Theatre-making as aletheia: rehearsal and the production of truth

The widespread discourse of 'truth' in theatre is problematic. Truth, as that which exists objectively before verification or as the correspondence between propositions and the world, may not fit with theatre as a creative process. While it might seem that there are correct or definitive choices on the rehearsal room floor, one might argue that these choices are merely subjective and relative. However, an alternative understanding of truth offered by Martin Heidegger's term aletheia might be helpful. In this article, I explore this notion of truth as 'unconcealment' by revisiting Gay McAuley's case study of a workshop for Sarah Kane's 4:48 Psychosis by the South Australian company Brink. I argue that the rehearsal was not simply about meaning-making, but about the 'disclosure of Being' made possible through the energized play-space of the performance process.