The tree of performance knowledge: Eugenio Barba

Ledger and Kuhlmann take as their point of departure Odin Teatret’s Clear Enigma, performed once only at the group’s fiftieth anniversary (2014), to suggest the roots of an original historiographic approach, or shape, to a discussion of Barba’s work. Embracing Barba’s occasionally paradoxical approaches, the authors’ non-chronological, rhizomatic-like account unfolds from a central concern with Barba’s production The Tree (2016), providing a point of connection to the various ‘branches’ of his work since 1964. Barba’s understanding of dramaturgy as a keyword for theatre making is set against the ‘Country of Speed’ and a landscape metaphor for the exilic condition of ‘Third Theatre’ organisations. Barba’s intercultural practices are assessed, and the chapter considers Barba’s status as a researcher and author, published in multiple languages. The authors incorporate notions of the ‘living archive’ and legacy, but Barba’s theme of death, a paradoxical condition of theatrical life, concludes the chapter.