Theatre can be defined in a narrow way, i.e. as a live
performance within a theatre venue, or broadly to the extent that
it includes the entire scope of human activity, including even the
observation of the natural or molecular world. Theatre can be a
state of being. It is capable of synthesising any art form,
moulding itself to radically new environments, altering form and
content in a way that obliterates all previously recognised
theatrical signifiers, and still call itself theatre. It is this
extraordinary flexibility that helps it to endure. This flexibility
is given its full range of expression because theatre cannot be
separated from the way we live. Theatre is an exchange that is
live. Theatre is actual, it exists between people, or at least
between a person and a thing.
It is theatre's 'liveness' that makes it such a powerful form of
expression. No matter how brutal the historical attempts to
suppress theatre, it always continues to endure. There are many
famous examples of theatre practitioners that have been tortured
and/or executed over the centuries, from playwrights such as
Antonio José de Silva, who was burned at the stake; Thomas Kyd,
tortured as a heretic; Vsevolod Meyerhold, murdered by Stalin's
henchmen; to individuals and organisations that continue to make
theatre despite incredible disadvantages, including political
suppression, as in the case of Eritrean playwright and journalist
Dawit Isaak, who has been in jail for the past ten years.
Theatre can be highly flexible and mobile, making it difficult to
control, or pass more easily under the radar of military
dictatorships. Under communism theatre makers would create works in
the intimate environs of people's homes to avoid detection by the
secret police. A similar situation occurred during the Latin
American dictatorships of the 1970's and 80's; theatre
practitioners managed to use techniques of countercensorhsip in
order to disguise their work's political content, often called
'metaphorizing reality'. The theatres became places where dissent
towards the authoritarian regimes became possible providing the
signs of rebellion were not overt or directly challenging, which
ironically caused the theatre to proliferate. Repression
inadvertently nurtured theatrical culture by creating a need for
it.
In the western democracies, while theatre practitioners do not have
to contend with political restrictions, there is an overwhelming
sense that theatre has become irrelevant, that it is being
smothered under the formidable weight of mass media. From
mobile phone apps, and Internet games, to pay TV, it seems we are
being increasingly assailed by technologies that separate us from
each other. While this is perhaps true, it also nurtures a need for
a different type of theatre, where the enemy, or the repressing
agent, is not so tangible. Perhaps our need for theatre, in all its
infinite forms, will also proliferate under these conditions,
providing it adapts itself to its new circumstances. The basic need
of people to engage with one another, to share our humanity without
the apparel of social conformity, is perhaps more compelling than
ever before.
Theatre has always evolved within the culture it arises from,
though sometimes when it looks back and studies itself there is a
tendency to want to prop itself up, to be seduced by its own
cultural edifices instead of focusing on what makes it truly
powerful. When all the trappings and conventions are stripped away,
all we are left with is a recognition that contact has been made
with another person; something is happening between them.
Raimondo Cortese is the current Patrick White Fellow at the Sydney
Theatre Company.
He adapted the libretto for The
Threepenny Opera, which is playing at Sydney Theatre
until 24 September, 2011.
Feature: A state of being
Date posted: 12 Sep 2011Author: STC