Current Issues in Drama, Theatre and Performance

Live theatre vs digital streaming

Initial idea

Influenced by a brief discussion we have in our week two workshop, we began with the concept of live performance vs. the camera’s eye. The National Theatre’s live streaming of performances raised questions concerning the validity of its portrayal and spectator’s interpretation. In a digitally dominated society, National theatre Live launched in June 2009 broadcasting performances in cinema screens as means to reach larger audience. Although there are cameras placed in various positions to capture footage from every angle of the stage, live streaming performances becomes problematic when camera angles continuously move and in corporate close up shots, thus controlling the cinema audience view of the performance. It does not give the audience the freedom to choose what they would like to focus on and thus they do not the freedom for individual interpretation.  Ultimately, the opinions of cinematic live streamed audiences are predetermined by produces through the control they have over the camera’s eyes.

Our initial idea focused on this problematic portrayal of live performance through digital streaming. We were originally going to perform a play while at the same time it was live streamed on screen beside us. Thus, presenting our audience with the problematic element of cinema live streaming. They would be able to see both the live and instantly compare it with the controlled digital stream.

Change in idea

While the whole group was passionate about depicting the difference in live performance and live streaming, we changed our idea instead to portray how media can condition an audience to have preconceived idea of performance. For example, we used Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as our performance. We created a trailer that influenced the audience’s interpretation of the characters before watching the performance live.

Our aim here was to demonstrate how the uses of media and digital growth can and has influenced live performance in more ways than just through controlled camera angles in live streaming. Trailers are a dramatised taster to what the performance entails.  Through the trailer we have set up the perception we want the audience to have of the characters. This idea was influenced by two key points, these are:

1. Many theatrical productions now use trailers to attract audiences. For example the clip below is a trailer of a Hamlet production at the national theatre. It sets up the audience with the most dramatic parts of the plot and shapes their perception of the characters.
2. The media has a huge control over our perception the world today. For example, Islam is associated with the some the most horrific acts. While yes, terrorist groups use the name of Islam to justify their crimes, it seems that the media chooses to focus on the inaccurate portrayal of the faith and ignores the majority of Mulism’s around the globe who live peacefully. This media portrayal sets up members of society with preconceived ideas of Islam.

This last point leads me into the play itself. The Merchant of Venice portrayed the relationship between Jews and Christian, we chose to adapt this to represnt our contemporary, the relationship between Muslims and Christians. There were a number of factors that lead us to our adoption, these are as follows:

1. The Merchant of Venice is poplar play and we were certain that our audience would easily understand the premise of the plot without the need for us to perform the entire play.
2. The relationship between Jews and Christian; and the representation of Jewish people is almost exactly the same if not identical to contemporary societies relationship between Muslims and Christian, and the representation of islam. Thus, showing the validity of Shakespeare’s play to contemporary audiences. It is not simply a great play within theatre history, its message still hold validity today.
3. Using famous characters like shylock, the audience would be able to reflect upon this eternal cycle of religious conflict that seems to dominate our world. in the 16th century. It represents ghosting beyond the theatre or stage, instead a deeper dimension to the concept of ghosting that we already have and shows its presents in our own lives; our own society; our own reality.

‘we live in pornographic times’ (Stephens, 2008).

Today’s workshop explored contemporary plays in their context, focusing on Simon Stephen’s Pornography. Justifying the title of his play, Stephens states that we live in pornographic times. Written three years after the 7/7 London bombings, this texts is a reaction to the anxieties the suddenly killed London’s excitement for the 2012 Olympics. Consisting of seven monologues that can be performed in any order. In numbering each monologue, rather than naming, Stephen’s presents the illusion of countdown to the explosion, thus although the monologues are not dependent upon each other in creating the plot, it would more effective to perform them in order maintaining this chronological countdown.

