The Theatrical Public Sphere PDF
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THE THEATRICAL PUBLIC SPHERE Theconceptofthepublicsphere,asfirstoutlinedbyGermanphilos opherJürgenHabermas,referstotherightofallcitizenstoengagein debate on public issues on equal terms. In this book, Christopher Balme explores theatre’s rolein this crucial politicaland social func tion.Hetracesitsoriginsandarguesthatthetheatricalpublicsphere invariably focuses attention on theatre as an institution between the shiftingbordersoftheprivateandpublic,reasoneddebateandagon istic intervention. Chapters explore this concept in a variety of con texts,includingthedebatesthatledtotheclosureofEnglishtheatres in 1642; theatre’s use of media; controversies surrounding race, reli gion and blasphemy; and theatre’s place in a new age of globalized aesthetics.Balmeconcludesbyaddressingtherelationshipoftheatre today with the public sphere and whether theatre’s transformation intoanartformhasmadeitincreasinglyirrelevantforcontemporary society. christopher balme holds the Chair in Theatre Studies at the University of Munich. He was born and educated in New Zealand where he graduated from the Universityof Otago.He has livedand worked in Germany since 1985 with positions at the universities of Würzburg,MunichandMainz.From2004to2006,heheldtheChair inTheatreStudiesattheUniversityofAmsterdam.Hehaspublished widelyonGermantheatre,interculturaltheatre,andtheatreandother media, and is currently president ofthe International Federationfor TheatreResearch.HeisalsoaformersenioreditorofTheatreResearch International. Recent publications include Decolonizing the Stage (1999), Pacific Performances (2007) and The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies (2008). He directs the research project ‘Global TheatreHistories’attheUniversityofMunich. Published online by Cambridge University Press Published online by Cambridge University Press THE THEATRICAL PUBLIC SPHERE CHRISTOPHER B. BALME Published online by Cambridge University Press UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107006836 ©ChristopherB.Balme2014 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2014 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Balme,ChristopherB. Thetheatricalpublicsphere/ChristopherB.Balme. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn978-1-107-00683-6 1. Theaterandsociety. I. Title. pn2051.b295 2014 792.01 dc23 2013048913 isbn978-1-107-00683-6Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof urlsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Published online by Cambridge University Press Contents Listoffigures pagevii Preface ix Introduction 1 Whereorwhatisthepublicsphere? 4 Spectators,audiencesandthepublicsphere 12 Performanceandthepublicsphere 14 1 Locatingthetheatricalpublicsphere 22 Frompublictoprivate 23 Towardsanagonisticpublicsphere 28 Actingthetruth:parrhêsia 32 Protestandintervention 36 Institutionalmatrices 41 2 Reciprocalarticulations:fromplaybillstoblogs 47 Theplaybillanditspublics 49 Enterthepublic 55 Reciprocalcircuits 63 Themediaofcriticism 68 3 Openingsandclosures:Puritansandthepilloriedstage 74 Pamphlets,sermonsandtracts:publicandclandestine discourse 78 Actorsandarguments 81 WilliamPrynne’spublicmartyrdom 95 Ordinancesofprohibition 99 4 Theprophetonstage:theatre,religionandthetransnational publicsphere 107 Mahometredux 109 Theshowmustgoon:postOrientalisminBerlin 127 v Published online by Cambridge University Press vi Contents 5 Thresholdsoftoleranceandthepublicityofscandal 139 Weimarscandals:sex,raceandthelaw 141 Theaffectivepublicsphereandthepoliticsofblasphemy 155 Shitstormsandblackface 168 6 Distributedtheatricalaestheticsandtheglobalpublicsphere 174 Ludicoveridentification:ChristophSchlingensief’sPleaseLoveAustria! 178 CallCutta:theintimatesphere 185 Otherartistsarepresent 189 Dancingmulticulturalism:DV8PhysicalTheatre:CanWeTalkaboutThis? 193 References 203 Index 214 Published online by Cambridge University Press Figures 1 MappingDemocracy,November2012,Munich Kammerspiele.Photocredit:JudithBuss page4 2 OldPriceRiots,CoventGardenTheatre,London,1809. GeorgeCruikshank:‘KillingNoMurderasPerformingat theGrandNationalTheatre’.BritishMuseumCollection no.11425.©TrusteesoftheBritishMuseum 38 3 PlaybillofpremiereofTheMagicFlute,WiednerTheater, Vienna1791.Wikimediacommons 56 4 PlaybilloftheNewTheatreRoyal,Glasgow,1840.By permissionofUniversityofGlasgowLibrary,Department ofSpecialCollections 59 5 Screenshotofthewebsite,LyricHammersmith,London, February2013.CourtesyofLyricHammersmith 67 6 WoodcutofStPaul’sCross,c.1625.FromThomasBrewer, TheWeepingLady(1625).Source:EarlyEnglish BooksOnline 84 7 Idomeneo(epilogue).DeutscheOper,Berlin,2006. Photocredit:360-berlin/ClaudiaEsch-Kenkel 129 8 WilhelmTellbyFriedrichSchiller.Berlin,Staatstheater, 1919.DirectedbyLeopoldJessner.Setdesign:Emil Pirchan.Photography:ZanderundLabisch.Source: TheaterwissenschaftlicheSammlung,Universität zuKöln 148 9 OntheConceptoftheFacebeforetheSonofGod.Romeo CastellucciandSocìetasRaffaelloSanzio(2011).Photo: KlausLefebvre 158 10 AndreasDöhlerasElisiandPeterMoltzenasFadoulinDea Loher’sUnschuld(Innocence).DeutschesTheater, Berlin.2011.Photo:ArnoDeclair 171 vii