Introduction

Due to the delayed English translation of this book (published in German in 1999 and already translated into several other languages1), we are faced with the curious situation that, ahead of its publication in English, Postdramatic Theatre has already become a key reference point in international discussions of contemporary theatre. An increasing number of English publications engage with the concept in their own studies of new theatre texts and productions.2 Hans-Thies Lehmann’s study has obviously answered a vital need for a comprehensive and accessible theory articulating the relationship between drama and the ‘no longer dramatic’ forms of theatre that have emerged since the 1970s. This relationship has often been neglected, or at least under-explored, by approaches that have preferred to call these new theatre forms ‘postmodern’ or more neutrally ‘contemporary experimental’ or ‘contemporary alternative’. A notable exception is Elinor Fuchs’ The Death of Character (1996), which focuses on the deconstruction of dramatic character in contemporary American theatre in relation to postmodern theories of subjectivity and which in this context also examines new work in its relation to the breakdown of dramatic conventions. Like Fuchs and other critics who relate theatre and performance to postmodernism, Lehmann sets out to find a language for the new theatre forms but does so by systematically considering their relation to dramatic theory and theatre history, including their resonances with (and divergences from) the historical theatre avant-gardes. Unlike Fuchs, he systematically considers the new theatre aesthetics in terms of their aesthetics of space, time and the body, as well as their use of text. Throughout, he also explores theatre’s relationship to the changing media constellation in the twentieth century, in particular the historical shift out of a textual culture and into a ‘mediatized’ image and sound culture. His approach here draws on a wide range of media analyses and aesthetic theories from Benjamin and Adorno to Barthes, Kittler and McLuhan, as well as perhaps less familiar thinkers, such as film theorist Vivian Sobchak and image theorist Gottfried Boehm. The middle chapters, ‘Panorama of postdramatic theatre’, ‘Performance’, and ‘Aspects: text – space – time – body – media’, develop positive analytical categories for a description of the new theatre aesthetics. The

focus on the relationship between drama and new theatre and performance leads Lehmann to consider a wide range of international examples from heterogeneous theatre and performance ‘genres’ that are often treated separately under different names: ‘devised’ experimental performance work, physical theatre and dance, multimedia theatre, performance art and ‘new writing’, as well as innovative stagings of classical drama that push this drama into the postdramatic (by directors such as Einar Schleef, Robert Wilson and Klaus-Michael Grüber).