Rūta MažEIKIEnė Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania ON ANTI-MIMETIC AcTING: THE LEGACY OF MODERN AcTING THEORIES 85 IN CONTEmpORARY PERFORMANCE1 II. T II. Key words: theatre, Lithuanian theatre, acting, emporary acting theory, anti-mimetic acting, avant-garde theatre, OBERIU, Oskaras Koršunovas. D The multiplicity of different acting forms and styles OBERIU5 were characterized not only by innova- imensions characteristic to contemporary theatre reveals the tive mise-en-scène but also by an eccentric manner dynamic change of traditional methods of acting as of acting, unconventional for the Lithuanian stage. well as the emergence of new ways of acting. With Although some theatre critics would consider this the appearance of new acting forms, the problem way of acting in relation to postmodernism, a closer IN of denomination, evaluation and interpretation of analysis reveals its bonds with the anti-mimetic C actor’s art is faced. It should be noted that in con- ways of acting developed in the modern theatre. ontemporary temporary theatre criticism it is a common practice Thus the aim of this article is to analyse the OBERIU to relate the new ways of acting to the realm of post- trilogy by Koršunovas in relation to the acting theo- modern aesthetics and analyze them as examples of ries of theatre modernists like Craig, Meyerhold and postmodern theatre language. However, contem- Witkiewicz and discuss the legacy of modern acting porary performance often includes non-traditional theories as reflected in contemporary theatre. and new forms of acting that have taken their root The OBERIU trilogy staged by Oskaras Koršunovas L in the field of modern theatre and especially in in the early nineties stood out against the background ithuanian the marginalized trend of anti-mimetic acting, of Lithuanian drama theatre of the time as an example described in the theories of theatre modernists such of innovative directing style and also as an embodi- as Edward Gordon Craig, Vsevolod Meyerhold or ment of a non-traditional understanding of theatre. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. This issue is most rele- Taking the non-dramatic texts or just fragments from vant in theatre discourses that were dominated for T the texts written by members of the avant-garde group a long time by realistic acting based on the method heatre OBERIU as a literary basis, Koršunovas constructs proposed by the modern director Konstantin Sta- autonomous stage narratives, characterized by the nislavsky. Directors of contemporary Lithuanian purity of theatrical form, paradoxical relationships theatre (as well as of other post-Soviet countries) between the elements of performance and perform- looking for new forms of theatre turn towards the ance logic that disrupts the traditional stereo types of legacy of theatrical and anti-mimetic performance perception and requires the highly creative involve- style that was suppressed and thus remained unde- ment of spectators. In describing his understand- veloped during the Soviet era. For instance, the early ing of theatre, Koršunovas claims that performance productions by famous Lithuanian stage director doesn’t need literary material: Oskaras Koršunovas (There to be Here2, 1990; The Old Woman3, 1992; Hello Sonia New Year4, 1994) I think of a performance as of autonomic pie- based on texts by the Russian avant-garde group ce of art, completely independent of literature. [...] I do not stage Kharms. There are perenni- al concepts, like Time, Love, God, Death and I and ready to uncover new possibilities within a stage am looking for the ways to express these con- discourse. The structure of the theatrical action in cepts. To put it in the way that would violently his performances is characterized by the essential affect the spectator6. avant-garde attitude, claiming that every element of the performance is important as a self-sufficient 86 As the theatrical tradition of Lithuania was formed particle of theatrical language. Again Daniil Kharms basically under the influence of psychological real- puts it in a similar way: ism, the position proposed by Koršunovas does not separate elements of the spectacle are equally correspond to it. However, the artistic strategy of valuable and important to us. They live their Koršunovas had a lot to do with the legacy of the separate lives without subordinating them- historical avant-garde (the artistic experiments selves to the ticking of the theatrical metro- teatre of the Polish artist Witkiewicz and the OBERIU nome. [...] The scenery, the movement of an group) of the early 20th century, by then, almost unknown for Lithuanian theatre, as well as with the actor, a bottle thrown down, the train of a neo-avant-garde auteurism, such as theatre theory costume – they are actors, just