Physical Theatre: Evolution And Opportunities For Development

Physical theatre has been around since the 17th century, where it first emerged from the Greek theatre of antiquity and the Italian Commedia Dell’arte. Being a prevalent form of theatre, Commedia Dell’arte became the base for slapstick and silent performance, those who have experimented with this style include Shakespeare, Tim Burton, Monty Python and many more.

Later down the line, in the 20th century Physical theatre began getting remastered from its roots to a more modern version of the style. The physicality of the theatre style was further developed to convey a story through the movement and rhythm of the body. This evidence comes from the works of Jacques Copeau – a French stage director and dramatic coach – who later became one of the founders of contemporary theatre practices and opened an acting school “Ecole du Vieux-Colombier”. It is at this acting school where Etienne Decroux, who created Corporeal-mime, studied.

Corporeal-mime is a more advanced type of mime and slapstick in which the actor uses body movement to tell a drama rather than replacing gesture for speech which is what is done in pantomime and what would have been done centuries ago beginning with Commedia Dell’arte.

Physical theatre began to grow more popular in the mid 1900’s, with various practitioners opening their own schools to further explore the possibilities of the human body in theatrical performances. In 1956, physical theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq, studying the theories of Copeau, Decroux and others, founded the Ecole Mime Mouvement Théâtre in Paris. In this school is where he matured the concepts and theory of physical theatre. A big name within the Physical Theatre community is that of Mina Tinaburry, the artistic director of the “Atelier for Physical Theatre”. The APT was founded in 1995 as a place to further explore the potential of physical theatre. Nowadays the ATP is a globally recognized school for those taking an interest in physical theatre and the school strives to develop each student’s their talent in a unique and personal way.

Physical theatre has progressed from its origins through slapstick and corporeal to working with our bodies in a way that focuses mostly on the rhythm and movement of our being. As well as physical theatre being continuously expanded and stylized, the topics addressed in this style have also been modernized by various companies all over the world, in aim to educate audiences of current political or historical issues. This development can be seen particularly in the works of the DV8 Theatrical company based in London, who’s performances are defined by the idea of communicating modern problems. Their work pushes the boundaries of human physicality by the means of being able to tell a story in the most real way possible. The founder of DV8 Physical Theatre, Mr Lloyd Newson was irritated by the lack of coverage about bigger issues within dance back in 1986 when he created his theatre company. His goal was to research and create new projects that would incorporate complex issues and important topics with contemporary dance to show the world that dance was not just an aesthetic but could rather be used to create something beautiful yet dangerous as well as cultural. One example of a piece that fits this criteria was Newson’s first produced piece within DV8 titled: “My Sex, Our Dance” premiered in 1986. The physicality of the piece reflected the “emotional challenges” men in a homosexual relationship would face, while also covering the outbreak of AIDS at the time. This goes to show that although physical theatre being its own style, it can also be incorporated in ways of Dance just as shown through performance by DV8 Physical Theatre – a dance company dedicated to physical performance.

Just as physical theatre branches off to dance, it can do so to other styles of performance such as musical mheatre. One show in particular, broadway hit – Hamilton written by Lin Manuel-Miranda uses many aspects of Phyiscal Theatre within it’s performance. The show was nominated for a record-breaking 16 awards at the Tony Awards in 2016, winning 11 of them including “Best Musical” and “Best Choreography” The show also won “Best Choreography” on three other occasions, once for the Off-Broadway production, once for the West End production and a “Fred and Adele Astaire award” for the Broadway production. Most of the show is choreographed but there are two physical aspects I want to write about. One of them being a scene where the actors use their bodies to move elements around the stage during a song named “Hurricane”. The fluidity and teamwork of the actors working together to move themselves as well as the set gives the illusion of a whirlwind on stage which Alexander Hamilton is at the center at symbolized the complicated situation he finds himself in at that point of his life. Another scene in the production which is cleverly orchestrated in a physical manner is near the end of the production where Hamilton finds himself in a gun duel with nemesis Aaron Burr. In this scene they fire from a prop gun however the bullet is illustrated by an actor moving slowly across the stage. This portrayal of the bullet shows the scene in slow motion which builds tension and expands the story of Hamilton’s life, or rather death.

A show such as this one shows that sometimes productions can be regarded as dance or musical performances but still contain large aspects of physical theatre within them which is why I find physical theatre expansive and fluid because the opportunities provided by it are endless. In many ways physical theatre doesn’t have a truly discernible style as it can branch off into so many other categories, but the beauty of it is that it can be incorporated with anything and thus leaving room for many new creative and exquisite ideas in the following years to come.