Arguably the most powerful scene of this play is scene 4 It follows the events of a bomber before he attacks. At first he seems like an average person with a wife and kids. There are no indications of his intentions or the reasons that inspired his attacks; no fundamental religious beliefs are shown, just an average man starting his day. However, in contrast with scene one, this portrayal of the bomber raises questions concerning intention or thought vs. action. The woman in scene one thinks about death, however does never acts upon those thoughts making her innocent. In contrast, the bomber in scene four is presented as an average male going about his day, he thinks about death and acts upon those thoughts, thus making him a criminal. Stephens presents that idea that want separates good from bad; terrorist from victims, is the action. Not thinking about the crime or the intention behind the crime, but committing the crime itself which is irreversible.

Upon first reading this play it become clear that Stephens intentions were not to re-create the atmosphere of London leading up to the bombing, nor was it to show the impact the 7/7 had on Britain as a nation or to portray the existing social barriers between Muslims and non-Muslims. Rather, this play compares westerns to fundamentalists. In addition, the title of this play hold a huge weight behind it meaning. Pornography is a stigmatised term; a taboo that has, over time and with the growth of the world wide web, become somewhat acceptable. Its presents is widely known and pornographic images surround our everyday media, however it still something people keep secret when indulging in it, much the thoughts of death the characters of this play have.

Today’s workshop was focused on scenography; the visuals of theatre and the impact it has on a performance.

In world driven by developing visual mediums, such as HD cameras and screens that have the ability to capture the most subtle details and drones that can capture footage from new angles previously inaccessible. These developing medias create realistic portrays; portrayals that are almost better than seeing scenic views with the naked eye. Thus, theatre makers/ stage designers are faced with the challenge to create spaces on stage that are as equally pleasing to the spectators eye as is found through digital media.

in support of today’s discussion was read extracts from Arnold Arsonson’s Looking into the abyss: Essays on scenography (2005) in which he highlights that as human beings we are spatial creatures. He uses the example of baby being born, they shift form womb, an closed space, into an openness and thus instinctively respond to that new open space. When an audience is presented with a stage or a performance space, this becomes their focal point. It is a space open for interruption; which is heavily influenced by the spectator’s relationship and the play itself. For example, in 2012 I saw a production in London of the woman in black, throughout the show there would be occasional moments when the stage would be in complete darkness signalling that something terrifying was going to happen. At no point during that darkness was seeing an empty space, the darkness represented a presence.

It may be argued that within theatre scenography and semiotics are inextricably intertwined. They depend upon each other for their meaning. Arsonson views this interpretation of space as a ‘physiological phenomena’ (5) because it is a culturally constructed sign system. Different cultures assign different meaning to the same sign. Therefore in a live performance a spectators understanding of the semiotics within the play will depend upon that sign system they have been taught.

works cited

Hans-Thies Lehmann, T. H. (2006) Postdramatic Theatre. Translated by Jürs-Munby, J. London: Routledge.

In today’s workshop we explored Interdisciplinary and socio-political engagement. We explored the impact a socio-political performance can have on its spectators and how varies mediums of performance can strengthen this impact. With the progression of technology and new media’s, the globe seems more connected today than ever before. It seems that the political and social policies of individual cultures and nations are discussed and influenced by every corner of the globe. For example, the US Presidential election of 2016 seemed to not only be a troubling subject for the American people, instead people from across the globe had very strong opinions about it. As a result, contemporary performance-making is becoming more socially engaged. Combining interdisciplinary forms of performance, artists are able to create work that has a powerful impact on its spectators.  This post will address the social conflicts presented by contemporary art as well as discuss the nature of socio-political performance.

In preparation for today’s workshop our reading was the introduction to Nicola Shaughnessy’s Applying Performance: Live Art, Socially Engaged Theatre and Affective Practice (2012). Shaughnessy highlights that socio-politcial theatre is not created for the spectators pleasure, but instead is developed with the aim to inspire a social change, as stated in her introduction:

 ‘Practitioners of applied theatre and performance care about and/or care for the communities they are working with; the work is often politically or pedagogically motivated; it has conscious integrity and commitment. The process of applying performance is a bringing together of elements to create change, to make something new’. (xiv)

Helen Nicolson argues that socio-political theatre, ‘relates to work which is oriented towards aspects of social change, personal development and community building through various forms of participating in drama, theatre and other performance practices’ (2005, p.90). Introducing the concept that theatre can be used as a means to spark a political movement and bring social change, our discussion in today’s workshop focused on Exhibition B by South African artist Brett Bailey. The piece portrays various eras of racist history in the form of a human zoo. Spectators walk through the installation observing these moments as if they were at a zoo. Before further exploring Exhibition B, it is important to understand where Bailey was coming from in creating this piece; his intentions and motivations. Thus, the video below will assist in our understanding.

