THE METAPHYSICS OF ABSENCE IN GREEK AND CHINESE THEATREAN INTRODUCTORY COMMENT
The aim of this paper is to discuss the generic
relationship between Ancient Greek and Chinese theatre,
and also examine how European directors, like Theodoros
Terzopoulos, use these anti-realistic traditions of
theatrical theatre productively in their work.
From Renaissance onwards, the theatrical tradition
of the West was valorized through Aristotle’s Poetics (4th
century BC), a literary, and not theatrical, model that
was normatively used in order to lend some Greek glamour
to the first European plays1. Through the tradition of
French and German Classicisms (16th-18th century AD) there
was established a peculiar dramaturgical canon, which
praised verisimilitude either of the tragic action, or
that of the composition of the play (the realistic union
of style and subject), so that the work is presented in
a way that could still be believed as a direct imitation
of the natural world2, in an attempt to allegedly create
images of order and harmony, using the unities of space,
time, and action (mainly for reasons of moral
instruction).3 Nevertheless, as the Aristotelian term
1 For details and full bibliography cf. Brigitte Kappl, Die Poetik des
Aristoteles in der Dichtungstheorie des Cinquecento, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and
New York, 2006. 2 Cf. Harold S. Wilson, “Some Meanings of ‘Nature’ in Renaissance
Literary Theory”, Journal of the History of Ideas, v.2.4, 1941, 430-48.3 Cf. Phillips Salman, “Instruction and Delight in Medieval and
Renaissance Criticism”, Renaissance Quarterly, v. 32.3, 1979, 303-32.
mimesis does not imply the realistic reproduction of the
natural world4, ancient Greek tragedy alike was never
concerned with the representation of the real kosmos
(worldly order) onstage, precisely because ancient Greek
theatre was an anti-illusionist genre with many
antirealist stage conventions.5
In the case of the theatre of Terzopoulos and the
traditional theatre of China we have a generic
coincidence extremely pleasant for the excessively
realistic West. In both cases, we are dealing with
theatrical theatre, i.e. antirealist theatre, which
presents itself merely as a self-governed artistic
construct and not as a mimetic product by reflection of
the real world. Here in Asia, the issue of realistic
4 Cf. Paul Woodruff, “Aristotle on Mimesis”, Amélie Oksenberg Rorty
(ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Poetics, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
1992, 89ff. [73-96].5 For example, the use of masks meant that detailed facial
expressions were not possible. The standardized outlines of the masks
made the features of the character more easily recognisable, and
different expressions could be shown by shifting the tilt of the head
with the assistance of natural light. Accordingly, emotions could be
displayed by body movements and gestures, as well as by verbal means
(wows, cries, exclamations, shouts, and the like). Certain postures
and gestures were associated with certain feelings and social
behaviours (as we assume from vase paintings). Details of scenery
were suggested by the use of plaques (pinakes), which could have been
turned for changes in scene (rare in Greek plays), though verbal deixis
(reference by means of speech) was principally used. For a good
introduction see David Wiles, Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
representation was never raised and mimetic scenic
strategies were never sought, thus many theatrical codes
(gestural, facial, etc.) were created in order to cover
the onstage denial of the real world. In any case,
surrogates of reality were employed to stand for an
absence, as for example the flags in Chinese theatre,
which signify many different things from a tempest to the
presence of an army, or the chair which could stand for a
cottage bench or a prison gate or many other absent stage
scenery.6 More generally, the generic differences between
the theatre of Asia and the realist theatre of the West
could be summarized in a box as follows.
ASIA WESTEMPHASIS ON PERFORMANCE EMPHASIS ON THE TEXT
EMPHASIS ON SYMBOLS EMPHASIS ONREPRESENTATION
EMPHASIS ON CONVENTION EMPHASIS ON ILLUSIONSTANDARDIZATION IMITATION
VOCABULARY OF ACTING PERSONAL EXPERIENCETHE AUDIENCE KNOWS,
EXAMINES, AND BELIEVES THE AUDIENCE OBSERVES
THE BODY DETERMINES THEMEANING USING CODES
THE TEXT DETERMINES THEMEANING
THE ACTOR BECOMES THEROLE
THE ACTOR IMITATES THEROLE
THE CENTER OF THE ROLEIS CORPOREAL
THE CENTER OF THE ROLE ISPSYCHOLOGICAL
EMPHASIS ON THE ENERGYOF THE BODY
EMPHASIS ON THEFLEXIBILITY OF THE BODY
THE ACTOR CONSTRUCTSTHE CHARACTEREXTERNALLY
THE PLAYWRIGHT CREATESTHE CHARACTER TEXTUALLY
6 For all the antirealist conventions of Chinese theatre cf. A.C.
Scott, The Classical Theatre of China, Dover Publications INC., Mineola, New
York, 2001[1957], 93-184.
