Theatricality and synthetic image as means of staging memories

Abstract

In this article, I will recognise the acceptable form and methods of staging memories within theatre, relying on qualitative features and spatial and temporal characteristics of memories. Memory is an essential part of building one’s identity. Being so, actively reviewing the importance of past personal and collective experience is necessary for establishing a constructive relationship towards the future. Considering the qualitative features of memories and the means and reasons for creating memories, I will use theatricality as a potential theatrical approach and a method that I will call subjective. I will also try to define the synthetic image as a possible content of theatricality whose function is to express memories in the form of complex sensory material towards which we have both emotional and rational relationships. I will define the subjective method as being primarily inspired by the experience of Ariane Mnouchkine, Jerzy Grotowski and Pina Bausch, who placed intimate experience within a theatrical framework, whereby the emphasis is on the process of expressing the original human condition at the service of the play, without any reference to documentary theatre.