As stated by Bailey this piece was created as means to highlight the reality of racism today. Exhibition B was cancelled on its opening night in London in September of 2014. Protestors, the majority of which were London’s black community, argued that the piece promoted white supremacy rather than worked towards the demise of racism. While the content of  Exhibition B is controversial in itself, it is obvious that the protesters were not outraged by the depictions, but by the fact that Brett Bailey is a white South African, thus his ancestors would have played apart in colonising Africa. Furthermore, racism and segregation is still a prominent issues across Africa,  thus as a white man, black Londoners felt it was insulting for Bailey to depict black experiences. Acknowledging the premise of the protest, it is important to acknowledge that the actors within this exhibition are black artists from London who clearly supported the piece.

As expressed by the protestors, the key issues that surround this performance are:

• This piece addressed racism and was created by a white male.
• It portrays the most grotesque elements of racism and leaves nothing to the imagination.
• As a white South African whose ancestors were likely apart of the slave trade and endorsed white supremacy, Baily has no ‘right’ to educate people on black history.

Developing on from the identified key issues, the question the dominated our workshop discussion was, should art be censored? Personally, I see Bailey piece as an important educational performance. I have two key points to address here, both of which are in the defence of Baileys performance.

• Firstly, protestors argue that slavery and racism are not the only aspect of black history. While this is true, protestor fail to acknowledge the on going negative impact that slavery and imperialism has had on Africa and communities of African decent across the globe. Bailey’s piece does not portray the achievements of white supremacy. The piece does not show white men and women planting flags in the flesh of black men and women; it simply tells the darkest stories of black history and highlight how discrimination has not been buried, but is well and alive and has simply taken on a different form. Further more, Baily’s Exhibition B tells the stories of slavery that are not priorities in school systems or that are apart of our general knowledge, perhaps because they are so brutal. From personal experience, having being taught in both here in England and Zimbabwe, throughout primary and secondary school, the topics that bailey presents in this exhibition were not apart of the curriculum. The inhuman acts of slavery were simply glanced over, while topics like the rise and fall of the British Empire were covered in depth and somewhat glorified.

• Secondly, protestors fail to understand that by censoring subject in accordance to a persons background and race endorses segregation and discrimination. Creating and allowing a platform for open discussion without the fear of scrutiny, will lead to the end of discrimination; it demolished the barriers between us and them, thus creating unity. Allowing this interaction between cultures will lead to the end of tragic beliefs such as Islamaphobia and the brutality towards black people. The freedom to explore issue is the only way to solve it.

Work cited

Image from workshop powerpoint

‘The present experience is always ghosted by previous experiences and associations processes of recycling and recollection.’

-(Carlson, 2001)

In The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory machine, Marvin Carlson describes plays as ‘ghosts’ (2001, 1). Initially, I found the concept of ghosting quite complex and almost impossible to grasp. How could a play or any theatrical production be a ‘ghost’, because the most common understanding of ghost is a form of living energy that continues to live on our physical plane without a physical home, a body. However, the reading on Carlson explained this idea in terms of the theatrical world.

