ABSTRACT

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with Foreman himself, a set of practical strategies for staging the plays and the full text of Foreman's previously unpublished play Georges Bataille’s Bathrobe (1983), Neal Swettenham introduces the director’s work to a new generation of readers and theatre-makers.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part |85 pages

PART I

chapter 1|20 pages

An American in Paris

chapter 2|23 pages

O. H. Theatre

chapter 4|19 pages

On the road

part |62 pages

Part II

part |64 pages

Part III

chapter |62 pages

Georges Bataille’s Bathrobe (La Robe de Chambre de Georges Bataille)

Performed at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, Paris, 27 September–30 October 1983