"I'm Just a Pen": Travel, Performance, and Orientalism in David Hare's Via Dolorosa and Acting Up
Published in Theatre Journal, 59.2 (2007): 259-77.
In November 1997, after many hesitations, the acclaimed British playwright David Hare toured Israel and Palestine for... more
In November 1997, after many hesitations, the acclaimed British playwright David Hare toured Israel and Palestine for the first time. The resulting play, Via Dolorosa (1998), was written for a solo performer: Hare himself, making his debut on the professional stage. Hare’s success in London’s West End led him, in turn, to another sort of pilgrimage, this time to New York, where he performed his monologue in a flashy Broadway theatre. His dramatic experiences on the stage in both sides of the Atlantic, meticulously recorded in a diary he kept from August 1998 to June 1999, were eventually published as Acting Up (1999) - a travel diary of Hare’s performance of his “travel diary of Israel and Palestine”.
Drawing on these two interconnected travel accounts, Acting Up and Via Dolorosa, this paper explores the array of affinities between Hare’s three journeys: to the Middle East; to North America; and to the limelight. On one level, Hare’s narrative is examined in the context of English travel-writing about the Middle East. Like one of those Victorian itinerant lecturers who traveled with their magic-lantern slides, bringing news from the Holy Land to parishioners across England, Hare insists that the spectators “could only trust the witness if [they] could see who the witness was”: little wonder, then, that his own first-hand account is teeming with Orientalist clichés that are reminiscent of nineteenth-century travel writing. I demonstrate, moreover, how Hare’s journey to the New Zion in North America is already encapsulated, anticipated, in the imagery and vocabulary he employs to describe the old Zion in the East.
On a more fundamental level, this paper asks what Hare’s histrionic experience tells us about the complex relationship between travel, theatre, and the production of texts. When Hare notes in Acting Up that he was “speeding through from [his] arrival in Tel-Aviv” or “shaky for a while through the settlements”, he draws on the analogy between travel and performance, constructing the theatrical journey as a miniature re-enactment of his original Middle-Eastern tour. And since the theatre itself is often constructed in Hare’s work as a modern-day sanctuary—consider, for example, the ending of his 1998 play Amy’s view—Hare’s ‘Theatre of Pilgrimage’ (Ernest Ferlita’s term) becomes, literally, a theatre of pilgrimage.
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Download (.pdf) ‘I don’t do silence, innit’: The Unsaid and The Unsayable in the plays of debbie tucker green
by Nicola Abram
To be published in MaComère, vol. 13 no. 1 (Spring 2011) special issue: Caribbean Women and Theatre.
MaComère is the publication of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars.
Its digital archive is accessible at: http://dloc.com/results/?t=macomere
Preview the issue contents here: http://www.macomerejournal.com/issues/013.html
I explore the significance and effects of the unsaid and the unsayable in four of tucker green’s productions: born bad... more I explore the significance and effects of the unsaid and the unsayable in four of tucker green’s productions: born bad (2003), stoning mary (2005), generations (2005, 2007), and random (2008).
"Günlük Yaşam Politikaları: Blasted."
Akşit Göktürk'ü Anma Toplantısı: Yazında ve Çeviride Politika. İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul. 13-14 Mart 2008. (Basıma hazır bildiri metni)
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"Vur/Yağmala/Yeniden: In-Yer-Face, Ravenhill ve dotbilsarda."
Sahne: İki Aylık Tiyatro Dergisi (Mart-Nisan 2009): 56-61.
"İki oyunda “In-yer-face tiyarosu” ve Martin McDonagh: Leenane’in Güzellik Kraliçesi & İnishmore’un Yüzbaşısı"
(Sahne dergisinin Eylül-Ekim 2011 sayısında yayınlanacak basıma hazır makale.) (Sahne dergisinin Eylül-Ekim 2011 sayısında yayınlanacak basıma hazır makale.)
"Tiyatroda Yeni Arayışlar, bir başlangıç olarak: Bu Bir Sandalye."
