say that the postdramatic theatre actually forms the basis of mainstream theatre making. Even in performances you could label as 'dramatic', you can still see a lot of postdramatic elements that Lehmann describes in his book. Very interesting (though difficult) book in my opinion, as it separates drama from theatre and expands the notion of what theatre can be. Keep up the good work! ;)
Hey Jeroen! Absolutely. I'd say that postdramatic elements are currently central to a lot of contemporary theatre practices in the UK as well as in Europe. I suppose what I was trying to articulate was that, though this might be the case, I often feel like mainstream theatremakers lack the terminology with which to describe that work (even when it's them making it themselves).
Took me a few attempts to get through the book itself but I do think it lives up to the hype. Even though I primarily make "dramatic" work myself, it fulfilled its task in mapping out the existence, as well as the limits of, the postdramatic field.
Thanks for watching!
Fabulous. Claps to you. Hats off.
Once again, super helpful and clear video. You're a great teacher! Your students are lucky to have you :)
Thank you for the video! Clear clear and informative, I can tell you are a great teacher! You have a new subscriber!
Ah, thank you for saying so!
Dude you’ve helped me so much with understanding this bastard essay now
Sick video well done man. Saw a brilliant production of AOHL and so helpful to hear it contextualised here
Ah cool, hope you enjoyed the show and glad I could help a little bit!
Hi, Your videos are great and are very accessible for A-Level students. Any chance you could do a look at the theatre of the 21st century? Maybe a look at Immersive Theatre? If we are post postmodern, where are we?
Cool video! Thank you
Thank you for this. I couldn't understand what the hell this theory was. Thank you for just explaining it as it is.
This is great content thank you
Büchner's 'Woyzeck' - with its interchangeable scene-structure (left to the discretion of the director), the remarkable first act of Congreve's 'The Way of the World', Ibsen's 'When We Dead Awaken' and I would probably argue Kyd's 'The Spanish Tragedy' all flirt with various forms of dislocation which could, I suppose, satisfy the descriptor "post-dramatic". It is remarkable to realise that a playwright's structural method, as narratively linear as Ibsen's is in 'Peer Gynt', could become modified as radically, in a single lifetime, as to encompass 'When We Dead Awaken', don't you think?.
you look and sound like a good twin of Ramsey Snow :D thx for the lecturee
Hi! I would love to know more names and companies that produce post-dramatic theater. Do you know more? Thanks!!
Oh, so postdramatic theatre is basically theatre that is both antinaturalist and antirealist, thereby rejecting both empirical and rational frameworks. Gotcha. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Explained really well! Thank you
Very good primer. The movement seems to presume that the purpose of plays is to represent real life, where as I guess my own view is that they're an attempt to bring meaning to life, not merely to imitate it. Though that's not say that postdramatic theatre can't do that either.
This really helped me I appreciate you
You have a new subscriber
Thank you so much for this explanation. I'm writing an essay on post-dramatic theater for school and had no idea where to start.
This really helped me, thanks alot!
Thank you so much. I was having a hard time understanding this and you just took 5 minutes to make me understand! This is awesome!
A new subscriber here :D
Brilliant!
Great video, Tom! Looking forward to more from this series.
On your point about the mimetic nature of dramatic theatre - how would you say that applies to Brecht? Or, say, Strindberg's Dream Play (or other surrealist works)? I wouldn't say that these pieces encourage the audience to believe wholly in the fictional characters. (Although, I must say, I think Brecht's 'alienation' is a bit of a failure, really. The audience always seems to empathise with Mother Courage through till the end.)
Not sure whether it's right for this series or not, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on commercialism in theatre. What do you think of the West End, musicals, The Play That Goes Wrong, and the like? Is there an inherent "worthiness" in some theatre that's not present in others? People certainly seem to talk about them like they're lesser things. Or, perhaps more broadly, what is theatre for? Entertainment, social change, both, neither? Would be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Hey Jamie, I do agree with you on the not-so-successfulness of the V-Effekt. Obviously I don't have a time machine to see how Brecht chose to direct his own plays but contemporary productions do tend towards fairly naturalistic performances of his characters. Despite the fact there is a removal of some of the artifice, I'd still (personally) include the Epic in with the Dramatic. It does still revolve around fiction and a fairly totalising world. it also, naturally, tends to find resolve and logic in Marxism which postmodernists would decry as a metanarrative.
That's a really good shout actually. Perhaps I'll do one on musicals or "McTheatre" next. Thanks for the suggestion!
So “It is what it is” is a sum up of post dramatic? 👀😂
I can appreciate why this might seem novel. But shouldn't you make some comment as to why this isnt crap? Can you possibly tell?
A good theater piece ought to have some sort of impact on the audience, rather than simply being a fucking waste of time. How is what you are describing not simply a waste of the audience's money, patience and attention? What you've described, it seems to me, by way of having no standards or value, ultimately has no value at all, unless it would be simply to draw narcissistic attention to the effort itself.
Can you say something as to why this is, in any way, worth something?
Hi, Tom! Thank you for this video! I wish to contribute with this video... can I make you a portuguese subtitle, so I can share this with some of my colleagues? I
Hi Kai, yes, you'd be more than welcome to do this (that's very flattering actually!!). I believe that I've set this video so that community subtitles can be added. However, it's not something I've done myself before so I don't know the exact process of going about adding them.
Hey, Tom, the video should have the option for me "add subtittles/CC" and I'm not seeing it. ;)
Hey Kai, apologies for taking so long on this. I've turned on Community Contributions now. Apologies, thought I already had when I uploaded it!
Mmmm wonderful conent
So....postdramatic theater is mimetic as well! It re presents our contemporary world....hmm....
Its Hans-THIES Lehmann
Like all postmodern arts, postdramatic texts and performances are random nonsense justified through jargonised babble that people can only pretend to understand. That's the con in a nutshell, it's the same every time. Don't waste your time trying to understand any of it, just regurgitate Lehmann's terminology and switch classes.
ah thats Daniel Radcliffe