Avant garde theatre, 1892-1992

275 Pages·1993·3.871 MB·English

by  Innes, Christopher

AVANT GARDE THEATRE
Examining the development of avant garde theatre from its inception in the 1890s
right up to the present day, Christopher Innes exposes a central paradox of modern
theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. What
links the works of Strindberg, Artaud, Brook and Mnouchkine is an idealisation
of the elemental and a desire to find ritual in archaic traditions. This widespread
primitivism is the key to understanding both the political and aesthetic aspects of
modern theatre and provides fresh insights into contemporary social trends.
The original text, first published in 1981 as Holy Theatre, has been fully revised
and up-dated to take account of the most recent theoretical developments in
anthropology, critical theory and psychotherapy. New sections on Heiner Müller,
Robert Wilson, Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine and Sam Shepard have been
added. As a result, the book now deals with all the major avant garde theatre
practitioners, in Europe and North America. Essential reading for anyone
attempting to understand contemporary drama.
Christopher Innes is Professor of English at York University, Ontario.
AVANT GARDE
THEATRE
1892–1992
Christopher Innes
London and New York
First published 1993
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1993 Christopher Innes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Innes, C. D.
Avant garde theatre/Christopher Innes.
p. cm.
Rev. and updated ed. of: Holy theatre. 1981.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Drama—20th century—History and criticism.
2. Experimental theater.
I. Innes, C. D. Holy theatre. II. Title.
PN1861.15 1993 92–16204
809.2′04–dc20
ISBN 0-203-35937-2 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-37193-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-06517-8 ISBN 0-415-06518-6 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
1 INTRODUCTION 1
Themes and definitions
2 THE POLITICS OF PRIMITIVISM 5
Bakunin—Bakhtin 5
The cult of the primitive 8
Bali and cultural colonialism 11
3 DREAMS, ARCHETYPES AND THE IRRATIONAL 19
Symbolism and Alfred Jarry 19
August Strindberg 28
4 THERAPY AND SUBLIMINAL THEATRE 35
German expressionism 35
Expressionist staging 41
Eurythmics and psychodrama 45
Expressionist influences and Artaudian precursors 49
5 ANTONIN ARTAUD AND THE THEATRE OF 57
CRUELTY
Theory and practice 57
Form and theme 67
The influence of film 75
‘An aborted theatre’ 85
v
6 RITUAL AND ACTS OF COMMUNION 93
Jean-Louis Barrault 93
Total theatre 98
7 BLACK MASSES AND CEREMONIES OF NEGATION 107
Jean Genet 107
Fernando Arrabal—Lindsay Kemp 116
8 MYTH AND THEATRE LABORATORIES 125
Peter Brook 125
Towards a theatre of myth 136
9 SECULAR RELIGIONS AND PHYSICAL SPIRITUALITY 149
Jerzy Grotowski 149
Paratheatrical therapy 162
10 ANTHROPOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL THEATRE 167
AND SEXUAL REVOLUTION
Eugenio Barba—Richard Schechner—Joe Chaikin 167
The Living Theatre 180
11 INTERCULTURALISM AND EXPROPRIATING THE 193
CLASSICS
Shakespearean adaptations 193
Heiner Müller and Robert Wilson 198
Ariane Mnouchkine 208
12 FROM THE MARGINS TO MAINSTREAM 215
Popularization and public acceptance 215
Eugene O’Neill—Eugène Ionesco—Sam Shepard 216
Spreading the avant garde 223
Commercial adaptation and cultural festivals 227
Notes 235
Select bibliography 253
Index 259
ILLUSTRATIONS
la, b Trance dancers Trance and Dance in Bali (1937) Margaret Mead and 12
Gregory Bateson
2 Père Ubu (woodcut) Alfred Jarry 23
3 Subliminal imagery August Strindberg, To Damascus (Sievert, 31
1922) Adolf u. Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung
4 Apotheosis Ernst Toller, Transfiguration (Martin, 1919) Akademie 38
d. Künste—Berlin E.
5 Psychological intensity Ernst Toller, Masses and Man (Fehling, 39
1921) Akademie d. Künste—Berlin W.
6 The expressionist actor Fritz Kortner in Richard III (Jessner, 1920) 43
Coll. Niessen, Theatermuseum d. Universität Köln
7 Eurythmics Rudolf von Laban, Titan (1926) Rudolf Hatzold 46
8 Archetypes of violence Oskar Kokoschka, Murderer the Women’s 55
Hope (1909) Der Sturm, 1910
9 Symbolic setting Antonin Artaud, The Cenci (Artaud, 1935) 73
Lipnitzki-Viollet
10 Metaphysical incandescence Antonin Artaud, The Cenci (Artaud, 79
1935) Lipnitzki-Viollet
11 Archetypal poses Antonin Artaud, The Cenci (Artaud, 1935) 81
Lipnitzki-Viollet
12 Total theatre Jean-Louis Barrault, Rabelais (Barrault, 1968) Agence 101
Bernand
13 The litany’ Jean Genet, The Blacks (Blin, 1959) Agence Bernand 109
14 Ceremonial costumes Fernando Arrabal, The Solemn Communion 118
(1966) Fernando Arrabal
15 ‘Liebestod’ Jean Genet, Flowers (Kemp, 1977) Lindsay Kemp 122
16 Brook’s‘Theatre of Cruelty’ Antonin Artaud, The Spurt of Blood 128
(Brook, 1964) Zoë Dominic
17 Symbolic physiology Ted Hughes, Orghast (Brook, 1971) Ted 139
Hughes
18 Religious imagery The Theatre Laboratory, Apocalypsis cum Figuris 157