Koridor: Kültür Sanat Edebiyat Dergisi (Bahar 2009): 21-24.
"Alegorik, Komik ve Gerçekçi bir Oyunu Türkçeleştirmek: Anthony Neilson'ın The Wonderful World of Dissocia'sı."
Alman Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi XXII (2009/2): 79-87.
"Anthony Neilson: The Wonderful World of Dissocia ve Kimlik Bunalımı."
Akşit Göktürk'ü Anma Toplantısı: Yazında ve Çeviride Kimlik. İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul. 12-13 Mart 2009. (Basıma... more Akşit Göktürk'ü Anma Toplantısı: Yazında ve Çeviride Kimlik. İstanbul Üniversitesi, İstanbul. 12-13 Mart 2009. (Basıma hazır bildiri metni)
CFP: The Audience Through Time
A conference fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue around spectatorship, keynote Tracy C. Davis, http://theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com
Call For Papers: The Audience Through Time Conference
Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis, Barber... more
Call For Papers: The Audience Through Time Conference
Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis, Barber Professor of Performing Arts, Northwestern University
Saturday December 3rd 2011
9am - 6.30pm (followed by drinks reception)
Arts Building, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End, E1 4NS
CFP Deadline: September 16th 2011
How have audiences changed through time? Can contemporary theatre spectatorship inform how we understand audiences throughout history? How does historiographic research on audiences relate to present cultures of spectatorship? Using theatre as the core, but not only, focus of discussion, this conference will consider spectatorship across history.
Aims:
- To institute an interdisciplinary dialogue around audiences and spectatorship, particularly in relation to theatre.
- To bring together those who specialise in historiographical audience research with scholars of the contemporary.
- To look at the cultural construction of the audience across history from a variety of viewpoints, including the literary text.
Keynote Speaker: Professor Tracy C. Davis
Tracy C. Davis is a specialist in performance theory, theatre historiography, and research methodology. She edits the book series Cambridge Studies in Theatre and Performance Theory.
Chairperson: Dr Bridget Escolme
Bridget Escolme researches and teaches historical theatre and its contemporary production, particularly early modern drama and the ways in which original and current staging practices produce space and subjectivity.
Examples Papers:
- The female spectator in the eighteenth-century theatrical space
- A "Classic repeat" Audience?: Ibsen's Ghosts or Those Who Return and contemporary cultures of spectatorship
If you have a paper which you'd like to be considered please read the following, put the required information into a word document, attach and send to theaudiencethroughtime@hotmail.co.uk by September 16th
* Please submit your abstracts (500 words maximum) with a 50 word summary of the abstract.
* Papers should be 20 minutes long, and will be followed by 10 minutes of questions.
* Powerpoint and other AV resources are available; please state clearly the technical requirements of your paper.
* Please include a biography (up to 50 words, including your contact website/email if you wish), your full name, title, area of research and institution of study.
* If you have any further questions, please do also contact us on the above email.
* Please also see our website, theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com. If you would like your details to be included on our website (such as personal blog, academia.edu profile etc) please send us any relevant information.
On-line registration for the conference will open in August, please check our website for more details.
All the best,
Anna Kretschmer and Christine Twite
English and Drama Department, Queen Mary, University of London
theaudiencethroughtime@hotmail.co.uk
http://theaudiencethroughtime.wordpress.com
‘Playing with(in) the Contemporary Theatre Audience: The recent work of Actors Touring Company’
Paper given at Queen Mary, University of London Drama Department Colloquium Thursday 9 June 2011
'Based on a True Story?: Ivan and the Dogs and Reality on the Contemporary Stage'
Paper given at UCL Lies and Deception Conference, Friday 4 March 2011
«L’actualité politique dans les représentations contemporaines de la tragédie grecque», Théâtres Politiques, Collection MSHE Ledoux, Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté, 2011, 305-315.
