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This dissertation examines contemporary responses by Austrian theatre makers from the free theatre sector, that is, those working outside of the state theatre establishment, to the outcome of what came to be known as ‘the big lie’ on which Austrian national identity was built following liberation from German rule by the Allied forces in 1945. The ensuing problem for the post-war generations of having to claim a past that was buried under the carefully constructed official version of history but mediated through the silence of their parents and grandparents – shaping their (inner) lives – and possibilities for representing such experience through the medium of theatre are core issues explored in this study. The main focus of the dissertation is analysis of a selection of three pieces of theatre produced by two free theatre companies in Austria, Auf der Suche nach Jakob / Searching for Jacob / Szukajac Jakuba, and Pola, both by the Projekttheater Studio based in Vienna, and Speaking Stones: images, voices, fragments… from that which comes after by Theater Asou in Graz, Styria. Apart from contextualization of the central thematic concerns of the selected pieces of theatre within the historical events of 20th century Austria, and discussion of the theoretical framework within which the pieces are analysed, this study also offers a consideration of the phenomenon of the free theatre sector in contemporary Austria as a complement and an alternative to the state theatre sector, its roots and development since the post WWII period through to the early 21st century. Interviews with theatre artists, arts administrators and a Holocaust eye witness are also drawn upon to investigate how free theatre can provide a medium though which memory-work, the subtleties of damage and the inexpressible, and the difficult task of claiming the past can be explored.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

In 1985, the East German playwright Heiner Müller (1929-95) spoke of the importance of a ‘democratic’ theatre: for Müller, the theatre was to be a space in which audience members are free to produce their own interpretations of the material presented on stage. In turn, the audience is encouraged to question the composition of its material reality but is not presented with a solution. Müller explicitly related this practice to his own production of his three texts Der Lohndrücker (1956-57), Der Horatier (1968), and Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV: Kentauren (1986) together at the Deutsches Theater in 1988-91. As this thesis demonstrates, Müller foregrounds instigating audience participation and the means of creating ‘democratic’ theatre from the very beginning of his career. In studying the composition of Müller’s texts, the historical contexts in which they were written, and their premières we gain new perspectives on the ways in which the possibility for political theatre is anchored in Müller’s texts and just how this political theatre aims to engage its contemporary, implied audiences; indeed, this thesis argues that the politics of Müller’s theatre can be best defined as ‘democratic’. In the introduction, I establish how Müller understands the term ‘democratic’ and how his understanding differs from interpretations of democracy contemporary to him; in doing so, I borrow critical vocabulary from the contemporary French philosopher Jacques Rancière. The introduction also elaborates a methodology for studying both implied and real audiences. While each of the prevalent semiological, phenomenological, or materialist theories of audience response has its strengths, in order to pay sufficient attention to the multiple influences upon and aspects of audience interaction, we must take a more holistic approach to audience research. I therefore articulate a new materialist phenomenological approach to audiences, drawing on Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology. In the following chapters, I study Der Lohndrücker, Der Horatier, and Kentauren in their historical contexts and consider how they were both composed with their contemporary audiences in mind and staged in their premières. This approach sheds new light on each text in question: not only do all three texts demonstrate a concern for a lack of democracy in material reality, but each also contains strategies for engaging audience involvement in a piece of ‘democratic’ theatre. My final chapter analyses Müller’s own staging techniques in Der Lohndrücker in 1988, arguing that they enhance the production’s democratic political potential and contribute to our understanding of Müller’s political theatre. While the productions discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 have largely been overlooked by theatre scholarship to date, they provide important insights into the politics of Müller’s texts and the possible limits of writing political theatre texts. This thesis draws on a wide range of both published and unpublished materials, including rehearsal notes, stage manuscripts, audience letters, newspaper reviews, theatre programmes, records of reactions to Müller’s works within the GDR’s statecraft, and Müller’s own notes for writing his texts. Through this wealth of material we not only gain an insight into the ways in which Müller’s texts were written for his audiences but we also recognise the parameters for his audiences’ responses. In offering a fresh perspective on Müller’s works, this thesis demonstrates both a compelling model for audience research and that a synthesis of textual/performance analysis, historical contextualisation, and audience research provides us with a very adept tool for analysing the making of political theatre and the politics of making theatre.

