Between Being and Showing: Yana Ross’s Directorial Method and the Case of the Performance Considering the Lobster

Abstract

The article analyses the creative process of Yana Ross’s theatre production Considering the Lobster (based on David Foster Wallace, Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, 2023). It focuses on the director’s methods, her approach to dramaturgy, and her communication with the actors. While working on the production, Ross had been engaged both as director and playwright. Ross’s theatrical language is influenced by Bertolt Brecht, and the article draws on Brechtian insights. Brecht’s directing-acting vision of the alienation/distancing effect (Verfremdungs-effekt) is important for Ross, who aims at transforming acting into a form of thinking rather than experiencing. However, Ross goes further than Brecht by proposing various forms of alienated acting, because in contemporary theatre, the actors themselves often become researchers whose task is no longer to act but to narrate a character. While creating Considering the Lobster, Ross worked with all the actors in the same way, without being guided by specific acting method or a strictly determined director vision, but rather by offering a dialogue. As a result, actors not only created different characters but also intuitively followed their own different methods. The article discusses Ross’s method of working with actors, analyses her directing strategies, and the actors’ roles. Observation of rehearsals, recording of director-actor interactions, and the interpretation of the collected data were chosen as research methods for this article.