Rūta Mažeikienė Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania

On Anti-Mimetic Acting: The Legacy of Modern Acting Theories 85 in Contemporary Performance1 II. T emporary

Key words: theatre, Lithuanian theatre, acting, 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 , 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 ithuanian in the field of modern theatre and especially in in the early nineties stood out against the background 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 heatre the texts written by members of the avant-garde group a long time by realistic acting based on the method 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 stereo­types 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 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 and practice of the Polish theatre artist Tadeusz shake their heads and speak various words 11 L ietuvos 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 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 ithuanian that he just could definitely see what he saw”15. Thus 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 rather about “provoking audience’s reactions” T heatre noise-silence, statics-dynamics) result in a quite and stimulating new ways of understanding art (and unexpected and paradoxical effect: “our eyes and reality)16. As critical responses to the productions by ears quarrel, we see something different from what Koršunovas maintain, the theatrical, dynamic and we hear”14. Combination of different elements, based quite abstract director’s narratives require extremely on the principle of contrast generates certain optical creative reaction of spectator, energizes audience’s and acoustic illusions and strange deforma­tions of phantasy, encourages the public to give over to the the traditional categories, like space, time and cau- magic of theatrical action and indulge in pleasure of sality. Besides, this effect is especially intensified by reading the director’s text. Vassarely like space (stage design by visual artists Aidas Bareikis and Julius Ludavičius) of the produc- But what place and function do the productions of tion of There to be Here and illusionistic combina- that kind offer to an actor? What forms of acting tion of black and white stripes in the production of does the peculiar way of stage writing characteristic Old Woman (stage design by visual artist Žilvinas to Koršunovas provoke? To begin with, in the productions of the OBERIU irrespectively of psychological or emotional state of trilogy we can without difficulty to identify the most mind. Being an important figure of performance common principles of how actor functions in cases an actor has to acknowledge only partial contri- of autonomous performance text: an actor is not set bution to the performance text, focusing more on apart from the other elements of the performance, the potentials of the trained body and perform the 88 his work on the role is seen as an integral part of pre-given figure of the role “almost mechanically”19. director’s text. Besides, what an actor produces is The anti-mimetic understanding of theatre suggests not so much a psychological portrait of the charac- seeing an actor from the perspective of organizing ter but rather a certain score of the role, represent- the theatrical space, to perceive actor’s work as an ing the essence of the character through abstract activity in space, the art of developing plastic forms. forms. Actors thus reject the principles of realistic This is why when it comes to actor’s art it is not the teatre

acting and turn towards external, physical means of inner (spiritual, psychological) impulses that mat- constructing the part, namely, movement, gesture, ter but rather the accurate knowledge of the laws mimic, voice. According to the theatre critics, in of mechanics and correct techniques of managing these productions actor’s performance is basically ones body and voice. A degree of consideration that physical, the score of the role is constructed bringing the representatives of the anti-mimetic modern the- L ietuvos into play “all kinds of movement – running, scamp- atre demonstrate towards the external, physical way ering around, jumping, mincing, tripping and jig- of acting ends up in a displacement of the image of gling”17 or in other words employing the expressive an actor as sensitive artist, driven by inspiration by language of mimic and bodily plastic. As to what the idea that an actor is a rational, self-controlling concerns the sound layer of performance, again, all and mechanically accurate artist: an ubermarionette expressive vocal possibilities are involved starting (Craig), an engineer-constructor (Meyerhold), plastic with almost subaudible whispering to ear-splitting figure (Schlemmer), Futurist player (Marinetti), etc.

šiuolaikiniame scream, from inarticulate wheeze to virtuoso sing- According to this concept of acting it is not enough ing in four voices. The specific manner in which to rely upon intuitive methods of creative work or actors speak and intone provide the verbal text upon unpredictable moments of inspiration. An with a musical form, highlighting acoustic surfaces actor has to take control of the creative process into of words, rhythmic structures of certain phrases as his hands and focus on the excellence in mastering well as precision of pauses. Although it may seem at

dimensijos ones own body, the main instrument of actor’s work. first that acting is based on improvisation, a deeper Reflecting on the productions by Koršunovas, the analysis shows that “being completely abstract the theatre critics observe, that what we see there is “a

aiko performance is at the same time perfectly con- new type of acting system, mostly related to the use structed and concrete”. Actors’ play is based on the of the potentials of the trained body of an actor”20.

