December 2021
It is difficult to define Western contemporary theater; some may argue that it has to do with hybrid art forms, aesthetics, or representations of our current conditions as a Western society. In April 2011, a group of curators and artists joined to discuss contemporary performance. Travis Chamberlain, executive director of Queer|Art, claimed that “contemporary performance [is] more ideal-based"[1]. Chamberlain is not wrong. Our ideals, and more so, our politics, have always been a part of performance. It is the integration of current political movements and moments that makes art so contemporary. In George Hunter’s article “Political Theater in Shakespeare – and Later”, he writes that “of all the institutions to which this enlarged sense of politics as the expression of an inescapable power relationship can be applied, none might seem to be more obvious than the public theater, an institution designed to express and convey particular attitudes”[2]. Thus, politics have always been intertwined with theater. That, as a concept, is not contemporary. Our role, as an audience, however, is. In this paper I will examine our Western audience’s relationship with theater and performance. This paper will explore the shift in how we have treated politics in theater, beginning with Shakespearean drama as an example of performing politics on stage, to contemporary performances as an example of a tool to bring politics off stage.
Shakespearean theater was cautiously political, aiming to please the audience. Its goal was not to cause controversy. Like much of theater today, Shakespeare was inspired by the environment in which he was writing. Yet, much of his drama was structured to cater to the political system rather than oppose it. When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth and King Lear (both 1606), James I was King. This undoubtedly pushed a political agenda on Shakespeare. Shakespeare presented “politicians in the plays […] [as] always strongly dramatized, and therefore, to that extent, strongly neutralized. We hear opinions for and against the citizenry, for and against a patriotic war, but always expressed by people who might be expected to hold such views”[3]. In other words, Shakespeare did not necessarily have “free reign” when writing his plays. His audience was the King and other members of the royal family. Shakespeare may have had his histories, his tragedies, his comedies, and more, all of which included the current politics, yet “it is probably true that the Elizabethan actor spoke directly to the audience […] [and] he did so without any explicitly ideological aim of the kind of: ‘Look, I am talking to you directly, because I believe in X and Y and I want you to recognize how important these are”[4]. This brings into question how political Shakespearean drama really was. Was the context he portrayed fully representative of the time? Were the questions and discussions he raised reflective of what the majority of England deserved in the 1600s?
There has been a shift in the political nature of theater. In Gabrielle Cody and Meiling Cheng’s "Reading Performance- A Physiognomy", they explain that, today, we care more about “what [contemporary performance] does for us and how we can return the favor”[5]. In a political context, this means that theater can be a tool for igniting a dialogue. Our current Western society is, for the most part, a democracy. Criticism, accurate portrayals of politics, and controversy, are thus all acceptable. We return the favor by extending these political performances off stage and into our everyday lives.
Neither Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem (2009) nor Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men (2014) are focused on a plot. Rather, dialogue rules their plays, evoking a reaction from the audience. Both plays are straightforward, there are no riddles to be solved, they speak truthfully and directly (though perhaps sometimes too bluntly). Like Shakespeare, the performances derive from truth. In an interview with Jez Butterworth and Mark Rylance, the actor who plays the main character Johnny, they reveal that Johnny is based on a man named Mickey. It is rooted in reality[6]. The play details the tension between Johnny and the city trying to evict him from his home for an urban development plan. The play ultimately reflects how “England further urbanizes in the twenty-first century […] [with the] threat from the commercialism and control of the town”[7]. The play does exactly what it sets out to do: speak about a contemporary issue (in this case, a modern gentrification), while creating sympathetic and meaningful characters. In an interview with Butterworth, he claims that there are “no allegorical puzzles to be solved […] [and to] make of [the play] what you want to make of it”[8]. The lack of puzzles in the play, combined with the singular setting and uneventful nature of the story (driven primarily by discussion), forces the audience to take what is given to them: a contemporary moment. The expectation is that when the curtain closes, the play is not over. Discussion about town, land, class, and more, will extend into the community.
Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men operates with this same purpose, though she strategically manipulates her audience to create this off-stage conversation. Early in the play, an actor tells the audience: “Have you ever noticed how most Asian-Americans are slightly brain-damaged from having grown up with Asian parents? It’s like being raised by monkeys”[9]. A New York Times article describes a “ruffle of laughter [which] follows the speech – the audience sounding nervous but reassured”[10]. Here, the audience is forced to grapple with their own role in this performance. Who do they represent in the racial dynamic Lee is putting forth? Lee’s play is controversial, just as it was intended. More importantly, the play's political resonance does not end with Broadway. As it is reflective of a current climate of identity politics, people have found themselves debating her play – even without watching it. A comment’s section in response to a profile on Young Jean Lee, has a large discussion. ScottC reflected: “With all due respect to the playwright, not every white male lives a life of privilege. Yet Ms. Lee is quite anxious to stereotype”[11]. But, as a more informed viewer (W. Loman) responded, “So many commentors who haven’t seen this play making unimaginative assumptions about it […] This artist has managed, against the odds, to get to Broadway, and all you want to do is tear the work down because it’s not like every other play, or might make you uncomfortable?”[12] This dialogue is fascinating, in part because it does exactly what Lee wants. Her play is politically controversial with the intention of creating dialogue. Conversations, whether behind closed doors, or on a media site, need to happen, and contemporary performance is a tool to ignite them.