Published online by Cambridge University Press viii Figures 11 PleaseLoveAustria!FirstEuropeanCoalitionWeek.Vienna11–17 June2000.DirectedandconceivedbyChristophSchlingensief. Stagedesign:NinaWetzel.Festival:WienerFestwochen. Photo:©davidbaltzer/bildbuehne.de 183 12 DV8PhysicalTheatre:CanWeTalkaboutThis?Photo credit:MattNettheim/DV8 196 Published online by Cambridge University Press Preface Thisbookdealswiththepublicsphere,aconceptthathasregainedurgency inrecent yearsas thepeople,firstin EasternEurope,then Africaandnow the Middle East, have shaken off dictatorial regimes and begun to build democratic societies. As a cornerstone of any democracy a functioning public sphere is normally understood as the possibility for private citizens toengageindebateonissuesofpublicinterestwithoutregardtosex,race, creed or caste. The public sphere hinges in turn onwide-ranging rights to freedom of speech and by extension artistic expression. The theatrical public sphere should theoretically concern itself with theatre’s role in this democraticprocess,anditdoesmakeuseofthispotentialonoccasions,but there is no causal nexus between the two. Even recent history tells us that theatre can flourish artistically under repressive regimes with a highly regulated or practically non-existent political public sphere: the Berliner EnsembleintheGDRorJerzyGrotowski’stheatreinPolandinthe1960s arejusttwocasesinpoint.Theatresalsoengagewithandcontributetothe publicsphereunderhighlyrestrictivepoliticalconditionspastandpresent. Bymeansofallusion,allegoryandsometimesdownrightsubterfugetheatre has often provided a collective echo chamber for social and political con- cerns.Thisisthereasonwhyithasbeenandinmanycountriescontinuesto be highly regulated. Ironically, where theatre is no longer censored, its function in the wider public sphere often becomes attenuated. The the- atricalpublicspherebecomesincreasinglyself-contained:aclosedcircuitof subscriberaudiences,professionalreviewersandtheatricalunions. It is the aim of this book to delineate theoretically and historically how the concept of the theatrical public sphere can be used heuristically. It operateswithafairlyrestrictivedefinitiontopreventalmostinevitable(con) fusion with cognate concepts such as ‘the public’ and ‘public space’. The public sphereis almost never areal space butrather aset of rules enabling debateanddiscussiontooccur.Thequestiontobeinvestigatedhistorically isthen:underwhatconditionsdosuchrulespertaintothetheatreandwith ix Published online by Cambridge University Press x Preface what results? The theatre’s role in the public sphere is threefold: as an interlocutorviaitsplaysandproductions;asaninstitutionwhereitmaybe the subject of debate; and as a communicator where it harnesses various media channels to broadcast itself and its messages. These three, often interlocking functions combine to form the theatrical public sphere. Scholarly investigation can focus on any of these roles or combinations of them.Onecanspeakperhapsofanopenandclosedtheatricalpublicsphere. The latter pertains to the above-mentioned closed circuit of theatrical reception in a primary aesthetic mode and is not the subject of this book. Theformerreferstothosesituationswheretheclosedcircuitisbrokenopen andengagementwithotherpublicspherestakesplace. This book’s focus is broadly European because it studies the theatrical public sphere against the background of how the concept has been applied within some selected Western traditions. That these traditions have been exportedaroundtheworldandadaptedandalteredtosuitlocalconditionsis oneofthedefiningcharacteristicsoftheatreinthetwentiethandtwenty-first centuries.Althoughtheaestheticadaptationprocessesarenowbeginningto beintensivelystudied,theinstitutionalimplicationsforthetheatricalsphere have receivedfarlessattention. Itcan only be hoped thatthese perspectives willmoveintofocusinthefuture. Finallysomewordsofacknowledgement.Thisprojecthasbeenyearsin gestation and its author’s cogitations have been tested in many different contexts.IwouldliketothankparticularlyKatiRöttgerattheUniversity ofAmsterdam;StefanHulfeld,UniversityofVienna;ErikaFischer-Lichte at the Centre for Interweaving Performance Cultures in Berlin; Brian Singleton, Moray McGowan and colleagues at Trinity College Dublin; Jerzy Limon, Danzig; Tobias Döring and Mark Stein for an invitation to speak at the Edward Said conference, Wannsee, Berlin; to Freddie RokemandEranNeumannforinvitingmetothememorable‘Expertise: Media Specificity and Interdisciplinarity’ conference in Tel Aviv; to Patrick Ebewo, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa (Arts and Sustainable Development conference); Khalid Amine, Tangier (Performing Transformations conference); Meewon Lee, President ofKoreanAssociationforTheatreResearch;PeterBoenisch,IainMackenzie andthePh.D.studentsoftheEuropeanTheatreResearchNetworkandthe Political and Social Thought Group at the University of Kent. A special mentiontoAmyBartholomew(Ottawa)whoprovidedcrucialinsightsinthe finalstages. Some of the material in this book has appeared previously in earlier versions: Published online by Cambridge University Press
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