Decolonizing the Stage: Theatrical Interweaving

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From the course by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)

Theatre and Globalization

69 ratings

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)

Theatre and Globalization

69 ratings

Learn how theatre and globalization have affected each other over the past century, and how to conduct your own research on global theatre histories.

From the lesson

East versus West: Cold War Rivaleries

Theatre and the Cold War; theatre as a site of the rivalry between East and West.

Theatre and the Cold War 1:46

The Iron Theatrical Curtain 2:12

Cultural Diplomacy 4:18

The Stanislawski System 4:05

Interview with Dr. Li Yinan 5:02

Porgy and Bess in the Soviet Union 9:14

Theatrical Public Goods 3:43

The Cost Disease 2:29

Interview with Prof. Stephen Wilmer 7:22

Decolonizing the Stage: Theatrical Interweaving 5:10

Meet the Instructors

Christopher Balme
Professor
Institut für Theaterwissenschaft / Department of Theatre Studies

Back in the 60s other things were happening too

that could be called a global trend.

Dozens of formally colonized territories had been given independence.

The former British and French empires had ceased to exist, saved for

a few territories.

In many of these countries, a generation of scholars and

artists had been educated in Colonial capitals.

And, now we're turned to help build their new nations.

They included playwrights, directors, and actors.

And, their aim was to create a modern theatrical culture

combining both the European practices they had been trained in, and

the indigenous performance traditions they grew up in.

This was a process of theatrical syncretism, or interweaving.

Erika Fischer-Lichte, we're here at the center of inter,

interweaving performance cultures in Berlin.

So can, perhaps to begin, can you sort of explain what you mean by

this concept, interweaving performance cultures?

>> This describes a kind of connectivity

in which cultures meet through performance.

But one has to consider that this does not lead to any kind of homogenization.

Rather, this is a process that brings forth continuously new differences,

and very specific differences.

That's, in my view, one of the most important things, because this challenges

deeply all these kind of concepts of the fixed and stable identity.

We, believe, to, to use this word, we believe,

in fluid and constantly changing, identities.

And another important aspect of this, is,

given that it does not take place only in a so-called purely aesthetic sphere.

It is inextricably linked to questions of economic power,

migration, what we call corpo-realities, and,

of course, identity politics.

And, many strategies of adaptation,

appropriation, translation have to be considered.

In the western world, it started already very early I would say.

It was with Voltaire's L'Orphelin de la Chine, appropriating texts from other cultures.

And since the Chinese culture is a culture with a rich literature and

a long traditional literature, it was easy to go there.

He said, he proclaimed that he had found

the essence of the Chinese-ness in his play.

But it's, of course, typically a French tragedy.

>> I know that you've been working a lot on Ibsen or

have worked on Ibsen in a more global context.

What would be some interesting examples there of interweaving?

>> It was 1909, or 1911, some about that.

>> Yeah.

That John Gabriel Bookman was put on stage,

half Kabuki, half western style.

And then very soon, the Doll's House, it followed very soon.

And, and this was already a product of the new training school for actors.

And she was the first also, the actress who did the first

woman who was allowed to act in Japan.

The Emperor had allowed it.

>> So the staging a play like the Doll's House in Japan actually then had

an effect on, should we say, gender relations on the Japanese stage.

>> This had an enormous effect in society.

And one can say, I mean, it's so

clear that it was a product of the modernizing process that started in Japan.

That many artists thought that they can not deal with the problems

coming up appropriately when just using Nô and Kabuki

They need a new form.

[MUSIC]

>> Interweaving is a form of connectivity,

in which different cultures meet through performance.

Continuously producing specific differences, and

thereby questioning fixed concepts of cultural identity.

Processes of interweaving are inextricably linked to questions of

economic power, migration, corpo-realities and identity politics,

as well as the strategies of appropriation and translation.

They point us forward to the final module in which we will explore festivalization,

megamusicals, and new forms of global theatrical media.

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