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Thursday, 29 April 2010
 In today's Guardian,
actress Melanie Jessop discusses the idea of "relevance" in Howard Barker's
work and the recent funding history of the dramatist's The
Wrestling School, of which she is an associate:
Barker is a writer who provokes extreme reactions. His
position outside the mainstream of British theatre is often explained, by
those who seek to keep him there, in terms that remind one that the
establishment operates a sophisticated vetting policy. He is obscure. He
is elitist and — most atrocious of all — he won't exercise his
artistic responsibility to make theatre "relevant" by using his craft to
examine the social and political issues of the day. He won't be useful.
...
Barker's classic play Scenes From an Execution
looked at the artist's role in society and the conflicts of interest and
ambition that arise when an artist accepts a major public commission. In
Hurts Given and Received he goes much further, inviting us to
look into the mind of the poet and understand something of the violence
and energy of his creative process. The "relevance" of this may be
debatable — but surely only by those for whom "relevance" is a
forged passport into the theatre of the imagination.
Jessop's essay appears on the day of the opening of his latest play,
Hurts Given and Received, at Riverside
Studios.
You can hear the playwright himself discuss his work at Howard Barker at the Segal Center at the CUNY
Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue in New York, on Monday, 10 May,
beginning at 1.00pm: a day-long event celebrating Barker's four
decades as one of the most controversial playwrights, directors and
theoreticians in the
English-language theatre. A co-presentation with my theatre minima
company, the day and evening will feature screenings, discussions and
readings, as well as significant contributions from Barker himself, his
colleague Victoria Wicks and critic David Ian Rabey. The full schedule for
the event is here.
Howard Barker at the Segal Center is free and open to the
public. You can RSVP and invite your friends at the Facebook page for the
event here. I look forward to welcoming you there.
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Superfluities
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