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Fall 2010 55 Postdramatic Greek Tragedy Peter A. Campbell PostdramaticisthetermthatHans-ThiesLehmannusestodescribecontemporary theatrical performances that do not follow traditional or recognizable modes of dramatic structure. Most criticisms of the postdramatic pose the requirements of modern representation and the necessity of drama against the absurdity of offering a theatrical art without dramatic conflict. As illustrated by Bernd Stegemann, the critique of the postdramatic is that it lacks “dramatic believability” because of its subversion of dramatic story and character.1 The postdramatic, however, is not defined by Lehmann as the lack of drama, nor is the concept of the “dramatic situation – as a medium for understanding and depicting human behavior” entirely rejected.2 In its regular use of dramatic texts, postdramatic theatre is not necessarily non- or even antidramatic, but is a theatre that does not valorize drama above all other elements of the theatrical experience. As Lehmann explains, Wholeness, illusion, and world representation are inherent in the model “drama”; conversely, through its very form, dramatic theatre proclaims wholeness as the model of the real. Dramatic theatre ends when these elements are no longer the regulating principle but merely one possible variant of theatrical art.3 In fact, drama is of great significance to many postdramatic works as they struggle with the efficacy, validity, and necessity of representation and narrative as it relates to contemporary culture and art. The postdramatic is defined by the search for significant expression when, as Lehmann argues, “almost any form has come to seem more suitable for articulating reality than the action of a causal logic with its inherent attribution of events to the decisions of individuals.”4 The postdramatic reflects and expresses the diminishing ability of the unified narrative form of drama to compel an audience into an illusion of a world. When we turn the term onto adaptations of Greek tragedy, we are able to consider that these formative texts of Western drama are now being used as material for postdramatic performances: the “drama” made “postdramatic.” Despite recent alternative readings that emphasize those nontextual elements of Greek tragedy Peter A. Campbell is associate professor of theater history and criticism at Ramapo College of New Jersey. His essays appear in journals including Modern Drama, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Body Space Technology, and in the collections Sarah Kane in Context (Manchester UP) and Unbinding Medea (Legenda). Professional theater work includes directing his adaptations iph.then, Yellow Electras, and medea and medea/for medea at the Incubator Arts Project in New York City. 56 Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism that are subjugated by Aristotle, most critical discussions and theatrical works return to the plot, the drama itself.5 As Page duBois argues, “Classical scholars and students of ancient theatre have for centuries, since the earliest work on Greek literary and philosophical texts in the early Renaissance, interpreted fifth-century tragedy through the lens of Aristotle’s prescriptions on tragedy in the Poetics, written in the fourth century BCE.”6 The discourse on tragedy has for centuries been dominated by readings and misreadings of Aristotle’s analysis of plot, of the individual character and his or her psychology, and the emphasis on the dramatic action leading to catharsis for the spectators, all of which make drama the natural center of investigation. In this essay, I will argue that the postdramatic use of Greek tragedy signals an aesthetic and cultural shift towards the subversion of dramatic plot that is not meant to destroy drama, but rather to reduce its centrality in theatrical art. In a sense, the postdramatic works to finally disempower the prevalence of the Aristotelian model of theatre, with its focus on plot and character, which still dominates our representational modes despite its dependence on a unified dramatic narrative and a dramaturgy that places an individual character’s actions and psychology in a causal relationship to the dramatic events. By tracking how ancient Greek tragedy has been adapted in classical, modern, postmodern, and postdramatic theatre, I examine the place and function of drama in these different theatrical explorations. I do not argue against the Aristotelian centrality of drama for historical reasons, as duBois does, but instead because the postdramatic use of ancient Athenian tragedy has the potential to...
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