Posthuman Perspectives and Postdramatic Theatre: the Theory and Practice of Hybrid Ontology in Katie Mitchell’s The Waves

Abstract

Drawing connections between the theories of Hans-Thies Lehmann’s postdramatic theatre and N. Katherine Hayles’s presentation of posthuman ontology, where each responds to technologically-conditioned ways of knowing, experiencing, and being, this article interrogates changing models of theatrical forms and subjectivity. It argues that Katie Mitchell’s 2006-2007 National Theatre production of The Waves constructs a particular kind of posthuman subject who is materially instantiated and formed by emergent processes. This hybrid being replaces the dualistically conceived sovereign subject/hero of the liberal humanist model typical of traditional drama, and articulates a world built of flatter structures of mutuality.

Keywords

• Posthuman
• postdramatic theatre
• Katie Mitchell
• The Waves
• ontology
• subjectivity