II. L II. preformed score “to the smallest movement of a To characterize the unusual manner of actor’s per- finger or an eye-wink”18. Therefore every role has a formance theatre researchers often refer to Craig’s strictly composed external figure, without any acci- Ubermarionette and Meyerhold’s biomechanics. dental elements and the figures of different roles are Moreover, they claim that this stunning new way of integrated into the performance text of the director. acting is nothing else but the “ABC of actor’s work”21 This way of developing a role reminds of the crea- almost forgotten in the traditional theatre. High tive process of an actor as described by Witkiewicz. development of the external acting technique helps According to him, first, the actor has to understand the actors to realize the complicated role scores and the director’s concept and the formal structure of to perform abstract kind of stage characters. performance, then, together with a director he or she What we see in these productions by Koršunovas has to construct a corresponding score of the role can also be characterized as a turn of the avant-garde and eventually to reach the level of skill where he or theatre towards dehumanization of an actor22. When she could perform the role with complete precision using stylized and formalized means of expression 89 II. T emporary D imensions

Fig. 2. „There to be Here“, 1990, directed by Oskaras Koršunovas, Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre. Actors:

Š. Puidokas, R. Valiukaitė, S. Mykolaitis, A. Dainavičius, R. Bilinskas. Courtesy: the archive of Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum. in C ontemporary the actors on stage function as abstract theatrical fig- in the very first performance from the OBERIU ures. According to the theatre theorists, traditional trilogy (played by Rimantė Valiukaitė, Remigijus forms of acting, when we see actor’s performance Bilinskas, Šarūnas Puidokas, Saulius Mykolaitis, as a representation of an individual character, shift Algirdas Dainavičius, Andrius Žebrauskas) func- the spectator’s attention towards the role. Other ele- tion not as individual characters but as abstract fig- L ithuanian ments of performance at the meantime become less ures, embodying “human instincts, desires, miser- important and secondary. That’s why in their search ies and fantasies”24. The black suits, bowlers, white for the coherence and purity of the director’s dis- faces, features highlighted by dark make-up, move- course and for the artistic forms of a more abstract ments reminding the actors’ play of the silent movie kind, theatre artists usually turn towards extremely era, strange manner of speaking turn the actors

stylized way of acting which is capable of keeping of the performance into characters-abstractions. T heatre the spectator away from emotional empathy with According to theatre critics, the characters that the character, represented by a performer. In the filled deformed and unreal space of the production abstract audiovisual structure of performance an of There to be Here do speak and move and react, actor appears not as a psychological but rather as however they do not “match the laws of human a conceptual narrative element23. If we think of a existence”25. The same type of characters can also performance action as of an abstract director’s text, be seen in the production of Old Woman. In the capable of uncovering the depth of life, the actors final scene, the three deindividualized figures that should not develop individual characters, but rather we see all through the performance, sometimes as be certain abstract agents, referring to philosophical representations of the same personality, eventually ideas, existential problems, states of human mind loose their human appearances. Due to the special and the unconscious. use of light the three figures are deformed (they turn bigger, smaller, double, triple, lose shape) The strange, nameless creatures that appeared until the spectator is not able to tell anymore how of Writer and Lady meeting in the baker’s shop) it many of the figures are there on stage, which fig- is still, due to paradoxical way of acting and the ures are actually the characters and which are just directing style of Koršunovas, turned into a strange their doubles and shadows. One can see how plas- surrealist accident. The construction of the score of tic and expressive the characters are in their every particular role is based on the play of oppositions, 90 movement and every look, how masterly they con- unexpected combinations of word and intonation trol their strange ways of moving and speaking. or word and movement. This results in a destruc- The actors here function as conceptual elements of tion of the laws of everyday logic and strange effect the director’s text and the audience can interpret of inadequacy (between what the character says them in the most different ways. and what he does, etc.) By combining the differ- ent manners of expression (realist representation In the performance of the trilogy, apart from the teatre