What can contemporary performance do for us then? It endows us with new conversations and new ways of thinking. It strikes a conversation beyond the environment of the theater. How do we return the favor to these artists? We engage in this dialogue by debating (even disagreeing) and bringing art into our everyday lives.
Politics have always been part of performance. Yet, our autonomy as artists, is a contemporary, Western privilege. While contemporary performance can influence our conversations and spark debate, their meaning also changes over time. The Book of Mormon (2014) is a prime example of this, playing with political incorrectness and poking fun at extreme religious ideologies. While stemming from reality, the meaning of the play shifted when Donald Trump was elected U.S. president. A journalist commented on this shift: “In 2014, the New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote, ‘The Book of Mormon is about the triumph of faith in fantasy.’ Faith in fantasy—be it the liberal fantasy of the first woman president or the Trump-peddled notion that his ‘great’ response to Hurricane Maria was twisted by the media—does not feel like something to sing about; it’s been weaponized”[13]. Although the Book of Mormon was first produced in 2014, its meaning carried into 2016. This contemporary performance, like many others, maneuvered its way into contemporary culture and the political scene. It is up to its viewers (and all adjacent communities), to decide how to include the performance in our navigation of current events.
Bibliography
Abrams, Joshua. "STATE of THE NATION: New British Theatre." PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 32, no. 2 (2010): 8-16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40856536.
Cheng, Meiling, and Gabrielle H. Cody. Reading Contemporary Performance: Theatricality across Genres. London [etc.]: Routledge, 2016.
Hunter, George K. "Political Theater in Shakespeare —and Later." Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 16, no. 4 (1983): 1-14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24777710.
Jeary, Lois. "Theater on Video: Not Live but Kicking." The Guardian. Last modified April 2, 2012. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2012/apr/02/taped-theatre-live-recorded-jerusalem.
Jones, Morgan. "How the LDS Church's Response to 'The Book of Mormon' Musical is actually working." Deseret News. Last modified November 16, 2016. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.deseret.com/2016/11/16/20600593/how-the-lds-church-s-response-to-the-book-of-mormon-musical-is-actually-working#the-eugene-oneill-theatre-and-the-marquee-for-the-book-of-mormon-are-seen-in-new-york-thursday-jan-19-2012-ap-photo-charles-sykes.
"Playwright Jez Butterworth on Jerusalem, England and Englishness." Video. Youtube. Posted by The Guardian, November 4, 2011. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efbHIyk4Nx0&ab_channel=TheGuardian.
Pujante, Belén Tortosa. "Performative Contexts in Contemporary Theatre:." In Context in Literary and Cultural Studies, by Jakob Ladegaard and Jakob Gaardbo Nielsen, 156-71. N.p.: UCL Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvfrxrhb.15.
Sehgal, Parul. "Young Jean Lee's Unsafe Spaces." The New York Times. Last modified July 18, 2018. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/magazine/young-jean-lees-unsafe-spaces.html.
"Theater Talk: 'Jerusalem' Playwright Jez Butterworth and Tony-winning Best Actor, Mark Rylance." Video. Youtube. Posted by CUNY TV, May 18, 2011. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENEoRHLuZ1I&ab_channel=CUNYTV.
Thulin, Lila. "The Trump Era Has Taken Some of the Fun out of The Book of Mormon." Slate. Last modified December 14, 2017. Accessed October 25, 2021. https://slate.com/culture/2017/12/how-does-the-book-of-mormon-play-in-the-age-of-trump.html.
[1] Morgan Von prelle pecelli et al., "CURATING CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE," PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 34, no. 1 (2012): 185, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26206384.
[2] George K. Hunter, "Political Theater in Shakespeare —and Later," Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 16, no. 4 (1983): 1, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24777710.
[3] Hunter, "Political Theater," 2.
[4] Hunter, "Political Theater," 10.
[5] Meiling Cheng and Gabrielle H. Cody, Reading Contemporary Performance: Theatricality across Genres (London [etc.]: Routledge, 2016), 1.
[6] "Theater Talk: 'Jerusalem' Playwright Jez Butterworth and Tony-winning Best Actor, Mark Rylance," video, Youtube, posted by CUNY TV, May 18, 2011, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENEoRHLuZ1I&ab_channel=CUNYTV.
[7] Joshua Abrams, "STATE of THE NATION: New British Theatre," PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 32, no. 2 (2010): 11, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40856536.
[8] "Theater Talk," video.
[9] Parul Sehgal, "Young Jean Lee's Unsafe Spaces," The New York Times, last modified July 18, 2018, accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/magazine/young-jean-lees-unsafe-spaces.html.
[10] Sehgal, "Young Jean," The New York Times.
[11] Sehgal, "Young Jean," The New York Times.
[12] Sehgal, "Young Jean," The New York Times.
[13] Lila Thulin, "The Trump Era Has Taken Some of the Fun out of The Book of Mormon," Slate, last modified December 14, 2017, accessed October 25, 2021, https://slate.com/culture/2017/12/how-does-the-book-of-mormon-play-in-the-age-of-trump.html.