The first section of Movement looks at the long history of theatrical movement from the ancient Greeks to the eighteenth century, using an intercultural perspective to include movement theories that have elaborated traditions in non-Western theatre aesthetics, specifically in India and Japan. Taking a view of movement that extends from the role of the chorus to that of gesture, it examines how specific formal characteristics of theatre have evolved at different historical periods and in response to historical conditions, such as the fear of excess movement in religious traditions or the scientific model of nature replaced by the mechanical.
This account of ‘movement as history’ adds to more conventional dramatic theory which focuses on texts and genres in order to critically examine how stage movement has developed its own complex conventions in theatre over time. These include the concept of plotting, the stylisation of attitudes, the address to the audience, choruses and processions, and the use of puppets or automata. This section also provides contemporary examples of the influence of these movement concepts in productions of classical plays such as Sophocles’ Antigone and Shakespeare’s The Tempest as well as showing how movement theories and conventions are incorporated into new works such as I am My Own Wife, Zero Degrees and War Horse.