The generic relationship between the theatre of
Terzopoulos and the traditional theatre of China becomes
more pleasant, if we look at the Greek theatre of the 5th
century BC. Ancient Greek tragedy was also a genre based
on conventions and, of course, absences: the absence of
real women,7 the absence of the real face behind the mask,
the absence of real tears and realistic gestures, the
absence of the realistic representation of violent acts.
Nevertheless, on the level of the reception of the actual
performance these absences acquired a material presence
through the use of an agreed code unknown to us, even if
that was a standardized vocabulary of gestures, or the
immobilized tragic expression on the Greek mask.8
What appears to be extremely interesting is the
standardization of the movement into a gestural code,
which seems to have been consisted of Gestus, in the
Brechtian sense as not merely gestures, but gestural
attitudes that corresponded to certain social behaviour:7 This seemed to be a serious issue of feminist interest: see Sue
Ellen Case, Feminism and Theatre, MacMillan, London, 1988, 5-19, who
makes an interesting, though axiomatic, statement: the “vocabulary of
gestures initiated the image of ‘Woman’ as she is seen on the stage –
institutionalised through patriarchal culture and represented by
male-originated signs of her appropriate gender behaviour”, or
perhaps the exact opposite as women on the Greek stage were seen in
extremis; and Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in
Women, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1993.8 Cf. with full bibliography David Wiles, Mask and Performance in Greek
Tragedy: From Ancient Festival to Modern Experimentation, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, 2007, esp. 205ff.
for example, supplication, prayer, or appeal seems to be
displayed with the extension of the hands towards the
addressee and the opening of the bent choreographed legs
at the same direction, as if the whole body is gravitated
to a cause (see images 1-3). And as we can see on ancient
Greek vases,9 these gestures could as well be used by the
Actor and the Chorus, whose members created collective
structures of meaning.10
The cultural relationship of the Greek and the
Chinese people should not only be ascribed to the
affinity of their traditional theatre genres, or their
love for measure and harmony, but also to an ancient
devotion to lyrical forms of poetic art, which determined
the evolution of their civilizations. The poetic descent
of Chinese drama added up to its antirealist nature, in
as much as the multifold southern and northern Chinese
traditions contributed greatly to the artistic
codification of the human ways, situations, and behaviors
9 Oliver Taplin, “The Pictorial Record”, P.E. Easterling (ed.), The
Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1997, 80 [69-90], argues quite convincingly that the vases
do not only present a myth, but a standardized version of the myth
performed on the Greek stage. This, however, does not mean that the
images on the vases are “photographic” testimonies from the Greek
theatre. Cf. also Taplin’s Pots and Plays: Interactions between Tragedy and Greek
Vase-painting of the Fourth Century B.C., Getty Publications, Los Angeles,
2007.10 Cf. Eric Csapo – William J. Slater, The Context of Ancient Drama, The
University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1995, 57-78.
into a theatrical system so perfectly, so superbly11 anti-
mimetic that appertains to an aesthetic category.
From the beginnings of the previous century and
after the decline of Naturalism, many Western directors
felt the need to apply to the codes of the Chinese
theatre due to an aesthetic deadlock, which in most cases
emerged as a charge against the unnecessary12 realism: “We
Westerners have only created realist forms. That is to
say, we haven’t created a form at all, in a true sense.
The moment one uses the word form in connection with
theatre, there is already a sense of Asia”13. And
admissibly, the thing that Western directors always seek
in Asia is a form.
