Further on, Nothing

A new encounter with the work of a master of avant-garde theatre Tadeusz Kantor (19151990) was one of the twentieth centurys most innovative visual artists, stage directors, and theoreticians. His theatre productions and manifestos challenged the conventions of creating art in postWorld War II culture and expanded the boundaries of Dada, surrealist, Constructivist, and happening theatre forms. Kantors most widely known productionsThe Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), and Today Is My Birthday (1990)have had a profound impact on playwrights and artists who continue today to engage with his radical theatre. In Further on, Nothing, Michal Kobialka explores Kantors theatre practice from the critical perspective of current debates about representation, memory, and history. He pursues the intriguing proposition that Kantor gave material form to a theatre practice that defined the very mode of postmodern operation and that many of its theoretical notions are still in circulation. According to Kobialka, Kantors theatre still offers an answer to reality rather than a portrayal of a utopian alternative. Further on, Nothing includes new translations of Kantors work, presented in conversation with Kobialkas own theoretical analyses, to show us a Kantor who continues to offerand deliver onthe promise of the avant-garde.