Superfluities Redux
On culture and theatre, by George Hunka
A new journal for theatre minima and organum posts exclusively can now be found here.
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
My first post at the Guardian (UK) was published online today; it concerns English-language dramatists who find their plays first produced in countries other than their own:
Of the five works in the most recent volume of Edward Bond's collected plays, three received their stage premieres in France – a high percentage of continental debuts for a playwright considered one of the most significant of England's 20th century dramatists. Notoriously, Howard Barker's plays are more often produced in America and on continental Europe than in London, while Daniel Keene spends much of his time overseeing productions of his plays in France rather than in his native Australia.
My further casual thoughts on the subject here, along with Chris Shinn's notes on his own experience.
Posted at 11.42 am in /Miscellaneous
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Suggested Reading: His Lavender Quill at Rest
Playwright Mark Ravenhill wrote at the Guardian yesterday that "writing gay" no longer interests him:
It's worth remembering, particularly in an age of "inclusion," that most good drama is not multicultural. It's created by exploring singular worlds, where there is no allowing for the interplay of gender, race, sexuality and class. ...
Now, I'm surprised to say, I'm happy never to write another gay character again. It feels as though every aspect of the gay experience has been narrated, performed and picked over in the past 30 years. It has left us with some brilliant work. Alongside all the bad generic gay work, artists such as Derek Jarman, Alan Hollinghurst, Tony Kushner and others have left a body of work that is both gay and great. But that work seems over now.
Right now, I'm eager to explore the strange, twilight world of the heterosexual -- to expose its anguishes and mysteries and unconscious comedies. Maybe one day there will be something to pull me back to the gay experience, the sense of something new to be said about the gay world. But, for the moment at least, my lavender quill is at rest.
Mark's full meditation on theatre, inclusion politics and multiculturalism on stage (at least, in conventional drama) is here.
Posted at 9.07 am in /Drama
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