It is not accidental, for example, that the first
thorough analysis of “the alienation effect” is made by
Bertolt Brecht in an essay on Chinese acting14, which was
inspired by a performance of Mei Lanfang he saw in Moscow
in 1935. In this essay Brecht discusses the traditional
11 Cf. Min Tian, “Gordon Craig, Mei Lanfang and the Chinese Theatre”,
Theatre Research International, v. 32.2, 2007, 161-77 (esp. 170).12 I borrow the term from Valery Bryusov’s renowned essay “The
Unnecessary Truth” (1902), see Marvin Carlson, Theories of the Theatre: A
Historical and Critical Survey, from the Greeks to the Present, Expanded Edition,
Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 1993, 313-14.13 Ariane Mnouchkine, “The Theatre is Oriental”, in Patrice Pavis
(ed.), The Intercultural Performance Reader, Routledge, London and New York,
1996, 97.14 Bertolt Brecht, “The Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting”, in John
Willett (ed.), Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic, transl. John
Willett, Methuen, London, 1978 [1964], 91-99.
acting techniques of the Chinese actor as a model for the
actors of the Epic Theatre, who should try to make the
audience think by making anything self-evident look
unfamiliar15. The functional ways suggested for the actor
according to the Chinese model were three: 1. no fourth-
wall (i.e. naturalist) acting (the actor should show an
awareness of being watched); 2. the actor should
critically monitor and master himself; and 3. he should
not act, but display physical and gestural behaviours,
using symbols and social gestures (Gestus), so that the
spectator could critically observe the actor and take a
position accordingly. As a result, while mainstream
Western theatre presents the facts as if they were
universal, timeless, and unchangeable, Epic or
“historicizing” Theatre uses de-familiarization in order
to make everything noticeable and in need of research,
according to the Chinese model. But most Westerners tend
15 This is not entirely true for the Chinese actor: “While Brecht was
seeing ‘alienation,’ Mei was concerned with essence, specifically the
four essences: life, movement, language, and decor (costumes, general
setting). Mei’s technique appeared to Brecht's Western eyes as form
but was to Mei, at least in part, a transcendent kind of theatre
refined from life into a higher plane of human movement, lyrical
language, and theatrical visuality […]. Thus Mei, in the words of his
contemporaries, was concerned with the essence rather than the
appearance of things”, Carol Martin, “Brecht, Feminism, and Chinese
Theatre”, The Drama Review, v. 43.4, 1999, 78 [77-85]. But if the
Chinese actor is interested in showing the socially recognisable (or
perhaps expectable) feminine and not the woman-like, that is rightly
Brechtian.
to forget that we have borrowed alienation from the
Chinese theatre.
As an epigone of these anti-realist traditions,
Theodoros Terzopoulos in his productions establishes a
multiple system of morphogenesis, according to which he
constructs his theatric universe. The process of
morphogenesis does not only include the onstage
reconstruction of a textual role, but also evolves the
dialectic emersion of the form from the directorial, and
not from the dramaturgical, Idea as a performative lapsus
(an involuntary symptom of the actual performance).
Nowhere in this process is the real world involved,
unless as a horizon of cultural expectations violently
attacked. On the contrary, this endeavor is extended to
the construction of a conditionally geometric space,
according to which the Form must behave. In so doing,
Terzopoulos creates a parole (a speech of open
signifiers), which refers to archetypal areas of
knowledge before the aesthetic consolidation of any
theatrical language. This also emerges as a descent into
the primordial ways of human expression and presumably
into the roots of Greek art: simplicity, abstraction, and
economy (or else, this feeling of inexhaustible meaning
behind a higher order of things, as the German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche argued16 about ancient Greek
architecture). With his geometric directions, Terzopoulos16 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, transl.: Marion
Faber with Stephen Lehmann, University of Nebraska Press, Nebraska,
1996, 131.
attempts to descend into the dead and dark areas of
knowledge, in which the figures represented self-sown, as
well as self-sufficient meanings by default of any
realistic representation. In that way, the director
constructs a theatrical locus as a living self-reflexive
organism that is interested in the ontological
positioning of the acting subject in geometric systems of
behavior, creating thereby a code of linear formulation
(a language of acting according of course to his
Biodynamic Method).
