Semiotics of nonsemiotic performance (Michael Kirby)

This paper uses Michael Kirby's structuralist theatre and its tendency to be nonsemiotic as a point of departure to address various aspects of structuralist performance including its resistance to meaning and participation in a communication process, its metatheatrical dimensions, and its defamiliarization quality. Although in a 'pure' structuralist theatre semiotics should become obsolete, the question is whether structuralist theatre is able to fully resist the process of semiosis. Is it possible for nonsemiotic performance to stay out of semiotic space, which constantly adapts and renews its codes to accommodate new and emerging structures? Examining the scope and ability of structuralist performance to encompass both semiotic and nonsemiotic tendencies in theatre, this work tries to demonstrate that the nonsemiotic quality of structuralist performance is indeed grounded in a suppressed semiotic approach.