On the premise that the ancient Greek tragedy continues to attract the interest of contemporary theatrical production,... more
On the premise that the ancient Greek tragedy continues to attract the interest of contemporary theatrical production, one can easily notice that the majority of modern stage proposals concentrate on the tragedy’s political dimension and introduce up-to-day elements in the ancient texts.
In any case, the representation of political actuality through the tragic myths, could lead to a certain impasse: Would such an attempt be applicable, or even effective, in the times when television systematically resorts to the dramatization of political, economical and social events?
Among the numerous stage artists and directors that take the challenge to approach today’s issues through the Greek tragedy, outstanding artistic personalities, such as Wole Soyinka, Rodrigo Garcia and Peter Sellars can be distinguished.
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Theatre in London: The Breath of Life by David Hare, One Helluva Life by William Luce (2002)
by Laurence Raw
Originally published (in English and Turkish) in ONAYAN INSAN no. 5 (November-December 2002): 40-41
A review of two West End plays, the one starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, the other starring Tom Conti. Published... more A review of two West End plays, the one starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, the other starring Tom Conti. Published for Tamer Levent's short-lived magazine on the Turkish theatre.
Sir Donald Wolfit's Production of A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1991)
by Laurence Raw
Originally published in THEATRE NOTEBOOK Vol. 45 no.2 (1991): 30-38
An analysis of the British actor/manager Donald Wolfit's revival of Philip Massinger's seventeenth century play, one... more An analysis of the British actor/manager Donald Wolfit's revival of Philip Massinger's seventeenth century play, one of the most famous pieces performed by the great actors of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The play was Edmund Kean's favourite piece, where he used to send audiences into hysterics with his performance of the central character Sir Giles Overreach having a fit. Wolfit revived the play in 1950 in an effort to produce a similar effect on post-war audiences. While the initial reaction was somewhat lukewarm, the radio revival of the play - also starring Wolfit - in 1960 helped make Sir Giles one of the great actor/manager's most memorable roles
Utopie et pathologie : le théâtre contemporain à la conquête l’« espace mental » - F. Volchitza Cabrini, Sarah Kane, Martin Crimp, Gildas Milin
Published on Agôn, revue des arts de la scène (ENS Lyon)
Dossier n°3: Utopies de la scène, scènes de l'utopie
"Représenter l'utopie sur les scènes"
20 January 2011 on Agon.ens-lyon.fr
Language: French
La question de l’utopie est appréhendée de façon critique dans les textes dramatiques que nous abordons ici. Tout en... more La question de l’utopie est appréhendée de façon critique dans les textes dramatiques que nous abordons ici. Tout en s’inscrivant dans des perspectives différentes, les pièces contemporaines des Britanniques Martin Crimp (Atteintes à sa vie, Face au Mur) et Sarah Kane (Purifiés, Manque, 4.48 Psychose), celles du Français Gildas Milin (Anthropozoo, L’Homme de Février) et de l’Italienne Francesca Volchitza Cabrini (Si tu me regardes, j’existe) renouvellent l’angle d’approche de l’utopie sur la scène européenne en interrogeant les ressorts des pathologies qui peuvent découler des utopies collectives ou individuelles que notre époque voit apparaître. Ecrites entre 1997 et 2008, ces pièces nous offrent, par-delà leurs divergences, des tableaux ou des discours utopiques qui donnent lieu à des situations pathologiques, ou bien inversement réfléchissent des situations pathologiques favorisant des projections utopiques. Sans constituer pour autant des dystopies, elles pointent du doigt notamment les pathologies mentales qui se développent chez le sujet contemporain, soit en les dénonçant derrière l’affirmation satirique d’apparences sociales heureuses et prospères (l’harmonie de façade dans les comédies de menace de Crimp), soit en exposant la tragédie d’idéaux fantasmés et hors d’atteinte dans un cadre explicitement pathologique (la psychose chez Kane, l’anorexie chez Cabrini), soit encore en proposant d’investiguer « la part d’incertitude, de chaos, d’aléatoire que la science accepte aujourd’hui pour décrire au mieux la créativité de la nature » à travers des visions futuristes techno-scientifiques du monde qui se révèlent profondément ambivalentes (Milin). Il s’agit avant tout de travailler une écriture réflexive qui « soulève des questions essentielles sur le monde dans lequel nous vivons » (Martin Crimp) dans des registres allant du satirique au tragique en passant par une vraie poésie du langage. Au final, le rapport ironique de ces pièces à l’utopie reflète essentiellement l’angoisse sous-jacente, caractéristique de notre époque, qui est aussi bien la source que le produit des projections mentales et des fantasmes pathologiques qui constituent le motif central de ces textes pour la scène.