ATTIS Theatre looks at an obsession with geometric
figures as developing, self-constructed and self-defined
systems of meaning. Theodoros Terzopoulos’ mises-en-scène
bear the aesthetic values of a primordial order, when the
older cyclic themes gave their place to purely linear
constructions (from the Protogeometric to the Geometric
era, for instance17). After the cyclical Bacchae18 (1986)17 Cf. Anthony M. Snodgrass, The Dark Age of Greece, Routledge, New York,
2001 [1971], 24-105; and J. N. Goldstream, “The Geometric Style:
Birth of the Picture”, in Tom Rasmussen - Nigel Jonathan Spivey
(eds.), Looking at Greek Vases, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
1991, 37-56.18 For this production and the Biodynamic Method see Georgios
Sampatakakis, “Dionysus Restitutus: Terzopoulos’ Bakchen”, in Frank
Raddatz (Hsg.), Reise mit Dionysos: Das Theater des Theodoros Terzopoulos, Theater
der Zeit, Berlin, 90-102. For the theatre of Terzopoulos in general
see: Marianne MacDonald, Ancient Sun Modern Light: Greek Theatre on Modern
Stage, Columbia University Press, 1992, 147-69; the album Theodoros
Terzopoulos and the ATTIS Theatre: History, Methodology, and Comments, Agra
Publications, Athens, 2000; and the extremely valuable collective
volume by Raddatz (Hsg.), Reise mit Dionysos, op.cit.
Terzopoulos begun his experimentation on the “linearity
in space”, an endeavor that is still in progress today,
without the director entirely abandoning the cyclical
space formations. On the contrary, in many performances
the cycle remains as the archetypal theatrical space of
the self-contained performance, without always
participating in the creation of the meaning, but in the
seclusion of a meaning. His first Prometheus Bound by
Aeschylus (1995) constituted the first extensive study on
the linear positioning of the acting form (the Bio-form)
in performance, in order to create a theatre that would
seemingly transcend the limits of space. The
establishment of cosmic order around the axis of
Prometheus, who is hovering in ontological pendency
between divinity and mortality, was the central metaphor
for a tragedy that has traditionally suffered from the
realism of the fake rock and the red paint. Moreover,
that production was a research on the possibilities of
incising order onto a blank performing surface, creating
thereby linear meanings consubstantial with the
directorial Idea. In particular, the squared space
revealed the ideological qualities of the performance: in
the beginning, Prometheus (played by Tasos Dimas) was
nailed into the center of the true diagonals that
dichotomized the corners of the performing space and
along with the centripetal Prometheus were the axons of
its symmetry and balance. The geometric signification of
the space extended further, in as much as the acting
subjects were oppositely equivalent and thus homogenous
reflections of the same principle (if, of course, the
sides of a square are all equal). All scenic forms arose
after a Gestus of genesis, according to which the
performer transformed into an acting Form unreeling as an
apophysis from the ground. The center of this scenic
construct was bound by Prometheus, the underwriter and
regulator of taxis (order).19 More generally, the actual
evolution of the performance appertained to the
development of a linear system of meanings, as a battle
between order and chaos until the final attainment of
cosmic order.20
Terzopoulos work refuses the hoax of realism and
thus the counterfeiting imitation of the real world. In
the theatrical theatre of Terzopoulos the vested
structural bases of normality are denied, vanishing
thereby the structures of any established social order.
In so doing, the director unnails the cultural
expectations of a society based on self-valorization and
reflective reproduction. Finally, it needs to be stressed
that a new metaphysics of presence is created in absence
of the real world, manifesting the existence of new,
unknown structures of knowledge, the encounter with which
gives birth to an inspiring terror, always present in
Terzopoulos’ theatre. As the director confessed:
The performers of ATTIS Theatre are movingaccording to the temperament of a turbid moment
19 See image 4.20 See image 5.
through an unavoidable defeat, in order to catchwhat is never to be caught. And there is alwaysthis agony of being and not being present.
Nonetheless, the theatre of Terzopoulos does not aim
at the objectification of the natural world into some
geometric figures, but it hopes to give material essence
to some unapproachable terrifying Truth. The performer of
the Chinese Opera, as well as the ancient Greek actor, or
the Bio-form in the theatre of Terzopoulos, when
replacing the real world with a sublime aesthetic form,
they denounce the material absence of the unseen ontos
onta, the really beings which are readily visible to great
civilizations.
Dr. GEORGE SAMPATAKAKISLecturer in Theatre Studies, University of Patras, Greece
Special Consultant of the Hellenic National Centre for Theatre andDance
IMAGES
1. Members of a chorus (5th century BC).
2. Orestes Kills Clytemnestra with a Fury looking down from above (4th century BC).
3. A play in performance: a chorus of young soldiers dancing
in front of a tomb, while a ghost is appearing (c. 490).
4. Prometheus (Tasos Dimas) in Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, ATTIS Theatre, Athens, 1995, directed by Theodoros Terzopoulos. Photo by Johanna Weber.