Authenticity in Contemporary Theatre and Performance: Make it Real

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Authenticity is one of the major values of our time. It is visible everywhere, from clothing to food to self-help books. While it is such a prevalent phenomenon, it is also very evasive. This study analyses the culture of authenticity as it relates to theatre and establishes a theoretical framework for analysis. Daniel Schulz argues that authenticity is sought out and marked by the individual and springs from a culture that is perceived as inherently fake and lacking depth. The study examines three types of performances that exemplify this structure of feeling: intimate theatre seen in Forced Entertainment productions such as Quizoola! (1996, 2015), as well as one-on-one performances, such as Oentroerend Goeds Internal (2009); immersive theatres as illustrated by Punchdrunks shows The Masque of the Red Death (2007) and The Drowned Man (2013) which provide a visceral, sensate understanding for audiences; finally, the study scrutinises the popular category of documentary theatre through various examples such as Robin Soans Talking to Terrorists (2005), David Hares Stuff Happens (2004), Edmund Burkes Black Watch (2007) and Dennis Kellys pseudo-documentary play Taking Care of Baby (2007). It is specifically the value of the document that lends such performances their truth-value and consequently their authenticity. The study analyses how the success of these disparate categories of performance can be explained through a common concern with notions of truth and authenticity. It argues that this hunger for authentic, unmediated experience is characteristic of a structure of feeling that has superseded postmodernism and that actively seeks to resignify artistic and cultural practices of the everyday.

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A fascinating and passionately-written study whose principal argument that authenticity arises as an ascription that is attached to the truthvalue of the performance (228) is both resonant and valuable to scholars working in the broad field of contemporary performance practice. As such, Schulzes monograph is a welcome addition to the innovative Methuen Drama Engage series. * Contemporary Drama in English *

Author Bio

Daniel Schulze is a teaching fellow in English Literature and Culture at the University of Wrzburg, Germany. He combines artistic practice with scholarly research and teaching, and has worked in professional theatre as personal assistant to director Robert Wilson.