The Theatre as Field of Study — of Energy, Movement and Interrelations (Teatro um campo de estudos - energia, movimento e interrelacoes)

The Theatre as Field of Study — of Energy, Movement and Interrelations

(Nadia Thalji performing in "Onfalopsico"- a play that embraces movement and the interrrelations of actors and audience).

We believe that Brook’s theatre research is structured around three polar elements: energy, movement and interrelations. ‘We know that the world of appearance,’ writes Brook, ‘is a crust—under the crust is the boiling matter we see if we peer into a volcano. How can we tap this energy?’7 Theatrical reality will be determined by the movement of energy, a movement itself only perceivable by means of certain relationships: the interrelations of actors, and that between text, actors and audience. Movement cannot be the result of an actor’s action: the actor does not ‘do’ a movement, it moves through him/her. Brook takes Merce Cunningham as an example: ‘he has trained his body to obey, his technique is his servant, so that instead of being wrapped up in the making of a movement, he can let the movement unfold in intimate company with the unfolding of the music.’8