Rhythm and Rite: Anticipating Post-Dramatic Elements in Friedrich Nietzsche's Thought

This article aims to connect post-dramatic theatre with some of the ideas that Friedrich Nietzsche presents especially in his first major work, The Birth of Tragedy, published in 1872. In particular, similarities are found in the concept of the performative and in an essential aspect of Nietzschean tragedy, which is physical pain. Although playwrights and performative artists such as Einar Schleef, Milo Rau or Marina Abramovic are mentioned in the work, the aim is not to establish a direct filiation between Nietzsche and the theatre of the present day, but to draw attention to one of the most important consequences of the aesthetic rupture proposed by the German philosopher in transgressing the boundaries between the different arts.