Jean Genet: Performance and Politics PDF
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Jean Genet Performance and Politics Edited by Clare Finburgh, Carl Lavery and Maria Shevtsova Jean Genet: Performance and Politics This page intentionally left blank Jean Genet: Performance and Politics Edited by Clare Finburgh Carl Lavery and Maria Shevtsova Editorial matter,selection,introduction © C.Finburgh,C.Lavery, M.Shevtsova 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-9480-6 All remaining chapters © respective authors 2006 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54447-9 ISBN 978-0-230-59543-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230595439 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jean Genet :performance and politics / edited by Clare Finburgh, CarlLavery & Maria Shevtsova. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Genet,Jean,1910–1986 – Dramatic works.2.Genet,Jean, 1910–1986 – Political and social views.I.Finburgh,Clare.II.Lavery,Carl, 1969– III.Shevtsova,Maria,1945– PQ2613.E53Z742 2006 842(cid:2).912—dc22 2006045332 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 Contents List of Illustrations vii Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 Clare Finburgh, Carl Lavery and Maria Shevtsova Part I Setting the Stage 1 Jean Genet in His ‘Humour’ 23 Michel Corvin 2 From Theatricality to Performance Theory: The Screens 34 David Bradby 3 The Theatre of Genet in Sociological Perspective 44 Maria Shevtsova Part II Politics and Performance 4 Genet’s The Screensas Media Allegory 57 David Fieni 5 Reading The Blacksthrough the 1956 Preface: Politics and Betrayal 68 Carl Lavery 6 ‘Micro-treatise on a Mini-politics’: Genet, Individualism and Collectivity 79 Clare Finburgh Part III Genet and Experimental Performance 7 Theatre in a Graveyard: Site-based Performance and the Revolution of Everyday Life 95 Carl Lavery 8 Dancing the Impossible: Kazuo Ohno, Lindsay Kemp and Our Lady of the Flowers 106 Martin Hargreaves v vi Contents 9 Jean, Ron, Franko and Me: Genet, Body Art and Abjection 117 Carl Lavery and Paul Woodward Part IV Key Productions 10 The Blacks and Its Impact on African American Theatre in the United States 131 John Warrick 11 Las criadas, Genet and Spain 143 Maria M. Delgado Part V Genet: Cinema and Dance 12 Corporeographies: The Dancing Body in ’adame Miroir andUn chant d’amour 159 Elizabeth Stephens 13 Genet and Cinema: Adaptations and Influence 169 Jane Giles Part VI Performing Genet 14 An Interview with Joseph Strick 181 15 An Interview with Bill Rauch and Lynn Jeffries of Cornerstone Theater Company 187 16 An Interview with Jean-Baptiste Sastre 193 17 An Interview with Terry Hands 199 18 An Interview with Colin Chambers 208 19 An Interview with Richard Schechner 213 20 More Holes Than Blanket: Rehearsal Process as Political Process in Genet’s Theatre 223 Ralph Yarrow Index 235 List of Illustrations 1 James Earl Jones with others in The Blacksat St Mark’s Playhouse, New York, 1961. Gene Frankel (dir.). Copyright © Martha Swope. 142 2 Nuria Espert and Julieta Serrano as Claire and Solange in Las criadasat the Poliorama Theatre, Barcelona, 1969. Víctor García (dir.). Copyright © Monste Faixat. 154 3 Nuria Espert and Julieta Serrano as Claire and Solange in Las criadasat the Poliorama Theatre, Barcelona, 1969. Víctor García (dir.). Copyright © Monste Faixat. 155 4 Saïd and Leïla in The Screens/Los biombos commissioned and produced by Cornerstone Theater Company at the East LA Skills Center in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, 1998 (actors unknown). Adapted from Jean Genet by Gloria Alvarez with the collaboration of Pete Galindo, Lynn Jeffries and Peter Sellars. Peter Sellars (dir.). Copyright © Lynn Jeffries. 192 5 Image from The Screens/Los biomboscommissioned and produced by Cornerstone Theater Company at the East LA Skills Center in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, 1998 (actors unknown). Adapted from Jean Genet by Gloria Alvarez with the collaboration of Pete Galindo, Lynn Jeffries and Peter Sellars. Peter Sellars (dir.). Copyright © Lynn Jeffries. 192 6 Actors in rehearsal for The Balcony, Barbican Theatre, London, 1987. Terry Hands (dir.). Copyright © Ivan Kyncl. 206 7 The Court Envoy addresses the Queen and the Three Figures in The Balcony, Barbican Theatre, London, 1987. Terry Hands (dir.). Copyright © Ivan Kyncl. 206 8 Helen Mirren as the Horse and Philip Locke as the General in Tableau Three of The Balcony, Aldwych Theatre, 1971. Terry Hands (dir.). Copyright © Douglas Jeffery. 207 vii viii List of Illustrations 9 View of the performance space in The Balcony at the Performing Garage, The, New York, 1979/80. Richard Schechner (dir.). Copyright © Richard Schechner. 221 10 Ron Vawter dressed as Irma in The Balcony at the Performing Garage, The, New York, 1979/80. Richard Schechner (dir.). Copyright © Richard Schechner. 222 Notes on Contributors David Bradby is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include Modern French Drama 1940–1990, Beckett: Waiting for Godot (Cambridge University Press, 1991 and 2001 respectively), The Theater of Michel Vinaver (University of Michigan Press, 1993), (with Annie Sparks) Mise en Scène: French Theatre Now (Methuen, 1997), and The Paris Jigsaw: Internationalism and the City’s Stages (co-ed. with Maria M. Delgado, Manchester University Press, 2002). He has translated Lecoq’s The Moving Body(Methuen, 2000) and translated and edited plays by Michel Vinaver and Bernard-Marie Koltès. With Maria M. Delgado, he edits the Contemporary Theatre Review. Michel Corvin is Professor honoré of Theatre Studies at Paris III University. He is France’s leading theatre historian and has published widely on many aspects of French theatre. His numerous publications include Le Théâtre nouveau en France (Presses Universitaires de France, 1963), Le Théâtre de recherches entre les deux guerres (L’Âge d’homme, 1974), Dictionnaire encyclopédique du théâtre (ed., Bordas, 1998) and Philippe Minyana ou la parole visible (Editions théâtrales, 2000). He has recently compiled and annotated the Pléiade edition of Genet’s theatrical works, Jean Genet: Théâtre complet(Gallimard, 2002). Maria M. Delgado is Professor in Drama and Theatre Arts at Queen Mary, University of London and author of ‘Other’ Spanish Theatres: Erasure and Inscription on the Twentieth Century Spanish Stage(Manchester University Press, 2003). She is co-editor of In Contact with the Gods?: Directors Talk Theatre (Manchester University Press, 1996), Conducting a Life: Reflections on the Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes(Smith & Kraus, 1999) Theatre in Crisis?: Performance Manifestos for a New Century (Manchester University Press, 2002), and The Paris Jigsaw: Internationalism and the City’s Stages (co-ed. with David Bradby, Manchester University Press, 2002). With David Bradby she edits the Contemporary Theatre Review. David Fieniis currently writing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. His thesis examines the problem of decadence in French and Arabic literature since the late nineteenth century. ix
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