Selon différents théoriciens (Guénoun, Lehmann, Ryngaert, etc.), la fin du vingtième siècle se caractérise par l'émergence de nouvelles formes théâtrales, marquées par la contamination des pratiques spectaculaires. Hans-Thies Lehmann reprend la notion de "théâtre postdramatique" proposée par Richard Schechner pour qualifier ces formes métissées de spectacle vivant La thèse défendue est la suivante : le théâtre postdramatique trouve sa spécificité non seulement dans la transgression des codes dramatiques mais surtout dans des processus de réception spécifiques qu'il importe de définir, à l'aide d'outils notamment sémiotiques. Ces processus sont situés et construits par rapport à différents modèles interdisciplinaires.

Le théâtre d'Elfriede Jelinek et de Peter Wagner s'inscrit dans la (re/con)quête d'une identité mise à mal par les traumatismes successifs de l'histoire austro-allemande ainsi que par les relations contradictoires qu'entretient le peuple germanique avec son passé fasciste. A la montée des commémorations officielles depuis le début des années 1990, qui va de pair avec la disparition des derniers témoins de la Shoah, les textes, tout comme les mises en scènes et performances vocales qu'ils suscitent, opposent un théâtre des lieux et des milieux de la mémoire. L'analyse des stratégiestextuelles et scéniques, sous l'angle des formes, structures et des enjeux de la mémoire et du souvenir, met au jour une esthétique théâtrale particulière de ce que l'on peut appeler un art du « remembrement». / Elfriede Jelinek and Peter Wagner's plays are part of the quest for—or conquest of—an identity shaken by the traumas of Austro-German history, and by the contradictory relationship between the Germanic peoples and their fascist past. The 1990s saw the deaths of many of the last Holocaust witnesses, and an increase in official commemorations to which the texts, as well as their staging and their vocal performance, respond through sites of memory and real environments of memory. The analysis of textual and scenic strategies, in particular the forms, structures and implications of memory, shedslight on a special theatrical aesthetic belonging to what may be called an art of « rememberment». / Das Theater von Elfriede Jelinek und Peter Wagner trägt zur Wieder(an)erkennung und Wiederfindung einer Identitätbei, die durch die sukzessiven Traumata der österreichischdeutschen Geschichte sowie durch das widersprüchlicheVerhältnis Deutschstämmiger zu ihrer faschistischen Vergangenheit beeinträchtigt wurde. Den offiziellen Gedenkfeiernseit Anfang der 1990er Jahre, die mit dem allmählichen Verschwinden der letzten Holocaust-Zeitzeugen einhergehen,setzen die von ihnen hervorgerufenen Texte, Inszenierungen und stimmlichen Performances ein Theater derGedächtnisorte und -räume entgegen. Die Analyse der textuellen und szenischen Strategien unter dem Blickwinkelder Formen, Strukturen und Funktionen von Erinnerung und Gedächtnis bringteine spezielle Theaterästhetikdessen an den Tag, was alseine Kunst «erinnernderWieder-Holung» bezeichnetwerden kann.

The thesis gives a comprehensive picture of Werner Schwab, Austrian playwright and performer. He ranked among the most performed German-speaking authors at the time of his death in 1994. The main objective of this work, whose basis lies in Schwab's dramatic production, is to provide a comprehensive monographic study. The thesis deals not only with the dramas, but also with their relationship to the theatrical production of Thomas Bernhard and Elfriede Jelinek. The chapter on the author's personal life is followed by chapters "Postdramatic Theatre", "Theatre of Cruelty", and "Folk Play", where you can find the answer to the question of the place of Schwab's drama in the overall concept of literature at the end of the 20th century. Particular attention is paid to the unique language usage he developed, called "Schwabisch" after the author.

In this research I have explored the performance making process of world renowned director Robert Lepage. This exploration informed my own process, creating an original performance called GAIJIN, where my roles included producer / director / designer and co-writer. The practice-led research strategy employed in this research has allowed me to navigate the sometimes slippery slope of connecting various performance discourses with the pragmatics of the performance making process. The reason for this research is my strong interest in the director’s role and my affinity with the practice of Robert Lepage. My observation of the performance making process of Robert Lepage prompted the creation of a conceptual framework informed by Hans-Thies Lehmann’s work Postdramatic Theatre. These theoretical concerns were then further investigated in the creation of my own show. This research process has uncovered a performance making process that foregrounds the working principles of simultaneity and synaesthesia, which together offer a changed conception of the performance text in live performance. Simultaneity is a space of chaotic interaction where many resources are used to build a perpetually evolving performance text. Synaesthesia is the type of navigation required – an engagement consisting of interrelated sense-impressions that uniquely connect the performance makers with the abundance of content and stimulus; they search for poetic connections and harmonious movement between the resources. This engagement relies on intuitive playmaking where the artists must exhibit restraint and reserve to privilege the interaction of resources and observe the emerging performance. This process has the potential to create a performance that is built by referential layers of theatrical signifiers and impressions. This research offers an insight into the practices of Robert Lepage as well as a lens through which to view other unique devising processes. It also offers a performance making language that is worthy of consideration by all performance makers, from directors to performers. The significance of this process is its inherent qualities of innovation produced by all manner of art forms and resources interacting in a unique performance making space.

