Formal Experiments in Selected Plays by Tim Crouch

• Thesis title in Czech: Formální experimenty ve vybraných hrách Tima Crouche
• Thesis title in English: Formal Experiments in Selected Plays by Tim Crouch
• Key words: Divácká participace|Současné divadlo|Drama|Experimentální divadlo|Forma|Jacques Rancière|Publikum|Tim Crouch
• English key words: Audience participation|Contemporary British theatre|Drama|Experimental theatre|Form|Jacques Rancière|Spectatorship|Tim Crouch
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2017/2018
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: doc. Clare Wallace, M.A., Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 28.03.2018
• Date of assignment: 28.03.2018
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 04.04.2018
• Date and time of defence: 22.01.2020 10:00
• Date of electronic submission: 05.12.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 22.01.2020
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: prof. Mgr. Ondřej Pilný, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Since his debut in 2002, Tim Crouch has become one of the most prominent contemporary British theatre-makers, renowned for experimenting predominantly within the realm of theatrical form, conventions and inner mechanisms. The goal of this thesis is to analyse Crouch’s dramaturgical methods particularly with regard to the specifics of his treatment of the audience in order to illustrate how it serves him to activate his audience. It will argue that despite Crouch’s extensive formal experiments, he is much aware of the conventions he amends and is not primarily interested in breaking them, as much as using them to illustrate the core role they have in creating the desired effect of a play. In the words of Stephen Bottoms, “Crouch’s work offers a powerful reinvigoration of dramatic traditions rather than a step ‘beyond’ them” (Bottoms, 2009).
The thesis will trace the evolution of Crouch’s philosophy throughout his work to date and the key ideas he builds upon. It will concentrate on the works My Arm, An Oak Tree, The Author and Adler and Gibb which span from the beginning of Crouch’s writing career in 2002 to his most recent play aimed for adult audiences Adler and Gibb (2014). These plays will be analysed in a chronological order to provide a sense of the progress of Crouch’s approach to form. The key focal points of discussion will be: spectatorship, autosuggestion and the theory of an active spectator.
As has been suggested, one of the ideas that interests Crouch is the problem of the passive spectator which has long been present in theatre and which he challenges by including a mixture of carefully scripted fiction and reality in his plays. Echoing the theory of the emancipated spectator presented by the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, Crouch treats the spectator as an inherent, active part of the theatrical process, in fact a co-creator, since the impression a play makes is materialised in the audience’s mind, not exclusively on the stage.
Crouch highlights the importance of imagination and autosuggestion, referring to the French psychologist Émile Coué; in the simplest terms, Crouch claims that what produces the desirable effect of theatre – i.e. the engagement of the audience – is not elaborated props, costumes and well-masked actors. Rather, a simple thought, initiated by autosuggestion in the subconscious, is often enough to make the audience believe in what the playwright tells them onstage. The more the audience are allowed to project their own imagination into the play, the stronger the impression. What happens onstage, therefore, becomes at some point secondary to what happens in the audience’s mind.
Besides his focus on the spectators, Crouch also experiments with the role of an actor, as is particularly apparent in An Oak Tree where one of the two main actors does not know the script prior to starring in the play. In The Author Crouch uses the actors’ real names and achievements to distort the edge between reality and fiction, and also engages the audience in a way that the fourth wall is broken and it becomes less clear who the protagonists in fact are which further blurs the edge between the spectators being mere observers and active co-creators of a play. With the use of the aforementioned formal techniques, it might be argued that Crouch is able to create an environment which makes the existence of an active audience possible.

References

Primary Sources
Crouch, Tim, Andy Smith, and Tim Crouch. Adler & Gibb. London: Oberon, 2014.
Crouch, Tim. Plays One. London: Oberon, 2012.

Secondary Sources
Angelaki, Vicky. Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Aragay, Mireia, and Enric Monforte. Ethical Speculations in Contemporary British Theatre. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
Bishop, Claire. Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship. London: Verso Books, 2012.
Bottoms, Stephen. “Authorizing the Audience: The Conceptual Drama of Tim Crouch.” Performance Research. 14. 1(2009): 65–76.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13528160903113213. Accessed March 15, 2018.
Bottoms, Stephen. “A Conversation about Dialogue (Symposium Voices).“ Contemporary Theatre Review. 21. 4 (2011):423-430.https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2011.61031. Accessed March 15, 2018.
Bottoms, Stephen. “Introduction: Tim Crouch, The Author, and the Audience – A Forum.” Contemporary Theatre Review. 21. 4(2011): 390-393,https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2011.610310. Accessed March 15, 2018.
Carlson, Marvin A. Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey, from the Greeks to the Present. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2000.
Coue, Emile. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion. Auckland: The Floating Press, 2014.
Freshwater, Helen, and Lois Weaver. Theatre & Audience. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. London: Routledge, 2010.
Rebellato, Dan. “When We Talk of Horses: Or, what do we see when we see a play?” A Journal of Performing Arts. 14. 1(2009):17-28,
https://doi.org/10.1080/13528160903113155. Accessed March 15, 2018.
Middeke, Martin et al., eds. Journal of Contemporary Drama in English. 4. 1(2016)https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jcde.2016.4.issue-1/issue-files/jcde.2016.4.issue-1.xml. Accessed March 15, 2018.
Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator. New York: Verso, 2011.
Rowson, James and Catherine Love, eds. Platform: Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts. “Are We on the Same Page?” 10. 1(2016). https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/dramaandtheatre/documents/pdf/platform/101/1.-platform-10.1-are-we-on-the-same-page.pdf. Accessed March 15, 2018