Further on, Nothing
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Further on, Nothing

Tadeusz Kantor’s Theatre

Michal Kobialka

Table of Contents

Further on, Nothing


$35.00 paper
ISBN: 978-0-8166-5481-9

$105.00 cloth
ISBN: 978-0-8166-5480-2


 

A new encounter with the work of a master of avant-garde theatre

Tadeusz Kantor (1915–1990) was one of the twentieth century’s most innovative visual artists, stage directors, and theoreticians. His theatre productions and manifestos challenged the conventions of creating art in post–World War II culture and expanded the boundaries of Dada, surrealist, Constructivist, and happening theatre forms. Kantor’s most widely known productions—The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), and Today Is My Birthday (1990)—have had a profound impact on playwrights and artists who continue today to engage with his radical theatre.

In Further on, Nothing, Michal Kobialka explores Kantor’s theatre practice from the critical perspective of current debates about representation, memory, and history. He pursues the intriguing proposition that Kantor gave material form to a theatre practice that defined the very mode of postmodern operation and that many of its theoretical notions are still in circulation. According to Kobialka, Kantor’s theatre still offers an answer to reality rather than a portrayal of a utopian alternative.

Further on, Nothing includes new translations of Kantor’s work, presented in conversation with Kobialka’s own theoretical analyses, to show us a Kantor who continues to offer—and deliver on—the promise of the avant-garde.

Michal Kobialka is professor of theatre at the University of Minnesota.

496 pages | 50 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
My Work—My Journey (1988)
1. Topography of Representation
Independent Theatre (1942-1944)
After the War (1947-1948)
Cricot 2 Theatre (about 1963)
Reality of the Lowest Rank (1980)
The Autonomous Theatre (1956/1963)
The Litany of the Informel Art (1955)
The Informel (n.d.)
The Informel Theatre (1961)
The Zero Theatre (1963)
The Emballage (1957-1965)
The “i” Theatre (about 1969)
The Impossible Theatre (1969-1973)
1955-1975

2.  Spatial Historiography: The Dead Class
A Classroom (1971 or 1972)
The Theatre of Death (1975)
The Dead Class (1974)

3.  Theatre of Similitude
Theatrical Place (1970s-1980s)
The Room. Maybe a New Phase (1980)
Etudes—Sketches of a Scenario
“The Last Supper” Sequence of Rehearsals (1980)
Prison (1985)
Reflection (1985)
To Save from Oblivion (1988)
The Real “I” (1988)
Illusion
Illusion and Repetition
 My Meetings with Death (1987)
 Memory (1988)

4.  Spatial Historiography: Silent Night
A Short History of My Life
Silent Night (Cricotage) (1990)
Silent Night—Partytura (Cricotage) (1990)

5.   The Space of Khora
My Room (1990)
A Painting (1990)
From the Beginning My Credo Was. . . . (1990)

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Published Works of Tadeusz Kantor


 
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