MONGOLIAN STATE UNIVERSITY OF ARTS AND CULTURE

SCHOOL OF THEATRE ART

POSTDRAMA AND MODERN TECHNOLOGY

Tsend-Ayush Turmunkh
E-mail: tseegii49teatr@gmail.com

Ulaanbaatar
Key words: postdrama, crime and punishment, technology, media, mixing

Summary:

The postdramatic theater is, in fact, just a new age of theater development. World class theaters
are heading toward new styles while following the literature evolution. The term postdrama was
coined by German theater scholar Hans-Thiess Lehmann in the 60s. Simply, postdramatic theater
must be interesting, different and weird, but it ultimately must be understandable. The
postdramatic theater is just theater of the present time that collected many elements inherited by
previous styles and philosophies like romanticism, classicism and realism. Technology plays an
important role in post-drama theater. It is impossible to create a postdrama without technological
solutions, media and modern construction. In this article, we discuss how post-drama and theatre
construction has entered the Mongolian theatrical art. In recent years, a number of post-drama
productions have appeared in our theater. "Romeo and Juliet" by the National Drama Theater,
"Faust" by the Alpha Theater, and short plays by the Black Box Theater. A new and strong wind
entered the Mongolian theater art of the 21st century was the post-drama drama “Sin” directed
by Orpheus Theater. For example, in a new theater called Orpheus, Dostoevsky's novel "Crime
and Punishment" was staged as a post-drama.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between
Mongolia and Russia and the 200th birth anniversary of the Great Russian writer F.M.
Dostoevsky, M.Batbold directed the ‘Crime and Punishment’ postdramatic play based on writer's
novel. The play was appreciated by the audience. The play uses a lot of modern technology. Live
broadcasts, live music, motion expressions, stage construction, etc. Stage construction is the
most important tool in this post-drama play. This theater differs from other theaters in its use of
modern technology, lighting, and media.
Here's how the modern technology was used in the play:
Stage construction is a way to accurately express the meaning of classical literature. In this play,
the stage was transformed into a courtroom, Raskolnikov's cramped shelter, pub, and execution
platform. In theater, things do not have to be realistic, but have to be symbolic, figurative, and
expressive.
 Post dramatical expressions in the playwright “Crime and Punishment”

Preface: Unlike traditional theater, post-drama theater is dominated by the director's new ideas,
not the writer's idealogy. Postmodernism, which began in Europe in the 1960s, gained
momentum in the 1970s and now pervades all aspects of world literature and art. Postmodernism
first emerged in the early twentieth century, rejecting all other currents of impressionism,
expressionism, surrealism, and cubism from the avant-garde to modernism, rejecting
depoliticization and declaring the theory of art without any "isms." The term postdram, the next
form of postmodernism in theatrical art, was first coined in the 1960s by German theater critic
Hans-Thiess Lehmann. When people hear the word "post", they think it's strange and confusing.
Simply put, post-drama theater should be interesting, different, and strange, but it should be
understandable in the end. This new theater is a modern theater that combines many elements
inherited from previous styles and philosophies, such as romanticism, classicism and realism. In
recent years, a number of post-drama productions have appeared in our theater. "Romeo and
Juliet" by the National Drama Theater, "Faust" by the Alpha Theater, and short plays by the
Black Box Theater. A new and strong wind entered the Mongolian theater art of the 21st century
was the post-drama drama “ Crime and Punishment” directed by Orpheus Theater. With the
initiative and joint efforts of young artists, the famous Russian writer FM Dostoevsky's
wonderful novel "Crime and Punishment" with a complex psychological conflict and struggle
was presented to the audience as a three-hour play. This post-drama play has attracted the
attention of the theater audience with its innovative steps and unique solutions to reveal the
character.
 The main part of the report:1

