Theatre Practitioners
What's covered
Key facts
Artaud proposed abolishing the separation between stage and auditorium so performers and audience share the same space.
Steven Berkoff was born in 1937 (3 August 1937, in Stepney, East London).
The alienation effect distances the audience from emotional involvement so they observe critically and reflect on the play's social and political messages.
In Berkoff's style, exaggerated physical actions replace set and props — the actors' bodies create the environment.
Audiences at Forced Entertainment's durational performances are free to come and go at any point, rather than having to stay for the whole running time.
Kneehigh Theatre is based in Cornwall.
Where Stanislavski wants the actor to feel and become the character for emotional immersion, Brecht wants the actor to show and judge the character to keep the audience thinking critically.
Artaud rejected spoken text and rational narrative as the centre of theatre, replacing them with a physical, sensory stage language.
Berkoff uses a chorus of performers who move with precise synchronisation to create stylised, collective physical images.
Exposed lighting rigs, visible machinery and projected text all share one function: to expose theatrical artifice deliberately and prevent the audience falling into illusion.
Sample questions
A taste of the 113 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What is the name of Artaud's manifesto for radical theatre?
- •The Epic Theatre Manifesto
- •The Living Theatre Declaration
- ✓The Theatre of Cruelty
- •The Theatre of the Absurd
What does 'Total Theatre' mean in Berkoff's practice?
- •A method where the actor becomes the set, costume and all sound effects
- •A production style where technology, light and sound override live performance
- •An approach where the text is dominant and physical movement minimal
- ✓Physical, vocal and textual elements are equally weighted — none dominates
What is the purpose of Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect)?
- •To alienate rival theatre companies from Brecht's rehearsal process
- •To disorient the audience so they cannot follow the plot
- •To make the audience feel intense emotions by removing distractions
- ✓To prevent the audience from emotionally identifying with characters so they think
What distinguishes Berkoff's use of stylised movement?
- ✓Exaggerated physical actions replace set and props — actors create the environment
- •Movement is drawn from classical ballet vocabulary
- •Performers move in slow motion throughout the entire production
- •Physical actions are performed only by the chorus, never lead actors
What is distinctive about Forced Entertainment's approach to theatre-making?
- •A company that devises short-form comedy sketches for studio theatre spaces
- •A London-based company specialising in large-scale site-specific outdoor events
- •An international touring ensemble known for physical and acrobatic performance
- ✓Sheffield-based company making long-form durational theatre where endurance itself is the concept
What is distinctive about Kneehigh Theatre's approach to performance?
- •A company founded by an actor-manager model with a single artistic lead
- •An ensemble that specialises in verbatim theatre drawn from real testimonies
- ✓Cornwall-based touring company using found spaces and exuberant physical storytelling
- •London-based company devising abstract work exclusively for black-box venues
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