Translating theory into theater: overflow of content shaping forms not yet born

Peter Szondi, in Theory of the Modern Drama, wrote that content forces form: when new realities press against inherited dramatic devices, theatre must invent procedures to cope with that pressure. Guided by this idea, my project looks back at twenty years of practice to show how ideas become theatre – and how this can be transmitted. 

Across my works, I use a three-step methodology: 1. Brainwashing: reading, watching, talking, in-loco research – feeding the process until there is excess; 2. Cannibal Lab: digesting that excess through performative laboratories, so thought moves into the body; 3. Word Becomes Flesh: editing and composing fragments into actions, texts, scenes – leaving space for the audience encounter to still twist the structure. 

This Start Project has three aims: (a) to gather materials from past pieces and classes and create a glossary and “architectural map” of this methodology, ending in a PhD proposal; (b) to test some of these tools in a lab with Play & Make students at the Conservatoire Antwerp; (c) to write a reflective essay on the theoretical foundations and the practices tested in the pedagogical lab. 

In short, the project is about translating an excess of philosophical and political content into theatrical language – repeating this movement until new forms appear. By making this process explicit, named, and shareable, the project prepares the ground for a future PhD while already offering tools that can be perceived in rehearsals and classrooms.