“The main features of post-drama theater (very modern theater) are as follows:
- Encourages world-acceptable ideas.
- Uses a variety of visual arts and media.
- Lost narrative, chaotic, poetic form
- Characters create partial and contradictory conflicts.
- The audience is inextricably linked to the idea of the play.
- The rehearsals are purely improvised (immediate thinking) and do not use originals.
- 'The audience understands from different angles.'
This study was conducted by comparing post-drama expressions in guilt drama with these
characteristics and enumerating the details of the “Crime and Punishment” drama.
"Murder is the biggest mistake you can make in your life, the worst thing you can do in your
life!" But what powerful and hidden motive is there for a good man to be murdered by a cruel
man, perhaps a very compassionate and just man? 1 The famous Mongolian writer Uriankhai.D
wrote in the review of the play “Carmen”. Similarly, Raskolnikov, the protagonist of “Crime and
Punishment”, is a compassionate man who feels a new flow of mind. He categorizes people into
two categories: the material, the real people, and the geniuses, who are ordinary people at the
bottom of his theory. The first part tends to be obedient, submissive, and devout in the face of the
law, while the second part struggles not only for new and better things and for the sake of one's
own ideology, but also for bloodshed if necessary. Directors and playwrights have used trial as
the main line of the play. Although the people read the St. Petersburg newspaper and of the
summoned witnesses to the trial gave the audience a fresh impression, and there were sharp
editorial decisions to involve them in the play, but there were some shortcomings that blurred the
plot and character of the play. The “Crime and Punishment” is that in 1866, Russia underwent a
period of profound social change, a period of emotional upheaval, and a period of disintegration
and decay, until all the suffering, pain, and scars of that time were "bursting at the seams." is an
epic about a hero of that time.
The quest for a reason or a post-drama in the novel
Since the play is the lifeblood of the theater, young writers Bayaraa.Y and Bujinlkham.E have
long been expected to turn this novel into a play. Releasing the play from the literary text is
1
I am a Baatar by Baatar.B, edited by Erdenetsogt.T. P-36. Ulaanbaatar, 2010
arguably the most important issue in post-drama. “According to Aristotle (1968), a traditional
play must have a unified structure of beginning, middle, and end. The connection between
logical cause and effect is emphasized in a predominantly teleological context. In post-drama,
however, the consequences are less important than the connection. "Dostoevsky is one of the few
writers in the history of world literature and culture. Not every writer has the honor, criteria, or
destiny to turn his work into a play. The playwright tried to fully reflect the essence,
philosophical ideas and plot of Dostoevsky's novel, ”said the playwright Bayaraa.Y in an
interview. His intentions were not in vain. In any case, after watching the play, reading the
original text, it became clear that almost no one could overcome it. It is clear that the author tried
not to distort the meaning of the court proceedings. The postdram proclaims the strange theory of
the creation of works by means of the logical sequence of events, the rejection of the author's
position and role in the rejection of structures, and the creation of works by merely inspired by
life's coincidences, texts, narratives, reflections, and quotations. The main features of this post-
drama are the plays of Bayaraa.Y and Bujinlkham.E. For example, each character around
Rasolnikov has his own biography, expression and transformation. This should not be
overlooked, and the playwrights' monologues of the characters are a great achievement in
clarifying the cause of the play. These monologues are one of the reasons why the audience, who
were called as witnesses at the trial, had a question. The second part of the play "Crime and
Punishment" contains four monologues. "The playwrights (Bayaraa.Y, Bujinlkham.E) had
produced monologues that were clever, true, and attached to modern society, to the amazement
of whether such a monologue had emerged from the conversations of the play" Crime and
Punishment. " As literary critic Batkhuyag.P writes, “Literature is the act of recognizing,
searching for, deciphering, discovering, and expressing in words,” the playwrights' attempt to
identify the cause from the original in words and express it in words was a great success. There
were postdramatic expressions in the play, such as a lost narrative (the place of the turns in the
play has been changed), chaos (the play does not start from the main condition), and poetic
characters that create partial and contradictory contradictions. It is unfortunate that in the play,
the most important character, Svidrigailov, is overshadowed and the events are too packaged.
Svidrigailov in the text is not only a reason to forgive and justify Rasolnikov's character, but also
a very important character who creates conditions for Rasolnikov to bear guilt. "Svidrigailov is a
unique copy of Rasolnikov, the other side of one coin. In essence, Rasolnikov already knew that
"he could not get over, he stayed here" because he remained a citizen, and Svidrigailov strangled
a person inside him, a citizen, and destroyed everything that was a human being.”2. As a playgoer
it was a pity for faded history of this character. The relationship between the characters and their
incompleteness was generally observed throughout the play.
The quest for time and space or post-drama of stage art

