A Re-examination Of The 20th Century Intercultural Theatre: Peter Brook's The Mahabharata (1985) And Ong Keng Sen's Lear (1997)

My thesis re-examines 20th-century intercultural theatre by looking at two acclaimed productions: Peter Brook's The Mahabharata (1985) and Ong Keng Sen's Lear (1997). The first chapter is a historical analysis of intercultural theatre's emergence in the late 20th century, which explores the early experimentations, the pioneering works of intercultural theatre, and how Ong's work makes a shift away from these pioneering works at the end of the century. In the second chapter, I investigate the reception of Brook's The Mahabharata and Ong's Lear using reviews and scholarly discourse, explore the most celebrated and critiqued aspects of both productions, and through them discuss how intercultural theatre of the 20th century struggles primarily with the criticism of "decontextualization." In my third chapter, I perform a semiotic analysis of the two productions following Ericka Fisher-Litche's theory. In this, I explore how the cultural dynamics in both productions generate cultural hierarchies and how Ong's work showcases fairer and more balanced cultural representations. In sum, I argue that Ong's work is worth re-examining, particularly his directorial approach focused on cultural negotiation. Ong's production can be a great model for 21st century scholars and theatre artists to learn from to create fairer intercultural theatre productions.

Author dc:creator

• Mounivong, Khanthida

Contributors dc:contributor

• Coen, Elizabeth
• Hernandez, Marie T
• Estrada, Maria Gabriela

• Intercultural Theatre
• Peter Brook's The Mahabharata
• Ong Keng Sen's Lear
• 20th-century intercultural theatre
• Cultural negotiation
• Peter Brook
• Ong Keng Sen
• Semiotics
• reception analysis
• Lear
• The Mahabharata
• Intercultural

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/17703

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:tdl-ir.tdl.org:10657/17703