Reading week 4

Reading – Week 4

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

LENNY BRUCE

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Lenny Bruce improvises much of his work, and he was good at changing his material to adapt for the audience he was playing to. He used his work to attack the Yiddish phrase zug gornischt (say nothing).  Bruce was happy to challenge the unsaid and the lies present in society, whether that be politics, law, gender, police etc. Many saw Bruce as ‘not respectable’ in his time.

How to talk dirty and influence people: an autobiography of Lenny Bruce

Bruce uses stereotypes to create his comedy. He plays with the Yiddish word goyish which means gentile. He lists what he sees in society as Jewish and Goyish, but things can never be both. He lists the differences between the two terms with examples, but he doesn’t prefer one to the other or see either in a negative light. He uses Jewish stereotypes throughout the piece and says that they are not Goyish. He doesn’t mock things that are Jewish or Goyish, but makes it obvious that there are differences. He uses humour to make his examples.

Psychpathia Sexualis

Bruce mocks marriage and relationships in this short piece by subtly replacing the wife/girl character with animals. He uses animal related phrases in the poem which could be used as a love poem if it were not for the animal references.

The Tribunal

This piece is not overtly funny, it seems political because he comments on the poor treatment and salary of teachers. He is disgusted that people like teachers who are in charge of the education for the next world leaders are paid so little, and he emphasises this by having a mock court scene whereby people who earn ludicrous amounts are put in jail. This is Bruce being political and showing his personal beliefs about society and its mistreatment of certain individuals within it.

Off Broadway

Bruce looks here at language and the use of offensive words like nigger. He shows that we use the word sparingly, therefore when it is heard it becomes offensive. In the piece he suggests we use it all the time so that in 6 months or so it will lose all sense of negativity and no longer be offensive. This is a political rant by Bruce about the absurdity of the arrangement of a few letters, and the fact that society holds this as controversial when it is just a word, which does no physical harm, and that can be changed if we are willing to challenge it.

Religions, Inc.

This is quite a controversial piece whereby Bruce mocks religion and the leaders of it. He shows it like an exclusive club that has its perks. He also shows it as perverse and corrupt. He sees religion as a commodity and something to be capitalized on. Religion is made to look stupid because the self professed leaders of all these religions do favours for each other and openly admit to not knowing answers. It is seen as an exclusive and swanky club, but only for a select few.

Father Flotski’s Triumph

This performance mocks the judicial system and shows that the prison wardens and guards are willing to compromise and negotiate with inmates, but also shows that they are lazy, corrupt and willing to brutally kill masses of inmates to show some sense of order. This would no doubt have gotten Bruce into trouble because it is highly controversial, it is ironic, offensive towards religion, mental conditions, homosexuals, and promotes murder; ‘Killing 6 children doesn’t make anyone bad.’ Obviously this play is a mockery of the prison system and is not to be taken too seriously but it still holds political criticism.

Reading week 4

Reading – Week 4

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

LAURIE ANDERSON

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Anderson plays with language and sound through technology like recorders and synthesisers, projectors and visual. She layers the visual and the audio in the performance. Anderson gained much of her following through a song that reached the charts, she moved from the obscure down-town artist to the world of mass media and popular avant-garde. Her stories are autobiographical but include universal subjects like love, religion and politics that she can make personal. She uses microphones and audio equipment on stage to create her own soundtracks and sound effects.

New York Social Life

This piece looks at how our lives are similar and how they repeat each other. Anderson looks at social interaction of city goers who are surrounded by people but made lonely in their own little worlds. The interactions that occur become repeated and stagnated, we all say the same things, how are you, we should meet up next week, how work, bye. Anderson is making a point about society, particularly New Yorkers, we say the same things to each other so much that they become meaningless, automatic and unfelt.

After Science, Dinner: On the Road

This piece was created by Anderson during her travels around America. In this she seems to be concerned with accents and the voice because the few characters in it are all very different from each other. She shows different social types of people in America, including a couple who eat night food that they have shot, like possum. She shows them as potentially repulsive people who cook possum, cover it in coffee and maple syrup and call this a secret recipe. It is a very visual piece and Anderson describes her surroundings in detail.

United States: Difficult Listening Hour

Anderson shows this piece as a radio host presenting the ‘difficult music’ on his show. She plays with voice and rhythm throughout and shows that, even though it is discussed as difficult, it is actually quite poetic and thoughtful. She turns the preconceptions on their head.

