What is this “visual theatre” that has been on everybody’s lips as of late? The term itself is somewhat of an oddity, but fans of contemporary theatre are by now well familiar with the phenomenon that it connotes: the essential meaning of these theatre productions transpires through their visual vernacular. That means, that performers in the visual theatre communicate with the audience via movement, dance, gesture, circus arts, and other types of visual imagery, which are not scripted or verbal. This kind of theatre exists at the intersection of the performing arts. It fuses drama and contemporary visual arts, puppetry, gestural art, dance, circus arts and the tradition of brutal street shows, while engaging multimedia elements and some cutting-edge technology. According to Dina Goder, “Visual theatre is always about the author and it is also about poetry, no matter how many genres it spans and what kind of directorial strategies it stems from. As such it completely embodies everything that we love or hate about poetry, which is further amplified by the particular power of visual images.”

Goder’s book covers a lot of ground. Among her subjects are the works of Philippe Genty, Romeo Castellucci, Josef Nadj, Andreas Kriegenburg, Daniele