This thesis argues that presence in the performing arts can be reconceived, via the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, as an encounter with difference or ‘differential presence’ which is variously defined as immanence, destratification, affect/becoming, and duration. These definitions are developed through a series of four analyses of exemplary performance practices: 1) The Living Theatre; 2) Antonin Artaud; 3) Allan Kaprow and 4) Goat Island. Chapter One recuperates the Living Theatre from a dominant narrative of ‘failure’, aided by the Deleuzian concepts of ontological participation, immanence, production/creation and ‘the people to come’. Reframing the company as pioneers of methods such as audience participation and collective creation, the chapter argues that their theatrical ambition is irreducible to some simple pursuit of undifferentiated presence (as authenticity or communion). Chapter Two provides an exposition of three key concepts emerging in the encounter between Artaud and Deleuze: the body without organs, the theatre without organs, and the destratified voice. The chapter proposes that To have done with the judgment of god constitutes an instance of a theatre without organs that uses the destratified voice in a pursuit of differential presence – as a nonrepresentative encounter with difference that forces new thoughts upon us. Chapter Three defines differential presence in relation to Deleuze’s concepts of affect and becoming-imperceptible and Kaprow’s concepts of ‘experienced insight’, nonart, ‘becoming “the whole”’, and attention. The chapter argues that Kaprow and Deleuze share a concern to theorize the practice of participating in actuality beyond the subject/object distinction, in a manner that promotes an ethico-political sense of taking part in “the whole”. Finally, Chapter Four focuses on the temporal aspect of differential presence, arguing that through slowness, waiting, repetition and imitation, Goat Island’s performance work acknowledges and responds to ‘the need to open ourselves affectively to the actuality of others’ (Mullarkey 2003: 488).

Als anys seixanta sorgeix un teatre profundament transgressor, que abandona els edificis convencionals a la recerca de llocs buits, pobres, flexibles. Rere aquesta actitud hi ha una crítica a la societat del moment, considerada elitista, alienadora i passiva. Gran part dels arguments que caracteritzaven el teatre fins aleshores perden la seva validesa. El concepte d'espectacle és substituït pel de ritual; el d'espectador, pel de participant; el d'entreteniment, pel de compromís. El teatre s'immisceix en l'agitada vida política, social i espiritual d'una dècada revolucionària. Finalment, i amb mig segle de retard en relació amb les altres arts, el teatre agafa el relleu de les avantguardes teatrals i entra en la modernitat.L'estudi del recorregut artístic de Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski fundador del Teatre Laboratori i la parella Julian Beck i Judith Malina fundadors del Living Theatre ens permet analitzar l'intrincat context dels seixanta en països com França, Anglaterra, Itàlia o Polònia. Es tracta de directors revolucionaris i alhora interessats pel sagrat, creadors d'un teatre ritual que sacseja els espectadors i els demana una implicació autèntica.A la introducció de la tesi ens preguntem per la permanència del sagrat en el teatre dels seixanta. Resseguint la biografia dels nostres directors, hi descobrim un profund coneixement de les tradicions religioses i una voluntat d'adaptar els seus principis i les seves tècniques psicofísiques al teatre. El teatre es mostra així com un receptacle laic de rituals que pertanyien a les religions. En el desig de regenerar-lo, la gent del teatre reclama una litúrgia col·lectiva capaç d'apropar actors i espectadors en un acte total. Volent unir l'art i la vida, directors i actors s'aïllen en petites comunitats per experimentar unes relacions humanes vertaderes i inventar nous processos de creació.La primera part de la tesi, més panoràmica, situa el teatre dins els corrents de pensament i els moviments artístics de l'època. Mentre els antropòlegs i sociòlegs constaten un retorn de la festa i la ritualitat, els estudiants es revolten pels carrers de París. El Maig del 68 marca un abans i un després també en el teatre: abandonant les obres dramàtiques, el vestuari especial, les escenografies i fins i tot els edificis, el teatre surt al carrer, es desteatralitza i es revesteix de ritualitat. Aquest rebuig de les institucions i les convencions té paral·lelismes amb el land art, l'arte povera, els happenings o el body art, sintonitzant també amb els situacionistes, el guerrilla theatre o el street theatre.La segona part de la tesi incideix sobre la ritualitat del teatre dels seixanta i l'espai que se'n deriva. Analitzant el nou paper atorgat a l'actor, el director i el públic, hi descobrim un mateix procés de despullament, de renúncia a les tècniques apreses i eliminació dels obstacles personals. El teatre respon així a una via negativa que cerca la seva purificació i un retorn a l'essencialitat. Les mediacions escèniques, massa mundanes, esdevenen obstacles a la trobada viva entre actors i espectadors. Ara importa l'element humà, el sacrifici de l'actor que regenera tota la comunitat, el ritual que aplega i connecta amb un passat compartit. El teatre es converteix en una realitat molt més corporal, cinètica, dependent de l'actor.L'espai d'aquest teatre passa a definir-se a partir dels moviments, les dinàmiques i les relacions que s'estableixen en escena. No depèn ja exclusivament de l'arquitectura ni de l'escenografia, sinó fonamentalment d'un ordre humà on compten les distàncies, les orientacions, les fronteres, la configuració i disposició de tots els participants. En certa manera, es tracta d'un espai sagrat que cal descobrir i potenciar. Un espai ritual, consagrat en cada actuació. Un espai real, que no preten simular res. Un espai simbòlic, que recupera les formes geomètriques primordials. Un espai unitari, sense barreres de cap tipus. Un espai buit, expectant, disponible. / There emerged in the nineteen sixties a deeply defiant theatre that deserted conventional buildings in search of empty, poor but flexible places. Behind this attitude there was a critique of the society of the times, that was considered to be elitist, hostile and passive. The majority of the scripts that