Thomas Crombez

Canonisation in Contemporary Theatre Criticism: A Frequency Analysis of ‘Flemish Wave’ Directors in the Pages of Etcetera

In this article, I examine processes of canonisation in the contemporary discourse of theatre criticism. My case study concerns how the rise of a young generation of Flemish experimental directors (more widely known as the ‘Flemish Wave’) was chronicled by the performing arts magazine Etcetera in the period from 1983 to 1998. By charting the frequencies with which certain directors are mentioned, I examine how much attention the critics gave to the upcoming directors, which is then contrasted with the mentions of the directors of the mainstream municipal theatres. In this particular corpus, it is remarkable how little attention is given to the established directors. Directors who can be said to belong to experimental, ‘postdramatic theatre’ (Hans-Thies Lehmann), on the contrary, such as Jan Fabre, Jan Lauwers or Ivo Van Hove, do receive many more mentions in the magazine’s pages. In this way, Etcetera has actively contributed to the canonisation of a new generation of directors. In order to explain a number of exceptions to this general tendency, I introduce the hypothesis of a ‘latent avant-garde’ mentality among the editors and critics of Etcetera. This hypothesis is further supported by looking at how the structures for experimental art in Western Europe have developed in the last decades of the twentieth century. Also, the rise of new academic research centres for theatre studies has actively contributed to this mentality. To conclude, I examine the value of such historical labels as the ‘Flemish Wave’ through the lens of the frequency analysis.

Jan Fabre and tg STAN: Two Models of Postdramatic Theatre in the Avant-Garde Tradition

There are various reasons for the sudden, explosive surge of artistic innovation that emerged from Flanders in the 1980s: the lack of an established national theatre tradition; the invitations to Flemish theatres and arts centres from new experimental artists from abroad; and the funding available for emerging theatre artists both from independent producers and arts centres and, from 1993, albeit rather hesitantly, also from the Flemish government. As a result, artists have been able to work within their own very personal and local structures. They were not absorbed by existing theatre institutions, but were able to maintain their autonomy. At the same time, this localism was always internationally oriented, and ‘impure’ in different respects. The stimulating artistic climate attracted artists from abroad, such as American choreographer Meg Stuart, French choreographer Jérôme Bel, and Italian director Romeo Castellucci with his company Socı̀etas Raffaello Sanzio. Their position at the forefront of the contemporary European experimental theatre and performance scene is partly also a result of their early work being programmed and co-produced by Flemish arts centres and festivals such as the annual KunstenFestivaldesArts in Brussels. At the same time, the work of the internationally known Flemish artists of the last generation would not have been possible without a network

Tracing Creation: The Director’s Notebook as Genetic Document of the Postdramatic Creative Process

In the last decade, theatre research has been marked by a growing interest in the documentation, reconstruction, and analysis of creative processes in the performing arts. Theatre, dance, and performance scholars, often in collaboration with or in response to theatre makers and choreographers keen on exploring and sharing their own creative processes and working methods, have expanded their horizon from the ‘final product’ – the performance – to the varied and often complex activities that precede and eventually establish that performance. One of the underlying ideas that fuel the interest in the analysis of what Josette Féral once termed the ‘pre-performance’, is the expectation that insight in the genesis of the performance will provide a more encompassing perspective on the work as a whole. This ‘genetic’ perspective is especially fruitful when we consider the contemporary performing arts and, more specifically, ‘postdramatic’ theatre, which will be the subject of this article. Even a cursory glance reveals that the vast aesthetic diversity of theatrical languages in contemporary theatre is matched by an almost equally great variety of working methods and creative strategies. These methods are often specific to the theatre makers who use them, or even to individual projects – ‘[e]ach work creates its own method’ the Belgian dramaturge Marianne Van Kerkhoven once stated. But the relationship between the creative process and the final performance is complex, often elliptical, and without a predetermined, linear path that leads from inception to result. Gaining access to, and understanding this relationship, especially in theatre forms that rely more on performative and visual rather than textual elements can pose significant methodological challenges. In this article, we will focus on one crucial element of this creative process, namely the varied notes that are produced by the theatre director 1. This work was supported by FWO Research Foundation [grant number G038513N]. Some notable publications in the growing list of publications on the genesis of theatre are Almuth Grésillon, Marie-Madeleine Mervant-Roux, and Dominique Budor, Genèses Théâtrales (Paris: CNRS éditions, 2010); Making Contemporary Theatre: International Rehearsal Processes, ed. by Jen Harvie and Andy Lavender (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010); and the special issue of Theatre Research International on ‘genetics of performance’ edited by Josette Féral, 33.3 (2008).

Postdramatic Methods of Adaptation in the Age of Digital Collaborative Writing

The aim of our contribution is to shed light on the artistic process of theatrical adaption from a novel to a theatre script and, eventually, to the stage. Our example comes from contemporary European theatre: the production of Die Bruder Karamasow ( The Brothers Karamasow ) by Luk Perceval at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, based on Dostoevsky’s eponymous novel (2013). We use digital text analysis and visualization to analyze the genesis of an adaptation. Our analysis is mainly based on a large set of different versions of the playtext. We visualize the working process during the nine-month process of adaptation and rehearsal. By automatically calculating and comparing the textual differences between each two subsequent versions, both stages of thorough revision and superficial text changes can be identified. We supplement this analysis with information on the working process given by Perceval himself during a recent interview in Hamburg, and with research on his previous methods of adaptation, using the archives of his original Flemish company Blauwe Maandag Compagnie.