“In general, art cannot fully reflect the current situation or the evolution of time. It is possible to
analyze what happened in terms of space or time, ”wrote Batkhuyag, a literary critic. The play is
unique in that it introduces the audience to the cycle of time and space 1500 years after the
crime. The author of the “Crime and Punishment” play described Raskolnikov's room as a about
six steps long, old and yellow, covered in dust, with a piece of colorless paper that has been torn
from the walls here and there, and a palm-sized room with a very low roof that is too
uncomfortable for a tall man to hit on the head. This palm-sized room carries his anguish and, in
a sense, his anxiety. Batbileg.N, a young artist, worked as a stage artist for the play “Crime and
Punishment”. "The stage is a space of creative time .2" The stage, designed by stage artist
Batbileg, was constantly changing throughout the play. The loud sound of moving up and down
the ears was like a technical sound on the one hand, but on the other hand it felt like part of a
play, performing on stage. The stage was transformed into a courtroom, Raskolnikov's cramped
shelter, pub, and execution platform, and it was a strange story that could be played on or off. In
a word, it was a stage. L.Batbileg does not control the time created by the artist, where the actor
and the audience have the opportunity to create with their imagination.

Post-drama theater seeks to liberate the world of the mind by directly influencing the human
psyche and the subconscious, the perfect combination of eloquence with solutions thought out at
the deepest level of the beauty of thought and feeling. Therefore, high thinking skills are required
of artists, and they are unique in that they create a modern environment in the performing arts.

The quest for truth or spiritual post-drama

Crime is described in the Bible as transgression of God's law (1 John 3: 4) and rebellion against
God (Deuteronomy 9: 7; Joshua 1:18). It is said that sin and crime originated with an angel
named Lucifer, who may have been the most beautiful and powerful in the beginning. His failure
to be content with his position and his desire for something higher than God led to his downfall
2
Rodion Raskolnikov's frustration”-review. Crime and Punishment Translated by Baatar.Ch. P.-46
and sin (Isaiah 14: 12-15). Named Satan again, he seduced Adam and Eve into sin in the Garden
of Eden by tempting them to become “like God.” Genesis chapter 3 describes the rebellion of
Adam and Eve against God and against His command. Since then, sin has been present
throughout the ages of mankind, and we, the descendants of Adam, have inherited sin from it. In
Romans 5:12, it is said that when sin entered the world through Adam, "the price of sin is death"
(Romans 6:23). From the moment we are born, we have committed a certain amount of sin in our
lives.

It is no coincidence that the text mentions three times the story of Lazarus from the Gospels,
linking the story to Raskolnikov's fate and It may have been suggested that the resurrection of a
fallen person begins with sincere repentance and the act of realizing it.

Truth is one of the things that people always run away from for fear of being confronted. Or
there are many who want to fight for it. Being reconciled to the truth is very difficult. Or it may
be that what we thought was true turned out to be different.

What is the turth?

Hand it over to me
I’ll return after I take a good look at it ! says the famous poet Choinom.R stated on his poem.

