Module description
The content of the module may be subject to change for 2024/25
In the post-Fordist societies of contemporary Europe we are constantly being asked to achieve more, increase our productivity, display our abilities; in short we are asked to perform. In this module we will take the multiple meanings of performance seriously and trace the journey of representational methods first developed by anti-capitalist theatre practitioners such as Bertolt Brecht and Augusto Boal into the very sphere these authors and playwrights often critiqued – the world of big business - and back again.
In part one of the module we examine the development of Meyerhold's biomechanics and Brecht's Gestus and the V-effekt in the early twentieth century when 'Oil, inflation, war, social struggles, […] wheat, the meat market, all became subjects for theatrical representation' (Bertolt Brecht). We will compare the focus on the body here with the interest in time-motion studies intended to maximise workers' industrial performance. In part two, we will focus on methods developed by post-war thinkers and practitioners such as Augusto Boal (Forum theatre), before turning to explore the means by which Boal and Brecht's techniques of effecting change in social structures have been adopted by the business world itself. In the third and final part, we explore the return of big business as subject matter for political theatre in the 21st Century, with a focus on contemporary theatre and performance practices.
Assessment details
10 min Group Presentation (15%); Comparative Essay (3,500 words, 85%).
Educational aims & objectives
- To explore theatre and big business as systems which both challenge and feed into each other;
- To introduce students to 20th-21st C innovations in theatrical performance across a range of linguistic contexts;
- To introduce students to 20th-21st C developments in performance management (within industry and business management) across a range of linguistic contexts;
- To develop students’ abilities to recognise connections and draw points of comparison across disciplinary and linguistic boundaries.
- To develop students’ skills in operating as subject-experts in interdisciplinary dialogue.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able:
- To recognise and critically analyse connections and/or points of comparison between theatre and big business within and beyond the European sphere.
- To demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the emphasis on ‘performance’ in contemporary European culture;
- To knowledgably discuss concepts such as gesture, dialectical theatre, Forum theatre, Taylorism, Fordism, Neoliberalism;
- To engage in sophisticated analysis of dramatic works as text and performance, with reference to theoretical literature drawn from both theatre studies and management studies;
- To reflect on and articulate the contribution which their knowledge from their degree subject can bring to an inter-disciplinary or inter-lingual analysis.
Teaching pattern
Two hours per week
Suggested reading list
N. B. This is an indicative list of set readings only and gives a sense of the topics to be covered on the module. It remains subject to change in order to allow for newly available materials, tie-in with relevant visiting productions or events in London, and other adjustments. Any alterations will be confirmed via KEATS at the start of term.
- Jon McKenzie, Perform or Else: From Discipline to Performance (London/N.Y.: Routledge, 2001). Extracts.
- F. W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management [1911] (NY: Cosmo Classics, 2006). Extracts.
- Readings on Les Ballets Russes, e.g. Jean Van Delinder, ‘Taylorism, Managerial Control Strategies, and the Ballets of Balanchine and Stravinsky,’ American Behavioral Scientist 48. 11 (2005): 1439-1451
- Meyerhold, Vsevelod, Meyerhold on Theatre, rev. edn, ed. and trans. from the Russian by Edward Braun (London: Methuen Drama, 1998). Extracts.
- Extracts from: Brecht on Theatre, rev edn., edited by Mark Silberman, Steve Giles, Tom Kuhn. London: Bloomsbury, 2014
- Bertolt Brecht, ‘The Measures Taken’ [1930], trans. from the German by Carl R. Mueller, in The Measures Taken and other Lehrstücke (London: Bloomsbury Metheun Drama, 2014).
- Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed [1974], trans. from the Portuguese by Charles McBride et al. (London: Pluto, 2000). Extracts.
- Augusto Boal, Games for Actors and Non-Actors [1992], trans. from the French by Adrian Jackson (London: Routledge, 1992). Extracts.
- John Coopey, ‘Theatre in Management and Organisation Development’, in Handbook of Experiential Learning and Management Education (Oxford: OUP, 2007);
- Badham, Richard J. / et al, ‘Beyond Hope and Fear: The Effects of Organizational Theatre on Empowerment and Control,’ The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 52. 1 (2016): 1–28.
- Kathrin Roeggla, We Never Sleep, trans. from the German by Rebecca Thomas (Riverside: Ariadne, 2009).
- Rimini Protokoll, Annual Share Holder’s Meeting (2009). Recordings at <http://www.rimini-protokoll.de/website/en/project>.
Sessions will often also require viewing of Performance Recordings.
Selected material will be provided. However, students may need to obtain their own copies of one or two core texts.