Breaking Boundaries and Pushing the Envelope: Avant-garde and Experimental Theater

Performance artist Marina Abramovic and audience member during her piece The Artist is Present, 2010. Photo credit: Wall Street Journal.

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Jules and the rest of the Prairie Players are unaccustomed to doing plays such as the traditional Nativity story with which they have been tasked. While they do more mainstream theatrical fare, their real passion is for experimental and avant-garde theatrical productions.

Throughout history, the definition of “theater” has evolved and changed. Some of the most rapid evolution in the world of the theater has happened since near the turn of the 20th century. From expressionism to performance art to absurdist drama, the world of theater is wide-reaching and malleable, with limits only as far as a playwright’s imagination.

Gesamtkunstwerk: A German term that is often translated as “a total work of art” or “synthesis of the arts,” this term reflects much of the theatrical work of the avantgarde movement. It is a combination of many art forms in the creation of a piece.

Ubu Roi: Many attribute the beginning of the avant-garde in theater to French playwright Alfred Jarry and his play Ubu Roi, which is a parody of several of Shakespeare’s dramas through a bizarre and comical construct that overturned theatrical conventions and offended audiences at its single public performance in 1896. Expressionism: A movement that started primarily in Germany in the early 20th century before it expanded to the rest of Western theater, expressionist theater used exaggerated and distorted scenery and theatrical elements to heighten audience experience.

Guerrilla Theater: Most often performed in public spaces for unsuspecting spectators, guerrilla theater seeks to make sociopolitical change through performance.

Production photo from The Barbican production of Ubu Roi, 2013. Photo credit: New York Times. Cast of Deafinitely Theatre’s 4.48 Psychosis, 2019. Photo credit: The Other Richard.

Theater of Cruelty: A concept coined by Antonin Artaud, this theatrical idea includes violent imagery, surreal storytelling, and hypnotic sounds to shake the audience to their core and help them be in the moment.

Absurdist Theater : A post-WWII theatrical genre, Theater of the Absurd was the purview of mostly European playwrights. The plays were existential in nature and did not follow traditional narrative structure. One of the most famous examples of this style of theater is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

Performance Art: Performance art is a style of performance that is difficult to define and can mean many things. It blurs the line between visual art and performance and often asks patrons to question larger questions of life and art through their interaction with the artist.

Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan in Waiting for Godot at The Cort Theatre, 2013. Photo credit: New York Times.

Participants in a Theater of the Oppressed workshop with Augusto Boal, 2008. Photo credit: Wikipedia.

“Breaking the fourth wall”: One of the most prolific conventions of experimental theater is the breaking of “the fourth wall,” or the boundary between audience member and performer. If you have seen A Christmas Carol recently or saw Every Brilliant Thing here at Milwaukee Rep, you have experienced this theatrical convention.

Devised theater: Devised theater is when the performers collectively create the piece as they work together. Devising can take many forms, but the collaboration between the creators/performers is central to the process. Physical theater: Physical theater highlights the actor’s body and movement as a primary tool for storytelling in a performance. Some physical theater performances merge traditional storytelling techniques with movementbased techniques, and some focus solely on movement. Milwaukee Rep’s 2019 production of Things I Know to Be True is an excellent example of the use of physical theater techniques.

Theater of the Oppressed: A theatrical style coined by practitioner Augusto Boal, Theater of the Oppressed looks to use theater as a tool for social and political change. The audience becomes an active part of the performance and takes on the role of “spect-actors,” working through real life situations through theatrical techniques.

Epic Theater: Most associated with Bertolt Brecht, Epic Theater asks spectators to examine their world through a theatrical lens. A variety of techniques are used from “breaking the fourth wall” to fragmentation of the story to clearly visible technical elements or set changes. These and other techniques are used to ground the audience in the play and do the opposite of “suspending disbelief,” asking the audience instead to think bigger and more deeply about the larger questions of the drama.