Big Science

This is a piece that attacks society, it is a list of directions but all the reference points have not been built yet. Anderson attack what she calls ‘golden cities, golden towns’ for being an ever growing sprawl of the urban. The directions are pointless, even ludicrous because none of it makes sense unless you know what is to be built around the town.

Talk Normal

This is an autobiographical monologue from Anderson, as the rest of the readings are, but in this she talks about herself as I and discusses her relationship with Andy Kaufman. Nor does she embody any other character or sound effect.

False Documents

Anderson tells us of a time in which she went to see a palm reader and is made to believe that if what she is hearing is true, then she has been living a lie. The monologue is interesting as it looks at cultures and the differences and ignorance of separate cultures and societies rules. She worries that they read from right to left, and that maybe she has got the wrong hand, or that it is being read wrong. She also sees the potential of language barriers and problems in translation.

Wild White Horses

In this monologue Anderson tells her audience of a time when she has an identity crisis. She agrees to a vow that she thinks she cannot keep. She confides these concerns to a monk and he makes her realise the context of her life and that she should not worry about something as trivial as ‘being nice’ when her house could be burning down, or that she may have a long way to get home.

Reading week 4

Reading – Week 4

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

ANDY KAUFMAN

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Andy Kaufman was known for his unpredictability, such as when he took his entire audience to a school canteen for after show milk and cookies. It was difficult to distinguish between Kaufman as a performer and Kaufman as a person. Even his death was seen as a stunt and it took a while for people to believe that he was dead. His work was extremely varied in content and style and he took the television industry by surprise because he was so unpredictable and would change something half way through, even if it was live.

Andy Kaufman plays Carnegie Hall

Kaufman plays his alter ego Tony Clifton and introduces the show through him. He plays the role of the compere who doesn’t want to leave the stage to much comical effect. Through Tony he mocks the conventional stand up, he comments on his wife, but in a romantic way and doesn’t make a joke about her or at her expense. Kaufman also plays another character who is not identified. He obviously enjoys impersonating people or making up people as alter egos. Part of the humour in this character comes from the fact he is just not funny, he forgets the punch lines, says the jokes wrong and is seen as generally quite stupid. Kaufman goes on to play himself and gets the audience to sing along with him. There are several characters he impersonates, all different and all with completely different styles and motives. This is done through simple changing of costume, accent and behaviour. The audience knows they are all the same person but he doesn’t acknowledge this in performance because he plays all of the characters straight.

Reading week 3

Reading – Week 3

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

SPALDING GRAY

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Spalding Gray works in a unique style. He writes his thoughts, feelings, memories, imaginings, regrets, memoirs and experiences in a notebook. He then goes onto the stage, sits at a plain table and regurgitates these notes to the audience, sometimes expanding on them as he goes along. There is no traditional performative element in Gray’s work, though he is on the stage he does not act, he uses his voice and what he is saying to do the work of the actor. The work is very personal and revealing, but this is what makes it so captivating. Gray’s Commune is about his diaries and memories of a performance he was taking part in. He is brutally honest with his words, not in an insulting or shocking way, but he simply tells it as it is, or was. He freely admits to his concern at taking LSD, and he tells the audience of the effects. This, for many in the audience, will be the only experience they have with drugs, or towards the insight of the rehearsal process of a play. Gray seems not to insult anybody in the piece, but he doesn’t sugar any pills. He discusses his scepticism around religion and the differences between them. Gray is cleverly wording his piece in order not to insult or provoke, yet the delivery seems unforced and un-doctored. It is a highly personal insight to a part of his life that he would otherwise not have shared. It is worded in a way that the audience can easily picture what he is saying, therefore reducing the need for an elaborate set, props or costume. This is not a conventional play in any sense, but it works as a performance because he is opening up to an audience and therefore leaving himself vulnerable to them. Gray’s work seems like it is simply an autobiography, but with a book the author is hidden and protected by the pages, yet the performer here is not playing a character as a traditional actor would, but all the characters, and even more importantly, himself. What I find the most effective is how Gray is trusting his work, because he is in a position on stage where he is vulnerable because he is not hiding behind a character.

Reading week 3

Reading – Week 3

Dolan, J. (2001). ‘Performance, Utopia and the “Utopian Performative”’ Theatre Journal 53. Pp.  455-479

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·         This piece discusses how performance has the potential to provide us with the experience and sense of utopia.

·         Performance has the chance to change people’s style, trend, fashion and standards.

·         When audiences gather together, there is already a sense of community in that they are watching the same live performance with maybe a hope that what they see might change or enlighten them.

