Postmodern theatre is a recent phenomenon in world theatre, coming as it does out of the postmodernphilosophy that originated in Europe in the 1960s. Typically, a postmodern theatrical work would contain some or all of the following characteristics:
A diverse pastiche of different textualities and media forms are used, including the simultaneous use of multiple art or media forms, and there is the 'theft' of a heterogeneous group of artistic forms
Narrative need not be complete but can be broken, paradoxical and imagistic. There is a movement away from linearity to multiplicity (to inter-related 'webs' of storying), where acts and scenes give way to a series of peripatetic dramatic moments.
Existing ways of seeing the world are subverted and questioned, including conventional methods of portraying character and human experience
Each new performance of a theatrical pieces is a new Gestalt, a unique spectacle, with no intent on methodically repeating a play. This can be linked to philosophical ideas based on Chaos Theory about how meaning systems evolve and impossibility of ever creating an identical system because the initial conditions can never be replicated.
The audience is integral to the shared meaning making of the performance process and are included in the dialogue of the play
The rehearsal process in a theatrical production is driven more by shared meaning-making and improvisation, rather than the scripted text
Postmodern theatre works tend to be challenging for an audience who are used to the time-honoured conventions of theatre and have expectations. The breaking of these expectations and the finding of new boundaries and sensibilities is the very point of this theatrical movement.
Instead, postmodern is used here as a historical term to describe the features of OOB Theater as it evolved form the mid-sixties to the present.
OOB Theater's intention is to de-construct reality, not to interpret it nor to seek 'authentic' contact with the audience as was intended by the Living Theater.
Postmoderntheater has also been heralded as the great break from anthropocentric art to a new form of transpersonal or postcognitive performance ritual where reason and everyday logic are being expanded.
Postmodern philosophy is an eclectic and elusive movement characterized by its criticism of Western philosophy.
Postmodern philosophy claims to be especially skeptical about simple binary oppositions that allegedly dominate Western metaphysics and humanism, such as the expectation that the philosopher may cleanly isolate knowledge from ignorance, social progress from reversion, dominance from submission, or presence from absence.
Postmodern philosophy is very similar to post-structuralism; whether one considers the two identical or fundamentally different generally depends on how invested one is in the issues.
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