Teatro

Physical theatre as an approach to contemporary stagings of
classical Greek tragedy

Written documentation submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy
supporting creative work as thesis submitted by:

Rubini Moschochoriti

School of Arts
Brunel University

March 2009

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere indebtedness to my supervisor, Barry
Edwards for his help,guidance, and his insistence in systematic and
consistent work throughout the duration of my thesis.
I would also like to acknowledge my theatre group of Municipality of
Zographou. Without their help I could not have managed to accomplish my
thesis.
Special thanks to the Hellenic centre of Theatrical research - Theatre
museum, the Centre of the Ancient Greek drama- Desmi, the Theatrelibrary and the National theatre for their precious help and for all the
technical material that they have provided me.
Finally, I would like to thank Miss K. Spanou, G. Kaffe, V. Vavva and A.
Stafilaraki

who

supported

me

all

this

period

practically

and

psychologically.

I dedicate this thesis to my family

Brunel University, Uxbridge; School of Arts;
RubiniMoschochoriti; Physical theatre as an approach to
contemporary stagings of classical Greek tragedy; 2009; PhD

ABSTRACT
This PhD focuses on physical theatre techniques and practices in
order to provide acting keys for directing ancient drama. More
specifically, the work for stage put effort in the acting method, with
which the chorus and the main characters can be approached. For
that reason, thebasic method adopted was that of J. Lecoq, and
especially the ‘transference’ practice. Moreover, specific elements were
selected from the methods of: the Laboratory theatre of J. Grotowski,
the Odin Teatret of E. Barba, and from K. Stanislavski’s practice of
physical actions. Elements were also incorporated from modern dance
techniques (M.Graham, P. Bausch and R. Laban), as well as fromDramatic play.
The first part of the PhD summarizes theoretical aspects on the
tragedy’s structure through the written material that has survived
from antiquity. The ancient drama history, the history of acting and
directing tragedy, as well as other interpreting matters are analyzed.
Moreover emphasis has been placed on Euripides’ whole work, on the
historical and cultural frame of writing theBacchae, as well as on
ideological aspects and comments on the roles. Finally, material for
the most important performances, which took place in Greece, is
given.
In the second part of the thesis an experiment has been performed
between the classic speech of tragedy and contemporary methods of
movement and speech. The aim was to investigate how these function
together, by applying them onthe text of Bacchae. Although the stress
on the body pre-existed in acting methods of several directors, the

specific method of Physical theatre was applied around 1955 from J.
Lecoq. Since in Physical theatre the physical expression is symbolic,
non-realistic, with a heightened sense of theatricality, this method can
provide to tragedy the suitable acting tools for the big statures of theroles-symbols and for the meaningful movement of the chorus.
Physical theatre does not emphasize on the character and his
behavioural gestures but on the situations themselves and how the
actor undertakes them. Therefore it can complement word-based
theatre, which focuses on the acts emerged from the myth and on the
creation of mimetic archetypes. In that way, the demonstrated actions
andthe messages conveyed through them, become essential and
represent

the

collective

unconscious.

Consequently,

if

tragedy

expresses symbols, emphasizes on the myths’ acts and detaches from
realism then it is proved that the method of Physical theatre can be an
appropriate method.

Contents

Pages

Introduction

3

1. Physical theatre -the term, its genesis
and...