Richard Foreman’s Unbalancing Acts ‘Foundations for a Theater’

I was unable to attend this session however I am intrigued by the readings we were given and am disappointed that I missed it the visitor Broderick Chow. After looking him up on Google, I have found him to be a Chinese Canadian comedian who also has been in many performances including A street car named desire at the Pablo theatre and has performed at the Edinburgh fringe festival.

The module is entitled contemporary drama. However Hans Lehmann prefers the title Post dramatic theatre. He believes that post dramatic theatre or contemporary drama is a definition for the umbrella of anything “unexplored” before within performance. This can be of a sexual nature, parallel lives, or pressures that people often feel they are unable to express.

He gives a few examples within the introduction of his book. A few of these being a performance called, “Pornography and performance” A shocking play where the lights are dimmed and the audience are invited to grope the performers who are hidden through a cylinder. The lights then come on and the audience who have dared to act on their instructions/desires have been caught “red handed.” Another example of contemporary drama he gives us is what looks like a kitchen sink drama on stage. Only when the mother and daughter start spitting at one another and one of them gives a monologue from Oscar Wilde whilst eating dog food it rears its head as not so traditional or even “mainstream” It appears to me the more ridiculous a performance is and surreal the more secure it becomes within the post dramatic theatre realm. I liked the example of the Graeae Theatre Company’s’ performance called “peeling” Where a group of women with sensory and physical impairment put on a version of The Trojan women, a play within a play and slowly undress as they discuss life, lies and recipes. This to me is the type of contemporary performance that I prefer. It is obscure but at the same time has a deep meaning behind it. Richard foreman, despises people who need meaning behind a performance that they can define. He wants people to “feel” a performance rather than necessarily gaining something from it that they can remember with material explanation.

 A lot of Foreman’s work was made in the 80’s. Unbalancing acts documents how foreman created his theatre and the way he believes there is a third element between logic and randomness something between narrative development and pure chance. He wants to see how he can produce performance without stage directions and compares contemporary performance to a spinning top… there can be a lot of pictures or visuals but you should enjoy the buzz of when it spins rather than focusing on the physical details.
He claims people are afraid to oppose the western culture when they adhere to the lifestyle and performance style that is “Mainstream” I feel that he believes it will confuse people and remove their identity if 'things' are not what they expect or how they expect them to be. It happens to be that in my opinion someone who is confident in themself wont mind adapting their reality for the sake of creativity.