David Levine’s Bauerntheater: The Return of the Matrix

In May 2007, David Levine’s experimental performance in Brandenberg attracted international attention for its unique blending of endurance art, land art, concept art, site-specific performance, and traditional theatre. A key innovation was its challenge to the distinction drawn by Michael Kirby in the 1960s between the “matrixed” action of traditional theatre and the “nonmatrixed” action of the Happening. By creating a dramatic matrix for an actor placed in what is essentially a Happening, Levine has, in his terms, “short-circuited” this distinction.