Theatre in the UK integrates a variety of art forms, deserving great attention and meticulous studies through its prosperity. Alongside the rapid development of technology like multimedia and internet, theatre industry and culture in the UK are constantly evolving. As a publication that is attentive to the development of cultural and creative industry, we review one particular theatrical topic every year. In this issue, we present the development of “visual theatre” in the UK.
Though “visual theatre” has yet been rigorously defined, its conceptualization and practice has become a remarkable topic for all theatre practitioners in the UK. It pertains to the nature of theatre: construction and expression through the visual. It is acknowledged that text, the verbal and the music are still to some the primary components of theatre, so we have taken for this issue the stance of the “alternative”, including discussions of theatrical forms such as mime, puppetry, physical theatre, contemporary circus and so on. We do not deliberately aim for novelty or any wow-effect, but mean to address the significant and subtle influence this “alternative theatre” has on the development of contemporary art and theatre.
英國的戲劇結合了多種多樣的藝術形式，而且在繁榮的戲劇市場背後有著大量值得關注和研究的課題。隨著多媒體技術以及互聯網的迅速發展，英國的戲劇產業和劇場文化也不斷地發生著改變，作為一個關注文化創意產業發展動向的媒體，我們每年都會討論一個與劇場和戲劇產業相關的主題，本期為大家呈現的專題是“視覺劇場”在英國的發展現狀。
在當下“視覺劇場”的概念並沒有一個確鑿的定義，但實際上，“視覺劇場”已經成為了每一個英國戲劇人繞不開的問題，它關乎戲劇的本質：通過視覺的建構和表達。當然會有很多人認為文本、對白、音樂等等才是構成戲劇的更主要的內容，那麼我們這次選擇的內容則更多是以“非主流”方式呈現的戲劇類型，囊括了默劇、木偶、肢體劇等各類藝術形式；這種編排並不是刻意的獵奇和譁衆取寵，而是要展現這種加雙引號的非主流藝術方式對我們當下藝術和戲劇發展產生的潛移默化並無法忽視的影響。
