Physical theatre as an elective topic, including its history (Jacques Lecoq, Decroux, Grotowski), its conventions, and the contemporary companies (Frantic Assembly, DV8, Complicite, Legs on the Wall)

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to know physical theatre as a contemporary form: its traditions, its conventions, and its major companies. Strong answers move past listing companies into analysis of how the body produces meaning and identify specific productions and techniques.

The answer

What physical theatre is

Physical theatre is the contemporary umbrella term for performance work that foregrounds the body as the primary means of communication. The term has been used since the 1980s; the practices it describes go back to the early twentieth century.

Physical theatre is not silent theatre. Most physical theatre uses spoken text, but text is not primary. The body, the ensemble, and the choreography of action carry as much or more dramatic weight as the dialogue.

The twentieth-century roots

Three figures shape modern physical theatre.

Etienne Decroux (1898 to 1991)

French mime artist. Developed "corporeal mime" as a serious dramatic form distinct from the comic pantomime tradition. Decroux's school in Paris (from 1940) trained Jean-Louis Barrault and Marcel Marceau. Decroux argued that the trained body could speak as expressively as the trained voice.

Jacques Lecoq (1921 to 1999)

French actor and director. Trained with Decroux, then with the Italian commedia dell'arte tradition. Founded the Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris in 1956. The Lecoq school has trained generations of physical performers including Geoffrey Rush, Simon McBurney (Complicite), Stephen Berkoff, and Yasmin van Dyck. Lecoq's pedagogy combines mask work, clowning, neutral mask, melodrama and the "elements" (water, fire, earth, air) as performance approaches.

Jerzy Grotowski (1933 to 1999)

Polish director. Developed "Poor Theatre" at the Theatre Laboratorium in Wroclaw and Opole (1959 to 1969). Grotowski stripped theatre of all elements except the actor's body in the presence of the audience. The actor's training was intensely physical and psychological. Apocalypsis cum figuris (1968) was the canonical Grotowski production. His book Towards a Poor Theatre (1968) is a foundational text.

The contemporary companies

Physical theatre as a self-conscious contemporary form develops in Britain, mainland Europe and Australia from the 1980s.

Complicite (UK), founded 1983

Founded by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, Marcello Magni and Fiona Gordon, all Lecoq graduates. The Street of Crocodiles (1992, based on Bruno Schulz's stories), Mnemonic (1999), A Disappearing Number (2007). Complicite's work is text-rich but built through devising; the visual and physical staging is integral to meaning.

DV8 Physical Theatre (UK), founded 1986 by Lloyd Newson

The most overtly political of the British physical theatre companies. Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (1988, on the murder of gay men by Dennis Nilsen), Enter Achilles (1995, on masculinity), Can We Talk About This? (2011, on free speech and Islam in Europe). DV8 disbanded in 2015.

Frantic Assembly (UK), founded 1994 by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett

Less avant-garde than DV8, more interested in finding accessible physical vocabularies for mainstream theatre. Stockholm (2007), Things I Know to Be True (with Andrew Bovell and the State Theatre Company of South Australia, 2016), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (with the National Theatre, 2012). Frantic Assembly's Book of Devising Theatre (2009) has been widely used.

Theatre de Complicite, Cheek by Jowl, Theatre du Soleil, and others

A wider ecosystem of European physical theatre.

Australian physical theatre

Legs on the Wall (Sydney), founded 1984

The most established Australian physical theatre company. Combines circus, dance and acting. Works include Flying Blind (1992), Honour Bound (with Nigel Jamieson, 2006, on David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay), and projects that often integrate aerial work.

Chunky Move (Melbourne), founded 1995

Contemporary dance with strong theatrical elements. Mortal Engine (2008, with Frieder Weiss) integrated live performance with real-time projection.

Force Majeure (Sydney), founded 2002 by Kate Champion

Dance-theatre with strong narrative drive. Already Elsewhere (2014, on bereavement).

Circa (Brisbane), founded 1987

Circus and acrobatic work pushed toward physical theatre.

Nigel Jamieson

Director-choreographer who has worked across the Australian physical theatre scene; his work on the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony (2000) is part of the same lineage.

Conventions of physical theatre

The ensemble

Companies have permanent or semi-permanent troupes whose members have trained together for years. The collective body is part of the artistic resource.

Devising

Work is built in the rehearsal room from physical exercises, improvisations, and choreographic sequences rather than from a pre-existing text.

Integration of forms

Dance, mime, acrobatics, clowning, mask work, spoken text. The boundaries between forms dissolve.

Use of object

Objects (chairs, ladders, ropes, fabric, water) become extensions of the body and signifiers of meaning.

Stylised space

Sets are typically minimal. Space is mapped through movement rather than represented through scenery.

Light and sound as choreographic partners

Lighting design and live or recorded sound are integral to the work, not background.

Emotional communication through the body

Internal states are communicated through movement quality, breath, contact and resistance between bodies rather than through dialogue.

How physical theatre is examined

Section II essays on physical theatre typically ask candidates to discuss the form's conventions, analyse specific productions, or evaluate the contribution of one or more companies. Strong essays cite specific productions with dates, name techniques precisely, and analyse the choices the company has made.

The most common question patterns:

• "How does physical theatre use the body to communicate meaning?"
• "Discuss the role of devising in the creation of physical theatre."
• "Evaluate the contribution of one physical theatre company to contemporary theatre."

Strong essays cite at least two companies and analyse at least one production in detail.

A note on practical work

The Studies in Drama and Theatre elective is examined in writing, but in practice this elective is also a good fit with Group Performance and Individual Project pathways that explore physical work. Many schools that prescribe physical theatre also use the studio time to develop devised physical work for the Group Performance. The boundary between studied theory and practical investigation is porous.