Contemporary Mise En Scene ─ Staging Theatre Today

‘We have good reason to be wary of mise en scene, but that is all the more reason to question this wariness ... it seems that images from a performance come back to haunt us, as if to prolong and transform our experience as spectators, as if to force us to rethink the event, to return to our pleasure or our terror.’ – Patrice Pavis, from the foreword

Contemporary Mise en Scene is Patrice Pavis’s masterful analysis of the role that staging has played in the creation and practice of theatre throughout history. This stunningly ambitious study considers:

• the staged reading, at the frontiers of mise en scene;
• scenography, which sometimes replaces staging;
• the reinterpretation of classical and contemporary works;
• the development of intercultural theatre and ritual;
• new technologies and their usage live on the stage;
• the postmodern practice of deconstruction.

But it also applies sustained critical attention to the challenges of defining mise en scene, of tracking its development, and of exploring its possible futures. Joel Anderson’s powerful new translation lucidly realises Pavis’s investigation of the changing possibilities for stagecraft in the context of performance art, physical theatre and modern theory.

Patrice Pavis is Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Kent. He was formerly Professor of Theatre Studies at Paris VIII University. His Dictionary of the Theatre has been published in 30 different languages.