Postdramatic Theatre and the Political

Is postdramatic theatre political and if so how? How does it relate to Brecht's ideas of political theatre, for example? How can we account for the relationship between aesthetics and politics in new forms of theatre, playwriting, and performance?

The chapters in this book discuss crucial aspects of the issues raised by the postdramatic turn in theatre in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century: the status of the audience and modes of spectatorship in postdramatic theatre
the political claims of postdramatic theatre
postdramatic theatre's ongoing relationship with the dramatic tradition
its dialectical qualities, or its eschewing of the dialectic
questions of representation and the real in theatre
the role of bodies, perception, appearance and theatricality in postdramatic theatre
as well as subjectivity and agency in postdramatic theatre, dance and performance.

Offering analyses of a wide range of international performance examples, scholars in this volume engage with Hans-Thies Lehmann's theoretical positions both affirmatively and critically, relating them to other approaches by thinkers ranging from early theorists such as Brecht, Adorno and Benjamin, to contemporary thinkers such as Fischer-Lichte, Rancire and others