characterised theatre up to that moment became obsolete. The concept of performance was substituted by ritual, spectator by participant, entertainment by compromise. Theatre became mixed up in the restless political, social and spiritual life of a revolutionary decade. Finally, half a century later than other arts, theatre seized the prominence of the theatrical vanguards and entered modernity.The study of the artistic careers of Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski - founder of the Teatr Laboratorium - and the couple Julian Beck and Judith Malina - founders of the Living Theatre - provides an opportunity to analyse the intricate context of the sixties in France, England, Italy or Poland. It involved revolutionary directors who were simultaneously interested in the sacred, creators of a theatre ritual that perturbed spectators and required their authentic participation. In the introduction to the thesis, we question the permanence of the sacred in sixties theatre. Revisiting the biography of our directors, we discover their knowledge of religious traditions and their desire to adapt their psycho-physical techniques to theatre. Theatre thus presented itself as a lay performance of rituals that belonged to religions. In the desire to regenerate it, theatre people sought after a collective liturgy capable of bringing actors and spectators together. With a desire to unite art and life, directors and actors isolated themselves in small communities to test true human relations and invent new creative processes.The first part of the thesis is an overview, locating theatre in the artistic thought and movements of the time. While anthropologists and sociologists were proclaiming the return of feast and ritual, students were revolting on the streets of Paris. May 68 marked the before and after of theatre too, by forsaking dramatic composition, special costumes, stage backdrops and accessories and even the theatre buildings. Theatre took to the street, shed its conventional theatrical hallmarks and overlaid itself with rituality. This rejection of institutions and conventions has affinities to land art, arte povera, happenings or body art, and remains in tune also with the situationists, guerrilla theatre or street theatre.The second part of the thesis focuses on the rituality of the theatre of the sixties and its ensuing space. Analysing the new role given to the actor, the director and the public, we discover a same process of deprivation, of rejection of learned techniques and of elimination of personal obstacles. The theatre thus responded to a via negativa that sought its purification and a return to the essential. The scenic mediations, that were far too mundane, became converted into obstacles in the living encounter between actors and spectators. Now what mattered was the human element, the sacrifice of the actor that regenerated a whole community, the ritual that congregates and connects with a shared past. Theatre became a more corporal reality, kinetic, and dependent upon the actor.The space of this theatre came to be defined out of the movements, the dynamics and the relations that were established on stage. It no longer depended upon architecture or scenery except that of a human order where distances, orientations, borders, configurations and the dispositions of all the participants counted. To a certain extent, it was a sacred place that needed to be discovered and strengthened. A space of ritual, consecrated at each performance. A real space, that did not try to simulate anything. A symbolic space, that revived basic geometrical forms. A unitary space, without barriers of any type. An empty space, eager and available.

Un grand nombre de dramaturges français aussi différents qu’André Gide, Antonin Artaud,Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henry de Montherlant et Jean Vauthier se sont emparés de la pensée de Nietzsche pour la représenter sur scène. Si des études ont été menées sur les liens entre la pensée de Nietzsche et les écrivains français, aucune n’a abordé de manière synthétique la présence de la pensée de Nietzsche dans le théâtre français du XXème siècle et notamment dans l’élaboration même du texte théâtral. Pourtant, cette pensée tragique qui part du Dionysos de La Naissance de la tragédie jusqu’à Ecce homo, ne cesse d’entretenir des liens consubstantiels avec le genre même du théâtre. La conception esthétique du dionysiaque présente des affinités avec l’art dramatique et semble prédisposée à se retrouver transposée et incarnée sur une scène de théâtre. La réflexion de Nietzsche sur la physiologie de l’art a pu entraîner un renouvellement de l’écriture des pratiques et écritures dramaturgiques traditionnelles au profit d’un théâtre vivant, incarné, usant de toutes les ressources dela scène. Paradoxalement, le théâtre métaphysique d’inspiration nietzschéenne va de pair avec une affirmation du corps et des passions. Á l’opposé d’un théâtre d’idées ou à thèse, certaines des oeuvres étudiées montrent que le théâtre métaphysique nietzschéen est avant tout un théâtre du corps, à la recherche d’une fusion entre l’art et la vie, le spectacle et le réel, au rebours de la conception mimétique aristotélicienne. / Many different french playwrights such as André Gide, Antonin Artaud, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Henry de Montherlant and Jean Vauthier took up Nietzsche's thoughts to impicture it onstage. If studies were made on the links between Nietzsche's thought process and french writer, noneadress the question of Nietzsche's thought in the XXth century french theatre synthetically. None theless, this tragic thought starting in «La Naissance de la tragedie» 's Dionysos and ending with «Eccehomo» keeps maintaining consubstantial links with the theatre genre. Dionisyan esthetical conceptionshows affinities with dramatic art and seems predisposed to be transposed and embodied on stage.Nietzsche's thought on art's physiology has caused a renewal of traditionnal writing for theatre for thebenefit of a living theatre, incarnated, using all the stage's ressources. Paradoxically, this nietzschean metaphysical theatre goes with assertion of body and passions. In contrast with « theatre of ideas »,some of the studied works show that Nietzsche's metaphysical theatre is above all an embodied theatre, seeking a fusion between art and life, show and reality, against Aristote’s Poetics.