To put it simply, plays are worlds that are given life through performance. Each world, be it entirely fictional or a reflection of its time, exists in a time and space that can be visited; it becomes an expectation that each time we visit these worlds, the feeling evoked and the representation of the world should be consistent in every production because that is how we have perceived that world to feel and look like. Similarly, this idea of ghosting can be understood through type casting. For example, if an actor plays multiple roles as a villain, it becomes challenging for the audience to watch the same actor playing a hero. Their image and how they have been perceived in the theatrical world is as a villain. Carlson writes:

Everything in the theatre, the bodies, the materials utilized, the language, the space itself, is now and has always been haunted, and that haunting has been an essential part of the theatre’s meaning to and reception by its audience in all times and all places. (15)

Carlson’s argument here is that everything within the theatre realm is haunted; it has a past that influences our understanding of it now. The first production we see of any performance will have an influence on our experience of and reactions to any future productions we see.

‘The image of the dead continuing to work their powers on the living, of the past reappearing unexpectedly and uncannily in the midst of the present, are concerns that clearly struck deeply into the poetic imagination of the most influential dramatist of the modern European theatre.’ (1)

Theatre history and in particular the concept of ghosting, is a pivotal factor in our understanding of the current issues in theatre today; as noted in our workshop today ‘all performances are a historical event’. To better understand this topic our workshop began with a forty-minute pre-recording of a live performance of ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ that was performed at the Sam Wanamaker theatre. In anaylising how this play is ghosted, we used Thomas Postlewait’s model on the mechanics of theatrical historiography.

Focusing on the idea that theatre is a product of its society, Postlewait sought to explain how society has influenced what we see on stage. He highlighted the context that he believes has framed or surrounds an event/ scenario of a play or performance: (demonstrated in the diagram below), these include: world, reception, agents and artistic heritage. He stated that:

‘These four basic aspects of the context for a theatrical event my help us break out of the two-part division of event and context. Even though we are still thinking in dualistic terms by relating each of the four factors to the event, we have created more clarity by breaking the general idea of context into its several component parts. Within each of these four basic conditions, a plurality of factors can be identified. Various aspects of the world may contribute to the identifying traits and meanings of a specific theatrical event. Various agents participate in the making of the event. Many traits of the artistic heritage are in play. And the reception engages many people and conditions. Thus, each of these four factors – world, agents, receptions, and artistic heritage – need to be understood as part of the event as well as part of the context. (Postlewait 2009, p.14-15)

Postlewait’s model suggests that by studying an event and its relationship to its ‘surrounding conditions’ (Postlewait, 2009, 12), we are able to grasp a better understanding of its meaning and depth. Thus, theatre is shaped by its society (world). For example, Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ is a play that reflects the woman’s movement in the 1980s, when Margret Thatcher was Britain’s prime minister. Focusing strictly on the relationship between world and event, this play gives us an insight to the achievement and the social flaws of that 1980s. On one hand women were gaining the professional success that they had fought for and were finally able to be executives in large corporations. However on the other hand this opportunity was not available to all women, only to those who were willing to embody masculine characteristics, in other words willing to oppress other women in order achieve their own success. This conflict within the women’s movement itself caused a social unrest within the 1980s society, especially for women, as it introduced an entirely different social issue, individualism; successful women were no longer fighting for the freedom of women, they were fighting for their own success.

The relationship between agency and event is Postlewait’s second context. This is the inspiration that sparked a theatrical event – what the writer wished to convey through the play. In the case of ‘Top Girls’ the agency was perhaps the fear that conflict within a community of people who are already socially oppressed may cause an even bigger social issue that leads to the loss of everything the movement has so far achieved.

The third context is reception. Our world is made up of interpreted signs that we use to communicate with our surroundings; this concept is the same in theatre. Audience reception is perhaps the most important part of theatre. How an audience interprets the signs and signals of a performance will impact their reaction.  This context is closely related to agency as it depends on the writer’s intentions for  a play, for example if the writer’s intention is to cause laughter, they many use slapstick as that is a sign or theatrical signal for laughter.

The final context is artistic heritage. This includes the architecture of a theatre space and the equipment that would have been available to theatres in the time the play/event is set. For example, in the production of ‘The Duchess of Mafi‘, the theatre was built and set as it would have been in the 1620s and candle light was used rather than the flood lights we use in theatres today.

Works cited

Carlson, Marvin. (2001) The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press.

Postlewait, Thomas. (2009) The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Historiography.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.