and demonstrative external acting technique) the faceless and nameless types of characters, there are actors perform their roles representing the essence also some more individualized characters, such as of the character in generalized forms. Writer (played by Arūnas Sakalauskas) and Lady (played by Eglė Mikulionytė) in the production of So what conclusions can be drawn from this analy- Old Woman or the characters of Mother (played by sis of OBERIU trilogy? One can state that the tril- L ietuvos Rimantė Valiukaitė), Father (played by Vaidotas ogy contests the traditional understanding of the Martinaitis), Doctor (played by Dainius Kazlaus- role, contradicts the significance of the individual- kas), Fiodor (played by Arvydas Dapšys), Male ized and psychological character as well as promotes Nurse (played by Saulius Mykolaitis), etc. in the the understanding of acting rather as a spatial art production of Hello Sonya New Year. Yet these of plastic forms. By refusing the domination of the members of the performance action are not repre- literary text and the stylistics of realist representa- sented in the frame of realistic acting either. They tion Koršunovas highlights not only the anti-textual šiuolaikiniame

are performed rather in a grotesque and eccentric attitudes of modernist directors but also the legacy manner. Even if the stage action does not contra- of the tradition of anti-mimetic acting. dict the usual laws of everyday life (as in the case dimensijos

aiko II. L II.

Fig. 3. “Hello Sonia New Year”, 1994, directed by Oskaras Koršunovas, Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre. Courtesy: the archive of Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum. Notes Theatre: A Sourcebook / edited by R. Drain. New York & London: Routledge, 1995, p. 35–37. 1 The article is based on the conference paper Modern 10 Oskaras Koršunovas / sud. ir red. D. Šabasevičienė. Acting Reconsidered: Legacy of Modern Acting Theories in Vilnius: LVADT, 1995, p. 8. Contemporary Performance presented at IFTR / FIRT (La 11 Kharms, Daniil. The Oberiu Theatre, p. 49. Fédération Internationale pour la Recherche Théâtrale / 12 Kharms, Daniil. The Oberiu Theatre, p. 49. The International Federation for Theatre Research) World 13 Kantor, Tadeusz. Paskaitos Milane, p. 63. Congress Cultures of Modernity (Munich, Germany, 25–31 14 Vasiliauskas, Valdas. Iš abstrakcijų gyvenimo. In: 91 July 2010). Literatūra ir menas, 1990, birželio 16, p. 6. 2 There to be Here, 1990, based on Daniil Kharms, 15 Oskaras Koršunovas, p. 8. Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre. 16 Fischer-Lichte, Erika. The Avant-Garde and the Semi-

3 II. T emporary TheO ld Woman, 1992 (TheO ld Woman 2, 1994), based otics of the Antitextual Gesture. In. Contours of the Theat- on Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky, Lithuanian rical Avant-Garde: Performance and Textuality / edited by State Academic Drama Theatre. James M. Harding. Ann Arbor: The University of Michi- 4 Hello Sonia New Year, 1994, based on Alexander gan Press, 2000, p. 90–92. Vvedensky, Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre. 17 Šabasevicius, Helmutas. Šokantis teatras. In: Lietuvos 5 OBERIU (Russian: ОБэРИу – Объединение реаль­ teatras, 1999 ruduo – 2000 žiema, p. 43. ного искусства; English: The Union of Real Art) was a 18 Mareckaitė, Gražina. Kalasi nauja žolė. In: Kultūros group of avant-garde Russian writers, musicians, and barai, 1991, Nr. 1, p. 34. artists (Nikolai Zabolotsky, Nikolai Oleinikov, Daniil 19 Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy. A Few Words about the D Kharms, Alexander Vvedensky, , Igor Role of the Actor in the Theatre of Pure Form. In: Twentieth Bakhterev and others) in the 1920s and 1930s. Century Polish Avant-Garde Drama: Plays, Scenarios, Crit- imensions 6 Vasinauskaitė, Rasa. Oskaras Koršunovas: Lemia ne ical Documents / edited, with an introduction, by D. Ger- literatūra. In: 7 meno dienos, 1993, spalio 15, p. 5. ould. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1977, 7 Kantor, Tadeusz. Paskaitos Milane. In: Modernus p. 154–158. teatras: straipsnių rinkinys / sud. R. Marcinkevičiūtė, G. 20 Šabasevicius, Helmutas. Šokantis teatras, p. 43. Mareckaitė. Vilnius: Valstybinio Kultūros ir meno insti- 21 Oskaras Koršunovas, p. 46–56. 22 tuto leidykla, 1995, p. 70. See: Roach, Joseph. The Player’s Passion:S tudies in the 8 in See: Kharms, Daniil. The Oberiu Theatre. In: Twenti- Science of Acting. Newark: University of Delaware Press, eth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook / edited by R. Drain. 1985, p. 202. C 23 New York & London: Routledge, 1995, p. 48 – 50. Erickson, Jon. The Fate of the Object: From Mod- ontemporary 9 See: Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy. La forme pure ern Object to Postmodern Sign in Performance, Art, and au theater. Introduction à la théorie de la forme pure. In: Poetry. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, Esthétique théâtrale. Textes de Platon à Brecht / editors 1995, p. 55–56. M. Borie, M. de Rougemont, J. Scherer. Paris: Editions 24 Гирба, Юлия. Чистые игры нищих. In: Театр, 1991, SEDES, 1982, p. 265–267 ; Witkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy. № 11, c. 190. From On a New Type of Play. In: Twentieth Century 25 Oskaras Koršunovas, p. 46. L ithuanian