like those who shake their heads and speak various words ietuvos and practice of the Polish theatre artist Tadeusz 11 L Kantor, who claimed that “autonomous theatre and phrases . denies any sort of literary text or drama with a By treating all means of theatrical articulation as higher existence as its foundation”7. By developing equally important (the text, the acting, the stage set, the aesthetic experiments of avant-garde directors, the objects, the costumes, the music, the light, the Koršunovas is looking for a new system of organ- video projections, etc.) Koršunovas forms a director’s izing theatrical action, new artistic forms that would text where the relation of the visual and the verbal refuse words and yet manage to represent what is is quite unusual. The image and the word are not beyond the visible reality, namely the reality of the šiuolaikiniame linked by the traditional bounds of subordination. human soul, imagination and subconsciousness as There are fragments where visual language turns well as abstract ideas and philosophical categories. to be more important than the verbal (like the long In this respect Koršunovas not only echoes the ideas scenes when no word is uttered, the scenes involving from the OBERIU manifesto8 but also for example dance, physical theatre, pantomime and other plas- Witkiewicz’s definition of theatre of pure forms9. By tic means of expression). On the other hand, there dimensijos claiming that the director should look for an artistic are moments, when the visual and verbal discourses language that would outstrip the text and express are set off against one another (the scenes when more than words, Koršunovas revives the anti-ver- aiko actor’s text contradicts his actions and the other way bal and anti-mimetic attitudes of avant-garde direc- around) and there are episodes when the verbal text tors in his productions and introduces his own ver- II. L II. is not only the dominant but also the only sign (as in sion of autonomous theatrical language. the cases when the text is being uttered in a complete Writing the physical text of the performances darkness). Basically the word and the visual image Koršunovas tries to extend the boundaries of the are related in the way that disrupts traditional laws of traditional functioning of theatrical elements, to combining elements of performance, resists the usual develop their inner qualities and to provoke the logics of the relationship between text and image and unexpected interactions among the different com- results in a paradoxical effect of theatrical action. In ponents. Although the director claims that he wants this respect, Koršunovas can also be seen as a suc- to be laconic and “to eliminate everything that is cessor of the avant-garde directing with its taste for irrelevant”10, he does not, however, reject the ele- performance structures free from everyday logic and ments of traditional performance (such as written traditional causal laws. The OBERIU trilogy could be text, stage design or music) but rather makes their said to embody the claim of Kharms that “an object employment purer, free from ordinary ways of usage and a phenomenon transported from life to the stage 87 II. T II. emporary D imensions Fig. 1. “The Old Woman”, 1992, directed by Oskaras Koršunovas, Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre. Old Woman – actor Remigijus Bilinskas. Courtesy: the archive of Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum. IN lose their lifelike sequence of connections and acquire Kempinas). This way Koršunovas manages to mate- C another – a theatrical one”12 or it can be seen as an rialize the ideas that were important for the whole ontemporary exemplification of Kantor’s thought that only those generation of artists – designers, composers and artistic forms are truly “autonomous” that “seem to actors who came to the theatre together with him: be strange and incomprehensible from the point of “we are trying to reach the intensity of stage action view of everyday life logic”13. that would kill the sense of time, we seek to come up with the most paradoxical situations, to give the In the productions based on OBERIU literature, spectator a shocking experience, to perplex him so the individual elements of artistic expression are L 15 that he just could definitely see what he saw” . Thus ithuanian combined according to the technique of associative Koršunovas together with his artistic team carries montage, contrast, dissonance and deformation. on the essentially avant-garde “anti-textual” and Unconventional interaction of otherwise quite con- “anti-mimetic” attitudes. Autonomous language of ventional means of theatrical articulation (word- theatre is not so much about “formulating messages”, image, motion-sound, lines-forms, colors-lights, but