The protagonist Raskolnikov fights for the truth to prove his theory. Here the director tries to tell
the truth about the reality of society from the point of view of the audience. A spectator who is
called as a witness before a fair trial is himself a sinner. Here is the main editorial solution. The
judge who judges you is the culprit. The director made this clear in the role of a judge. So who
will judge us? Finally, Raskolnikov is reborn in love. When you don't see the truth and don't feel
sorry for it, you carry your sins (Chair). "A single shot on stage saves so many lives later," said
Chekhov according to him many people returned with their guilt. "Crime and Punishment" is an
important part of post-drama theater, as it allows people to understand the meaning of the play
from different angles.

The quest for expression or director's post-drama

“Every classic works through the ages and lasts forever. The core value of the classic is that
talented people can see all the evils of the past century and send an eternal signal to humanity” 3.
3
The director is an unsurpassed mystery. Munkhdorj.B. P-50 Ulaanbaatar, 2017
The world's classics remain classics because they can be converted to any age and meet
remarkable criteria. Going to that test is a big test for directors. In other words, they will evaluate
4
whether you overcome it or not, whether you grow or not said the well-known theater director
Munkhdorj.B. Batbold.M, a director, graduated from the famous Russian GITIS, and his
experience as a psychologist helped to solve many problems of existence in an interesting way.
In the play, he showed that the director's solution is interesting in many ways. The art of
directing is the art of expression. How to express the idea in the text in what way? It shows the
scope of the director's skills..

Audience as a character

Camera footage from three sides showed the atmosphere of the play as part of an adventure
movie. The fact that the live broadcasters also acted as one of the characters in the play is an
interesting solution that draws the line between the real-life theater and the rejection of theatrical
embellishments..

The fact that the spectator is a participant and an evaluator in this play is in line with the theory
of B. Brecht's epic theater, which turns the spectator into an observer and continues to face
things. In general, the style of post-drama theater may have been formed in B. Brecht's theater.
The main feature of modern theater is that the audience is inextricably linked to the intention of
the play.

Chair as a character

One of the most important roles played during the play was the chair. Erdenebayar.U, the actor
and director of the movement, solved the murder scene, which is the main turning point of the
story, in a simple way.

Music as a character:

B.L.M.D's music was played on stage, and in the middle of the play, they came out to the pub
and played live. In doing so, they came up with the role of the band in their ordinary lives.
Batbold's ability to play music has been demonstrated by both the previous Faust plays and the
Crime and Punishment. Music plays an important role in drama. The combination of the

4
. As before
director's setting and the musical composition allows for an unexpected change in the
atmosphere of the play.

Characteristics of post-drama in characters.

Theater is a kind of living energy wave that is happening here now. Theater is not a jigsaw
puzzle, It's not a recollection of what happened, the theater feels like billiard balls to me. Our
focus is not on them, but on their actions. When bubbles collide, sparks fly into our minds only
when they move in unpredictable directions and in unpredictable directions. Therefore, realistic
performances of the actors play an important role in connecting the audience's mood with the
script and clarifying the director's decision. In modern theater, there is a tendency to play the role
of an actor, not a lawyer. An actor can come up with a play idea not only with the director's
instructions, but also with his talent, skills and hard work. On the other hand some people say a
director is an actor's teacher and a mirror 5. In the drama of Crime and Punishment, one actor
played 2-3 roles. For example, Gantsetseg.D as the state prosecutor Alyona Ivanovna and loan
shark, Erdenezaan.P as Marmeladov and the chief judge and other supporting actors played 2-3
roles. МУГЖ Gantsetseg.D's role as a public prosecutor is a double-edged sword in the text,
which reflects the image of public servants of that time, which made the play interesting and
sharp. An interesting step in the character's expression was resolving the internal conflicts in the
characters through a monologue and singing and speaking in live music. The combination of
Odgerel.B and Bayarsanaa.B, who played the role of Detective Porfiry Petrovich, was not only
energetic, but also showing an important expression of the detective's skill.