Rūta Mažeikienė Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas, Kaunas

Apie antimimetinę vaidybą: modernistinių vaidybos teorijų palikimas šiuolaikiniame teatre T heatre

Reikšminiai žodžiai: teatras, Lietuvos teatras, vaidyba, vaidybos teorija, antimimetinė vaidyba, avangardi- nis teatras, OBERIU, Oskaras Koršunovas.

Santrauka

Šiandienos teatrui būdinga vaidybos formų bei stilių įvairovė atkleidžia dinamišką tradicinių vaidmens kūrimo metodų kaitą ir naujų aktorinės kalbos būdų įsiveržimą. Įvairėjant aktoriaus raiškos formoms, neišvengiamai kyla jų įvardijimo, vertinimo bei interpretavimo problema. Reikia pastebėti, kad susidūrusi su naujomis, netradicinėmis vaidybos formomis, teatro kritika neretai pasitelkia postmodernaus teatro teoriją ir vertina aktoriaus kūrybos po- kyčius postmodernaus teatro estetikos kontekste. Tačiau akivaizdu, kad šiuolaikiniame teatre gausu ir tokių naujo- viškų vaidybos formų, kurių šaknys veda į modernaus teatro lauką, ir ypač – į Vakarų teatro vyraujančiose kryptyse neįsitvirtinusią antimimetinę vaidybą, apibrėžtą tokių modernaus teatro kūrėjų kaip, pavyzdžiui, E. G. Craigo ar V. Mejerholdo, teoriniuose darbuose. Tokia situacija ypač ryški tuose teatriniuose „landšaftuose“, kuriuose ilgą laiką dominavo realistinė vaidybos kryptis, siejama su modernaus teatro režisieriaus K. Stanislavskio vaidybos metodu. Pavyzdžiui, šiuolaikinio Lietuvos teatro (kaip ir kitų posovietinių šalių) režisieriai, ieškodami naujų teatrinės raiš- kos formų, neretai atsigręžia į sovietmečio laikotarpiu draustą ir todėl neišnaudotą XX amžiaus pradžios sąlyginio, 92 antimimetinio, teatro palikimą. Tarkime, debiutiniai žymaus lietuvių režisieriaus O. Koršunovo spektakliai (Ten būti čia, 1990; Senė, 1992; Labas Sonia Nauji Metai, 1994), sukurti naudojant rusų avangardistinės grupės OBERIU tekstus, tuometiniame Lietuvos teatro kontekste išsiskyrė ne tik novatoriška režisūrine kalba, bet ir neįprasta, eks- centriška vaidybos maniera. Ir nors dalis teatro kritikų tokią vaidybos formą buvo linkę sieti su postmodernia raiška, atidesnė analizė atskleidžia sąsajas su moderniame teatre užgimusia antimimetine vaidybos kryptimi. Šiame straips- nyje, analizuojant O. Koršunovo OBERIU trilogiją ir pasitelkiant tokių modernaus teatro kūrėjų kaip E. G. Craigo, teatre

V. Mejerholdo ar S. I. Witkiewicziaus vaidybos sampratas, atskleidžiamas modernistinių vaidybos teorijų palikimas šiuolaikiniame teatre.

Gauta: 2012 05 23 Parengta spaudai: 2012 10 29 L ietuvos šiuolaikiniame

dimensijos

aiko II. L II.