PHYSICAL THEATRE

PHYSICAL THEATRE

Physical theatre is a style of theatre that focuses on the

movement of the actors on stage rather than the dialogue, and
puts the human body at the centre of the performance process.
However within this style, an extraordinary variety of plays
have emerged in recent year that include plays with dense
dialogue, visual media, music, a range of performance spaces,
abstract and surreal staging, and stunning lighting and sound
effects.
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Physical theatre has become one of the most exciting and

increasingly popular forms of live performance in the 21st
century and offers an enormous number of possibilities,
especially for improvised group performances.
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Physical theatre has strong links to traditions going back to the

beginnings of performance, including Aboriginal corroboree
and traditional African storytelling. The plays of Aristophanes
in ancient Greece used elements of physical theatre, including
clowning, to create humour, as did the Italian theatrical style of
Commedia Dell’Arte in the middle ages.
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Modern physical theatre has also been strongly influenced by

other art forms such as mime and dance. Over the 20th century
there was an increasing focus on the body of the actor through
the use of movement, rhythm and space. Major theatre
innovators such as Stanislavski and Grotowski emphasised the
importance of physicality and movement in performance.
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A form of performance that has increasingly influence physical
theatre in the last 20 years is the modern from of circus, seen at
its most powerful in the work of Cirque Du Soleil. This kind of
circus is entirely performed by acrobats, dancers and singers,
each with physical skills that are breathtaking. The stagecraft is
also extraordinary in the use of stage design, lighting and
sound. Within the structure of the acrobatics the circus
performers weave in stories and human relationships.
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Theatre companies began to experiment with more physical
types of theatre to get away from the limitation of realistic and
naturalistic drama. In the 1980’s high energy, striking visual
theatre emerged that combined strong stagecraft elements with
choreography and physical imagery and in the 1990s
companies experimented by fusing physical theatre with dance
and text.
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Most modern physical theatre is created through improvisation,

rather than performance of a script. It is an important and
exciting form of ensemble theatre making. Physical theatre is
increasingly revolutionising the live performances of dance,
opera and even realistic text based plays.