An Analysis of the Interplay between Dramatic Text and Performance Text

The duality of dramatic text manifests itself in a number of formal and stylistic features, which signify the performance possibilities inherent in it. Therefore, a performance cannot escape carrying traces of its indebtedness to the dramatic text that lies at its basis. This intrinsic feature of theatre leads to the creation of two types of textual material, the dramatic text and the performance text. The former is usually a blueprint for the latter. It is the initial step in a process, which reaches its fulfillment only in a performance. Despite the inherent differences, dramatic text only finds meaning in its enunciation on stage, which is an appropriation of the text as it is replaced and reconstituted. Thus, it has its status change into the performance text, in the course of its staging through adaptation. In fact, it passes from a written to a staged text and in this passage, the whole identity of the original is modified.