The State of Current Theatre Research

Performance analysis obviously does not simply date from the age of structuralism and semiology. Any spectator who comments on a perfor-mance analyses it ipso facto, since he selects, names, prioritises and exam-ines one particular element as opposed to another and establishes links between these elements. When spectators comment on the performance, they do not have to verbalise the unsayable; they try rather to find a few landmarks. The description most often takes the form of the narration of a story (plot or fabula) or at least an account of the most remarkable stage events which facilitates an understanding of the materials used, a natural segmentation of the performance and a highlighting of the most powerful or chosen moments in the mise en scène. The tradition of dramaturgical analysis goes back to Diderot (De la poésie dramatique, 1758) and Lessing (La dramatique de Hambourg, 1767) in whose work we find remarkable descriptions of acting and stage effects. Brecht therefore only renews a tradition already established in Germany