Theatre and Psychoanalysis, or Jung on Crimp's Stage: 100 Words
Published in Sillages Critiques (Centre de recherches « Texte et critique du texte », Université Paris-Sorbonne, École doctorale IV, Voix anglophones : littérature et esthétique (VALE) - EA 4085)
Dossier n°10: L'Artifice
15 June 2010 on Revues.org
Language: English
This article explores Martin Crimp’s use of Jung’s word association test in his masterpiece Attempts on Her Life... more
This article explores Martin Crimp’s use of Jung’s word association test in his masterpiece Attempts on Her Life (1997). In scenario 11, the playwright reproduces the list of one hundred stimulus words devised in 1909 by the psychoanalyst to test a patient’s mental health. Our point is that this “collage” of disarticulated words inserted by Crimp into the dialogue of three anonymous art critics ironically emphasizes the absence of the main character, the suicidal artist, and her refusal to undergo “treatment.” Anne’s posthumous silence both ignores the psychoanalyst’s trigger words and mocks the critics’ conflicting opinions. By foiling these “attempts on her life”, her aphasia reflects the vain pretensions of language and points both at the failure of the scientific purpose of psychoanalysis and at the “pointlessness” of the intellectual debate. Crimp’s collage itself is a criticism of the temptation to make uncompromising statements about one’s life and motives. While the critics’ debate ends in disagreement, the scientific voice faces its own loneliness and becomes a pure dramatic event. A similar resort to psychoanalysis and psychiatry can be found in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (2002): in these “theatres of the mental space,” both authors turn either the clinical voice of the doctor or the neurotic voice of the patient into a self-referential source of vocal stage poetry displaying the bare materiality of words and the disappearance of the subject.
Cet article sur la pièce majeure de Martin Crimp, Atteintes à sa vie (1997), propose une étude du scénario 11 en regard du test d’association de mots créé par Carl G. Jung en 1909. Récupérée et insérée au cours du dialogue qui prend place entre trois critiques d’art anonymes, la liste de cent mots « inducteurs » mise au point par le psychanalyste pour évaluer la santé mentale de ses patients fait ici l’objet d’un « collage » textuel qui souligne ironiquement l’absence du personnage principal, l’artiste suicidaire, et son refus de se soumettre à tout « traitement » psychanalytique. Le silence posthume d’Anne à la fois contrarie les appels lexicaux du médecin et moque l’affrontement verbeux des critiques. En contrecarrant ces « atteintes à sa vie » par la parole, l’aphasie de l’artiste morte reflète en creux les vaines prétentions du langage et pointe du doigt l’échec des ambitions scientifiques de la psychanalyse autant que la vanité du débat intellectuel. Ce collage permet à Crimp de critiquer la tentation d’émettre des jugements catégoriques sur la vie et les motifs de « l’Autre ». Tandis que le débat des critiques s’achève sur le même désaccord initial, la voix clinique est renvoyée à sa propre solitude et devient un pur événement dramatique. On trouve le même ressort à la psychanalyse et à la psychiatrie dans 4.48 Psychose de Sarah Kane : dans ces « théâtres de l’espace mental », les deux auteurs transforment la voix – que ce soit celle du médecin ou celle du patient – en un langage auto-référentiel, source d’une poésie de la scène qui met à nue la matière sonore des mots et fait écho à la dissolution existentielle du sujet.