Superfluities Redux
A Theatre Surrounds a City:
Vienna's Burgtheater
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Home > Dramatists > Howard_Barker Friday, 13 November 2009 On difficulty and ideas in the theatreA few days ago Matt Trueman's "Can theatre be too clever for its own good?" appeared at the Guardian theatre blog. As usual, the headline doesn't quite do the piece justice, but Matt discusses "how much theatre can expect of us, its audience" — a broad question, maybe too broad. Matt's main point is the shared cultural presumptions of an audience and a theatremaker, but perhaps the issue goes deeper:
In which case one must ask: what about difficult or surprising ideas, ideas that undermine what the audience member may or may not bring with them into the theatre in the first place, ideas that beggar easy communication? In this case, incomprehension may lead to new insights. If the theatre is merely charged with telling us what we already know, what place imagination? What is accessible to Matt may not be accessible to me, and vice versa, and this is dependent not only on our cultural knowledge, our schooling or our individual philosophies, our preconceptions and prejudices, but on our openness to new theatrical experience — or music, or plastic art — as well. Asking artists to cater to both of us, as he points out, cripples the artist. But this is the fallacy in considering an audience as one large mass rather than a collection of individuals. To answer the post's question with a simple uncomplicated "yes" is to guarantee a simple uncomplicated theatre that tells audience members what they already know, and this is not what we ask of art. Howard Barker's response in the poem below is "no" — and not a simple, uncomplicated no, and it has to do with more than mere cleverness. The poem is the first prologue to The Bite of the Night, and though I believe I've posted it before, it's worth remembering:
Posted in /Dramatists/Howard_Barker Home > Dramatists > Howard_Barker Thursday, 22 October 2009 What's not to likeUPDATE: And speaking of 21 for 21, there's this article from Dominic Cavendish in yesterday's
Telegraph. Some thoughts here for those considering international
collaboration, criticism and funding. As he notes, briefly: "21 for 21
— as this worldwide tribute is called — feels like a
breakthrough moment in terms of the global theatre- In his post "Should we watch plays for pleasure?" in today's Guardian, Andrew Haydon, who wrote a mixed review of Howard Barker's Found in the Ground for London's Time Out, cogitates upon his critical reaction to the play:
Haydon's full article is here. Posted in /Dramatists/Howard_Barker Home > Dramatists > Howard_Barker Tuesday, 20 October 2009 21 for 21In just a few hours here in New York, midnight marks the commencement of the 21 for 21 project: Actors over four continents and eighteen countries will be performing the work of Howard Barker in celebration of the 21st birthday of The Wrestling School, a company dedicated to the performance of his work. Through the 24 hours of 21 October 2009, from time zone to time zone, Israel to Australia, performances of Barker's plays, as well as performances devised from his theory and poetry, will spread around the world with the turning of the planet. The Wrestling School's own main 21 for 21 offering, Found in the Ground, closed on 11 October (I reviewed the production here). However, Gerrard McArthur (Toonelhuis in Found in the Ground) will direct a staged reading of Barker's recent Hurts Given and Received with members of the Wrestling School tomorrow at 8.45pm at the Gielgud Studio at RADA, Malet Street in London (admission free). The other main English event tomorrow night will be the Theatre Royal's The Castle, to be performed by current members of the Royal Shakespeare Company ensemble, marking a return of Barker's work to the RSC stage. Finally, in Aberystwyth, Wales, David Ian Rabey directs a new production of Barker's A Wounded Knife, which also opens tomorrow at 7.45pm and runs through Saturday. This doesn't complete the list of productions at all, even for London; a full schedule is here. Here in New York, two 21 for 21 events are scheduled for the near future: The Barker Project's reading of Pity in History at the Drama Book Shop on 23 October (details here and in this recent Playbill article), and Judith from the Potomac Theatre Company on 26 October (details here). Howard Barker's work has seemed to appeal to a coterie audience, but as this effort demonstrates, that coterie (larger, it appears, than what one might be led to believe) is devoted to Barker's uncompromising vision of theatre and its transformational potentials, and so may have influence and significance far beyond mere numbers. It is impossible to think of a similar global event devoted to a contemporary living dramatist and director. Barker seems constitutionally incapable of compromise in his work and career: absolutely unique, he attracts the passion, dedication and discipline of theatre artists who, instead of being disciples, are through his work released into the freedom of their own imaginative, moral and erotic possibilities. They recognize that Barker's words discover something absolutely unique in themselves, and having experienced that freedom continue to seek it out, over and over again: a freedom won from the exploration of the body's ecstasy and the consciousness of its decay, a freedom sparked by his words but completed only in their own experience. So tragic, but far from pessimistic (or for that matter optimistic), and possessed of a genuine hope: a hope that remains alive not in compromise (which characterizes so much contemporary theatre, in which writers, directors, designers and audiences compromise themselves, their politics and culture, their work and the form itself) but in the pursuit of the realized, disciplined, uncompromised experience. It requires courage and attracts silence, willful ignorance, hostility, dismay, contempt and even ridicule. From all, that is, but those who know. So much Barker, so little time. Congratulations are due to Sarah Goldingay, the executive producer of the event, who deserves the full credit for its conception. She says, "Howard has been writing plays since the 1970s. I first came across his work when I was a student; I was mesmerized by his dark and erotic stories and poetic language. The 21st anniversary of the Wrestling School Theatre Company gives us a great reason to revisit his rich body of work, old and new. His plays seem even more relevant now in a world that is trying to understand the wars it is fighting and economic turmoil it is in. Everyone involved in the project is giving their time for free." To recognize the participants in 21 for 21, Barker provided the following text, addressed to the companies, performers and audiences who will join together for the celebration:
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