(Grotowski, 1968) Poster design
19 ‘Minuet-Cry I’ Pedro Caldéron, The Constant Prince (Grotowski, 161
1966) Agence Bernand
20 The birth ritual’ The Performance Group, Dionysus in 69 174
(Schechner, 1969) Max Waldman
vii
21 Assaulting the audience Bertolt Brecht, Antigone (Beck, 1967) 186
Agence Bernand
22 Plot outline The Living Theatre, Paradise Now (Beck, 1968) 187
Programme
23a, b Surreal images Robert Wilson/Heiner Müller, the CIVIL warS 207
(ART, 1985) Richard Feldman
24 Dream sequence Peter Shaffer, Equus (Dexter, 1973) Zoë Dominic 229
25 Mythological pageantry Murray Shafer, The Princess of the Stars 232
(Banff, 1985) Ed Ellis
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should like to thank the following individuals and institutions for providing
illustrative material and for permission to reproduce the various sketches and
photographs: Akademie der Künste (West Berlin), Chris J. Arthurs, Agence de
Presse Photographique Bernand, Zoë Dominic, Ed Ellis and The Banff Centre for
the Arts, Adolf u. Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung, Stadt u. Universitäts Bibliothek Frankfurt
am Main, Ted Hughes, Lindsay Kemp, Lipnitzki Viollet, Theatermuseum des
Institutes für Theaterwissenschaft der Universität Köln, Museum of the Performing
Arts, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Theatre Museum Collection
Victoria and Albert Museum, Max Waldman, and Richard Feldman.
I wish to express my deep appreciation to those who helped me to define the
avant garde line of development by responding to my questions and providing
information so generously: in particular Roger Blin, Joe Chaikin, Lindsay Kemp,
Charles Marowitz and Richard Schechner; members of Jean-Louis Barrault’s
company at the Gare d’Orsay and of the Théâtre du Soleil, as well as staff at the
National Theatre and Arthur Holmberg of ART. In addition I would like to thank
Edward Bond for persuading me that, despite similarities in a play like Early
Morning, his work had no place in this study, and Ann Saddlemyer for her helpful
criticism of the first version of this study.
My thanks are also due to York University for the research fellowship that
allowed me to complete the 1981 edition—originally published by Cambridge
University Press under the title of Holy Theatre. This completely revised and
updated version has been supported both by a grant from the Faculty of Arts at
York University, and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada, to whom I am most grateful. I would also like to acknowledge the help
of Marion Jaeckel and Alyson McMackon, who provided bibliographical assistance.
Last, but by no means least, my wife’s unflagging interest and encouragement
has been invaluable, both then and now.
1
INTRODUCTION
THEMES AND DEFINITIONS
‘Avant garde’ has become a ubiquitous label, eclectically applied to any type of art
that is anti-traditional in form. At its simplest, the term is sometimes taken to
describe what is new at any given time: the leading edge of artistic experiment,
which is continually outdated by the next step forward. But‘avant garde’ is by no
means value-neutral, as such usage implies. For Marxist critics like George Lukács
it became synonymous with decadence, a cultural symptom of the malaise
engendered by bourgeois society; for apologists it is the defining imperative in all
art of our time, and‘the modern genius is essentially avant-gardistic’.1
Borrowed from military terminology by Bakunin, who titled the short-lived
anarchist journal he published in Switzerland in 1878 L’Avant-Garde, the label was
first applied to art by his followers. Their aim in revolutionizing aesthetics was to
prefigure social revolution; and avant garde art is still characterized by a radical
political posture. Envisioning a revolutionary future, it has been equally hostile to
artistic tradition, sometimes including its immediate predecessors, as to
contemporary civilization. Indeed, on the surface the avant garde as a whole seems
united primarily in terms of what they are against: the rejection of social institutions
and established artistic conventions, or antagonism towards the public (as
representative of the existing order). By contrast any positive programme tends to
be claimed as exclusive property by isolated and even mutually antagonistic sub-
groups. So modern art appears fragmented and sectarian, defined as much by
manifestos as imaginative work, and representing the amorphous complexity of
post-industrial society in a multiplicity of dynamic but unstable movements focused
on philosophic abstractions. Hence the use of‘-isms’ to describe them: symbolism,
futurism, expressionism, formalism, surrealism.
However, beneath this diversity there is a clearly identifiable unity of purpose
and interest (at least in the theatre) which has all the characteristics of a coherent
trend, since its principles can be shown to be shared quite independent of direct
influence. For example, there are striking similarities between the work of Antonin