Theatre as a Figure and a Place of Cultural Memory

Cultural memory is the starting point for studying culture. Theatre, on the other hand, is a multidimensional play with memory; it is an emblem of a certain culture, and of the overall blending of various discourses within it. Hence the relation between theatre and memory is rather complex and multifaceted. Theatre is a medium synthesising text and performance, speech and gesture (play, acting), as well as establishing direct, at least doubly articulated communication: among the actors on stage on the one hand, and between the actors and the audience on the other. They are all <em>subjects of theatrical memory</em>. Theatre not only uses memory in order to create the plot, develop the characters or establish communication with the audience, but also becomes a <em>figure of memory</em> itself: a culturally modelled, socially mandated (iconic, narrative, etc.) memory image (Assman). Additionally, theatre may be considered a <em>place of memory</em>, as well. But theatre is not a simple mnemonic of repeating reality—it is not merely a simulacrum, but also a quotation of reality; it does not aim to copy or memorise reality, but to represent it and interpret it critically. This is particularly true of the contemporary rough <em>theatre of brutality