On Dramaturgy in the Twenty-First Century

We propose to discuss the notion of dramaturgy written on stage as an emerging form in the twenty-first century theatre. Also, we emphasize the idea that this form of creating the performance is rooted in a theatrical tradition. Thus, we notice that, in Eugenio Barba’s vision, the dramaturgy of the performance, structured on three levels of organization, respectively the organic or dynamic dramaturgy of the actor, the narrative dramaturgy of the director and the evocative dramaturgy that includes the dramaturgy of the spectator, is representative for the collective creation as the actors are co-authors of the performance, but, at the same time, it is representative of that type of performance that embodies the director’s thought, reminding of the practitioners-playwrights’ way of creating dramaturgy. In the dramaturgy of the performance, instead of a sequence of events, which unfold according to the cause-effect equation, the director opts for a complex web of actions that suggest and not affirm. We, also, note that in this new dramaturgy in which the smallest action is treated as a dramaturgical element, special importance is given to the spectator seen as an individual who, first of all, exists by himself/herself and then as part of a whole/audience. Under the influence of Artaud who visualized the performance as poetry in space, the new dramaturgy opposes textocentrism, proposing a symbolic language meant not only to whip the spectator’s senses putting him/her in a state of play, but also to provoke in him/her a change of state. Thus, the performance no longer addresses the spectator’s understanding, but his/her perception, creating the necessary conditions for the spectator to forge his/her own dramaturgy based on his/her emotional and intellectual reactions. Writing dramaturgy on stage is specific to those theatre companies that, alike the Troupe de Monsieur and the Globe Theatre, create the performance in the stage laboratory

Aesthetics · Art · Dramaturgy · Literature · Historical and Modern Theater Studies · History, Culture, and Society · Theatre and Performance Studies