Postdramatic Theatre and Form

Postdramatic theatre has become an essential category for discussing contemporary performances that challenge classical elements of drama, including the centrality of plot and character. As conversations about postdramatic theatre have proliferated, however, so too have the term's meanings and the practices it is presumed to describe. Where scholars once welcomed `postdramatic' for its specificity in comparison to categories like `experimental' or `postmodern,' today the term postdramatic theatre is at risk of becoming meaningless by encompassing seemingly limitless performance practices.

This collection of essays brings together scholars, critics and artists to examine the stakes of continuing to use postdramatic theatre as a lens for studying contemporary performance. In addition to introducing key debates in contemporary performance and documenting recent developments in European and North American theatre making, this collection insists that postdramatic theatre is a formal category of performance. Contributors draw on literary studies, art history, film studies and philosophy to interrogate the aesthetic outputs of theatre as much as its material conditions such as funding. By focusing on artists and theatre makers ranging from established figures like Tadeusz Kantor and Jerome Bel to newer groups including Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, this book takes postdramatic theatre as an occasion to think more closely about how theatrical form relates to interdisciplinary performance forms.

A timely investigation of both the aesthetic structures and material conditions of contemporary performance, Postdramatic Theatre and Form refines what we mean, and what we don't, when we speak of postdramatic theatre.