Richard Foreman has been writing, directing and designing avant-garde theatre in New York since he first founded his Ontological-Hysteric company there in 1968. In all that time, few directors have taken up the challenge of staging his problematic, rewarding texts, and Foreman's work remains under-explored by other practitioners.
Richard Foreman: An American (Partly) in Paris argues that Foreman can productively be viewed as a (partly) European artist, whose thinking and theatre-making have been radically shaped by contact with Europe. Through a detailed account of his European productions, interviews with Foreman himself, a set of practical strategies for staging the plays and the full text of Foreman's previously unpublished play Georges Bataille’s Bathrobe (1983), Neal Swettenham introduces the director’s work to a new generation of readers and theatre-makers.
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Swettenham, Neal

Ashgate Publishing Limited

Taylor & Francis Group

Taylor & Francis Ltd

Gower Publishing Ltd

Taylor and Francis

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

London, 2017

1, 20171110

1st, 2017

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 15.0

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Richard Foreman- Front Cover 1
Richard Foreman 2
Title Page 4
Copyright Page 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
List of illustrations 10
Foreword 11
Acknowledgements 13
Introduction 16
Notes 18
Bibliography 18
PART I 20
Chapter 1: An American in Paris 22
Une semaine sous l’influence de . . . ou Thérapie
classique (1973) 25
Livre des Splendeurs (1976) 33
Chapter 2: O. H. Theatre 42
Place + Target (1979) 42
Café Amérique (1981) 49
Faustus ou La fête électrique (1982) 55
Die Fledermaus (1983) 59
Chapter 3: An awkward ugly American 65
La Robe de Chambre de Georges Bataille (1983) 65
Birth of the Poet (1984) 72
Ma Vie, Ma Mort (1984/5) 76
Africanus Instructus (1986) 79
Love and Science (1987) 80
Don Giovanni (1991) 81
Chapter 4: On the road 86
Permanent Brain Damage (1997) 86
Pearls for Pigs (1997) 87
Hotel Fuck (1999) 89
Bad Boy Nietzsche! (2000) 92
Now That Communism Is Dead My Life Feels
Empty! (2001) 93
Panic! (How to Be Happy!) (2003) 94
The Bridge Project (2004–) 99
PART II 106
Chapter 5: Foreman’s unbalancing acts 108
What is drama for? 109
The manifestos 110
Postdramatic theatre 119
Staging the texts 123
Chapter 6: Cracking the code 127
Directorial strategies 128
The actor’s task 137
Scenography 143
A critical question 145
Chapter 7: Staging and subjectivity 148
In the rehearsal room 149
The inevitability of failure 151
Film is evil . . . 153
. . . Radio is good 154
Hysterical 154
Scenography revisited 155
Wake up! 157
Provisional conclusions 159
Todo Con Nada 160
PART III 168
Georges Bataille’s Bathrobe (La Robe de Chambre
de Georges Bataille) 170
Preamble 170
Setting 171
Afterword 232
Note 234
Bibliography 234
Index 235

Richard Foreman has been creating avant-garde theatre in New York since founding his Ontological Hysteric company in 1968. Richard Foreman: An American (Partly) in Paris argues that Foreman can productively be viewed as a (partly) European artist, whose thinking and theatre-making have been radically shaped by contact with Europe.

2025-10-27