“In the drama theater, it is important for the actor to live and act in the story, while in the post-
drama theater, it is important for the actor to present himself to the audience from a personal
point of view. Lehman believes that the main purpose of the actor is to show the importance of
the character (not living as character)”6. In post-drama theater, the focus is on the relationship
between the play and the audience, rather than on the relationship between the characters, and in
post-drama theater, the role and plot are no longer the main elements, focusing on the audience's
attitude and participation.

Conclusion

5
A method of studying the role of a play through action. Knebel.M. P-9 Ulaanbaatar 1967.
6
Report on Postdrama Theater. Batsaikhan.D
If audiences want to find meaning in post-drama theater, they must abandon or change their way
of judging theater. Because post-drama theater changes the concept of character, plot, and
literature. Dr. David Barnett said, "In his post-drama work, he is the creator of a shared
experience rather than a knowledge, and the audience is faced with the question of how to deal
with such a phenomenon.”7

As a result of director M.Batbold's attempt to reveal the post-drama expressions in the play
"Crime and Punishment", which was boldly described as a post-drama play, the following
conclusions were reached.

 This new theater is a modern theater that combines many elements inherited from
previous styles and philosophies, such as Romanticism, Classicism, and Realism. There
was no system in "Sin." An opportunity for Bertolt Brecht's epic theater to express the
views of individual artists on stage, a performance by Jerzy Grotovsky in theatrical art, a
realistic theatrical approach by Stanislavki. Meyerhold's conditional theatrical
expressions have also been observed, and this has a modern character.
 Lost narratives, chaotic or dramatic environments, beginnings and interpretations, non-
literary contradictory solutions.

 The audience is inextricably linked to what the play is trying to say, or the principle is to
ask the audience questions that the director does not insist on.

 It differs from traditional theater in that it uses a variety of visual arts and media to make
almost every stage piece a part of the performance in an empty space.

Source:

In Mongolian:

7
Mark Ravenhill's. The Oscillation Between Dramatic and Postdramatic Theatre: Mark Ravenhill's
 1. Empty space. Brooke P. (translated by N. Purevdagva) Ulaanbaatar, 2014.
2. From poor theater to leading art. Grotowski.J (translated by N. Purevdagva)
Ulaanbaatar, 2016.
3. Actor and director's skills. Zakhava.B.E (translated by N. Purevdagva) Ulaanbaatar,
2012.
4. Articles, letters, speeches, speeches. Meyerhold V.E. (translated by N. Purevdagva)
Ulaanbaatar, 2013.
5. Theatrical training is the destiny of life. Stanislavsky.K.S. Ulaanbaatar., 2014.
6. A method of studying the role of a play through action. Knebel.M. Ulaanbaatar 1967.
7. The director is an unsurpassed mystery. Munkhdorj.B. P-50 Ulaanbaatar, 2017
8. Rodion Raskolnikov's frustration”-review. Crime and Punishment Translated by
Baatar.Ch.
9. “Against Time”-3 Batlhuyag.P.Ulaanbaatar,2016
10. I am a Baatar by Baatar.B, edited by Erdenetsogt.T.. Ulaanbaatar, 2010
In English:

1.Mark Ravenhill's. The Oscillation Between Dramatic and Postdramatic Theatre: Mark Ravenhill's

2.Marvin karlson “Postdramatic Theatre and Postdramatic Performance”

https://www.scielo.br/j/rbep/a/r8zgnLShM6vGGT6VpLCWGZw/?lang=en

Cyber source:

http://eagle.mn/r/94588

https://www.mnb.mn/i/250836

https://theubposts.com/bringing-postdramatic-theater-to-mongolia/

Appendix
Picture 1. Stage of the Crime and Punishment Picture 2. Live scene of Crime and
Punishment

Picture 3. Gantsetseg.D as the state prosecutor Alyona Ivanovna and loan shark,

Picture 4. Erdenezaan.P as Marmeladov and the chief judge