Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre (review)

In her introduction, Dymphna Callery asserts, "It is only through doing that you will understand" (14). Most performers would undoubtedly agree, however, that as we read this splendid and often ground-breaking work, we feel as if we have been given the tangible experience of doing; we emerge from the journey with a visceral sense of the transformational possibilities within and between human bodies. Through the Body begins as a deceptively plainspoken primer on physical theatre, invaluable for any performing artist seeking greater breadth of expression, historical understanding, and philosophical inspiration. However, the book ventures beyond the performer and into ensemble work, and the final two chapters represent an excellent starting point for those interested in this often nebulous and uniquely challenging process.

In her first section, "Preparing the Body," Callery emphasizes the goal of preparatory training as "[i]deally . . . a process of self-discovery" that leads "actors to become more transformable and more expressive" (19). Establishing the necessity of an integrative physical approach, Callery outlines a progression—beginning with awareness and moving to articulation, energy, and neutrality—that evokes in the reader a kinesthetic awareness of the potentiality of the body and a palpable sense of what it means to be alive onstage.

Though extremely limited relative to the many well-established texts on mask, "Section Two: (Un)masking the Actor" imparts some reliable exercises and adds a sense of philosophic purpose to neutral, character, and commedia mask work. In the next section on "The Playful Body," Callery stresses the significance of play, the aim of which is "[t]o be childlike, in the sense of being perpetually open to discovery" (95). With the dynamism of play as a critical ingredient, Callery has devised an innovative progression of partnering exercises, movement improvisations, and theatrical techniques as preparation for the breaking down of the fourth wall toward the creation of "a heightened imaginative collusion between spectators and the action on stage" (104). As she moves outward from the body of the performer to the exchange between actor and audience, Callery establishes philosophical connections between Jacques Lecoq and Peter Brook, a shared complicité in the approaches of Joan Littlewood and Simon McBurney, and a sympathetic chord of communion among Barba, Lecoq, Brook, and Grotowski. Establishing links to seminal figures of physical theatre, Callery inducts the reader into a community that transcends both time and culture.

While she successfully brings together past and current ideas, philosophies, and approaches throughout her book, Callery's section on "The Sentient Body" is a resonant gem. Brilliantly integrating pragmatic exercises, historical approaches, and philosophies, Callery ties together the concrete and intangible, the sensate and the metaphysical, in her progression of body, breath, rhythm, and voice work. Establishing philosophical links between Decroux and Lecoq; rhythmic and structural connections between Biomechanics and the ancient Jo, Ha, Kyu; psychophysical connections among Artaud, Hart, and Bloch; and cross-disciplinary parallels between Freud and Feldenkrais, Callery gives the reader a palpable sense of Barrault's vision for the "total actor." "The Sentient Body"also functions as an indispensable bridge into challenging sections on devising and physical text, and is recommended reading for anyone interested in safely forging into the uncharted terrain of devised work.

In the final two sections, Callery brings the prior work and concepts to bear upon the indefinable process of devising a theatrical event. "Chaos is a necessary aspect of devising" (164), she states, and these sections, too, can be a bit unorganized, due to Callery's associative writing style and the difficulty of charting a process that is inherently individual and idiosyncratic. Nonetheless, it is worth the reader's while to follow Callery's devised path as she intersperses foundational principles with examples of ensembles' devising processes, and brings a refreshing clarification of terms we too often take for granted. For example, Callery theatricalizes the goal of dramatic structure as "capturing the attention of the audience and hanging onto it" (186), and encourages the performer to see text...