Post-dramatic theater is an essential aspect of contemporary theater, challenging the classic elements of drama, including plot and character. Following developments in the European and American theater scenes, this collection of articles redirects discussions of post-dramatic theater, focusing on the subject of form (on which the book is based), which is often overlooked in critiques and theatre analyses.
The co-writers of the collection rely on literary and cinematic studies as well as critical theory to analyze formal aspects of post-dramatic theater, such as space, media or text. By studying how contemporary artists are inspired by other forms, for example dance and the visual arts. Artists such as, Tadeusz Kantor, Romeo Castellucci, Guy Cassiers, Ann Liv Young, Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, are presented. The chapters of this collection expand our understanding of form in the theater, arguing that it is involved in the way theater is produced and consumed, and explore the relationship of theater with various forms of institutions including festivals, health care or the real estate market.
A current study of the artistic structure as well as the material conditions of contemporary performance, this collection is not just a review, but a clarification of what we mean and what we do not mean when we talk about post-dramatic theater.