Several Thoughts on Returning to the Word
Several Thoughts on Returning to the Word

Summary/Abstract: Among the collection of practices and methods used by postmodern artists to undermine the rigid conventions of the theatre, there are stylistic hybridization and the tendency to de-theatricalize the situation that is presented in the context of the performance. In order to de-theatricalize, there is an emphasis on the real elements used to create the performance. One of the methods employed for inserting realness in the performance is the verbatim method, which consists of documenting through surveys, interviews, research of documents on a given theme, followed by using the collected data (which is to be edited during a process that, preferably, does not include fictionalizing) to write the performance text. Can We Talk About This? is representative for the type of working method used by DV8 since the 2000s, when they started to become increasingly concerned with specific social situations, that are tackled in their performances through interview-based texts. Verbatim theatre and dance theatre come together in a new, inciting, hybrid genre that draws even more strongly from the immediate reality and, also, requires the engagement of all of the performers’ abilities, right from the beginning of the working process.

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