Dès les années 2000 à aujourd’hui, la présence est au coeur d’un nouvel intérêt théorique.Cette thèse porte sur les recherches en arts vivants et sur des créations récentes à lalumière des enjeux corporels, perceptifs et théoriques résonnant avec ce concept. Lesdéfinitions courantes sont relues et intégrées, dans une approche phénoménologique, parl’analyse du geste dansé, l’épistémologie des pratiques somatiques, l’écologie despratiques (Stengers 2005) et une pensée politique sur les affects (Massumi 1995 ; 2015).Dans la première partie on articule cette approche en fonction d’un regard critique sur lesdiscours théoriques, qu’on met en dialogue avec notre corpus d’oeuvres théâtrales etchorégraphiques. Ici on considère, parmi d’autres pièces, Il principe Amleto du metteur enscène et comédien italien Danio Manfredini. La seconde partie rassemble les analysesd’Ouverture Alcina, monologue de la Compagnie italienne Teatro delle Albe ; de récentescréations chorégraphiques de Virgilio Sieni ; de la pièce Déperdition, crée par MyriamGourfink et d’une reprise de Self Unfinished de Xavier Le Roy dans le cadre du projet« Rétrospective ». Chaque analyse porte sur le travail physique et perceptif de l’interprète,en considérant les processus de création et d’apprentissage, et sur le rapport entre oeuvreet milieu de production et de circulation. Ainsi, l’expérience personnelle de spectatricechercheuseet la centralité du regard se mettent en avant. Il en résulte une perspectiveépistémologique sur les pratiques de la présence, entendues comme pratiquesperformatives, et sur les figurations de la présence, à savoir les effets perceptifs etaffectifs de la performance. / Since the early 2000s, the concept of presence is at the core of a renewed interest in theperforming arts field. This dissertation reviews recent theoretical debates and explorestheatrical and choreographic works resonating with the corporeal and aesthetic qualitiesassociated with this notion. Within a phenomenological framework, current definitions arereconsidered through the lenses of dance gesture analysis, expanding on theepistemology of somatic practices, the ecology of practices (Stengers 2005), and politicalfocus on affects (Massumi 1995; 2015). The academic discourses are also examinedthrough a brief outlook of the works, including Il Principe Amleto – a piece by Italian actorand stage director Danio Manfredini. The pieces considered in the second part of thedissertation include Ouverture Alcina, a monologue by the Italian theatre company Teatrodelle Albe; recent projects by Italian choreographer Virgilio Sieni; a dance performanceentitled Déperdition, by French artist Myriam Gourfink; and a recent rerun of Xavier LeRoy’s Self Unfinished within his project « Rétrospective ». Each analysis emphasizes thephysical and perceptive work of the performers and considers the artist’s creative process,as well as the relation between the pieces and their broader staging context. In addition,the personal experience of the scholar/spectator is given prominence, as well as of hergaze. The resulting investigation is thus fundamentally epistemological, focusing at onceon practices of presence – understood as performative in nature –, and on figurations ofpresence, the perceptive and affective implications of performance.

In his analysis of modern theatre aesthetics, Hans-Thies Lehmann notes that performance has the ability to "destabilize the spectator's construction of identity and the 'other' " (Lehmann 5). This research project endeavours to test Lehmann's statement by applying it to the hybrid diasporic identity. Through the creation of a postdramatic performance text that focuses on the Palestinian diaspora and what Salman Rushdie refers to the longing for the 'imaginary homeland,' this thesis documents the creation of a performance text inspired by Edward Said's contrapuntal analysis. In the first chapter, I define diaspora and hybridity and I provide the necessary context for my hybrid identity: Palestine and its diaspora. I detail the relationship between postdramatic theatre and identity, and I explore how the hybrid identity can be embodied in performance through an understanding of counterpoint and Said's contrapuntal analysis. In the second chapter, I explain the methods I used to create my performance text and to analyze my research and creative process. Finally, in my third chapter, I articulate the successes and failures of my research process and performance text through a final reflection.