·         Performance and art can be used to change and make the world a better place, a utopia. Theatre has ‘a transformative impact on how we imagine ourselves in culture...a commitment to theatre and performance as transformational cultural practices might offer us consistent glimpses of utopia’ (456)

·         The utopia in question is not the idealised future world peace/harmony type of utopia, but can change attitudes towards poverty, famine, cancer, AIDs, health care, race and gender discrimination, homophobia, unfair global wealth distribution, religion, xenophobia etc.

·         However, Fascism and utopia can ‘skirt dangerously close together.’ (457)

·         Utopia is seen in more than performance, it can potentially be seen in the rehearsal process.

·         It is unlikely that a theatre performance will create an idealistic world-wide utopia, but it can have an impact on smaller aspects of life which leads eventually to a utopian society. The goal for a performance should not be to search for this ultimate utopia as this is unlikely. Instead, it should focus on a smaller slice of society, which is more likely to be achievable.

·         In a utopian society, theatre might not exist because it has to have a conflict to fight.

·         Theatre can ‘move us toward understanding the possibility of something better, can train our imaginations, inspire our dreams and fuel our desires in way that might lead to incremental cultural change.’ (460)

·         A non-mainstream theatre is more likely to produce revolutionary theatre. However there is a chance that the performers are ‘preaching to the converted’, or to people who already strive for the same utopian agenda.

·         The essay discusses Holly Hughes’s Preaching to the Perverted, Peggy Shaw’s Menopausal Gentleman and Deb Margolin’s Oh Holy Night, all solo performers who started their careers at the WOW Cafe in New York, a famous place for lesbian and feminist performers.

·         Hughes’s performance voices many people and representatives of society to show a world that is out of joint and discriminatory.

·         There are moments when audience participation can potentially open a window of utopian possibilities for the performer. Like when Shaw leaves the conventional performance space to walk and perform in the audience. She is making herself known to them, they are all on the same journey and are seen as being in the same group of people. This type of experience offers a ‘springboard to utopia.’ (473)

·         Margolin’s piece is about the search for the Messiah, but there are moments of utopia even in defeat. Moments of utter silence and stability show themselves as utopian, as well as moments of non-acting, like when Shaw drinks a bottle of water after a physical scene. ‘Perhaps in these moments of communal, almost loving rest, when the flesh stops and the soul pauses, we come together, at attention and relieved, to feel utopia.’ (477)

·         Utopian feelings are not restricted to the queer or feminist performances of Shaw, Margolin or Hughes. Nor will everyone in the audience feel this utopia.

Reading week 3

Reading – Week 3

Bonney, J. (2000). Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.

HOLLY HUGHS

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Hughs began her career in New York’s WOW Cafe. Her piece World Without End is autobiographical and acknowledges the audience. She talks to specific members of the audience during the performance, as if they were the same person, a friend or colleague that she is showing around her life. She does this by making her life seem like a physical journey along the countryside. She invites us as her unknown friend to look at highly personal times in her life, times when she was confused, vulnerable, alone, or during intimate times with her mother, as well as the day of her mother’s death. Her descriptions are highly visual, reducing the need for a set or other actors to play the other characters. The work is presumably autobiographical, and if not it is delivered in a way that makes it seem so. She deals with shocking moments in her life, intimate moments, and ones she cannot forget. Hughs goes from present to past in the blink of an eye and the piece is very fast paced. She discusses a cafe that she spent golf nights with her parents, her childhood memories of a dying grandfather, a controversial point in her life when her mother kills a porcupine with an axe so that she can play with it, and even more controversially, the moment when her mother discusses sex with her, resulting in her mother inappropriately touching herself. There are times when Hughes’ stories are touching and sad, shocking and blunt and even cringe-worthy. I’m not sure what Hughes intention is with this piece, but it ploughs through feelings and emotions in a very matter of fact way. She uses metaphors and similes throughout the piece which are very vague and require the audience to work for themselves at deciphering the meanings. Like Gray, Hughes plays all the characters in her piece, yet she acknowledges her audience unlike Gray. Hughes is equally as vulnerable as Gray in that she is playing herself and cannot hide behind a character. This is what makes her work compelling for me.

Reading week 2

Reading – Week 2

Kalb, J. (2001). ‘Documentary Solo Performance: The Politics of the Mirrored Self.’ Theatre, Vol. 31.3, pp13-29.

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·         Solo performance is varied, both in style, content and socially/politically.

·         Solo performance has the potential, and often is ‘rife with self-indulgence and incipient monumental egotism’ (14). Often an ego boost for an actor, seen as showing off.

·         Solo performance is an umbrella that encompasses a huge variety of performance, not just documentary or satire/stand-up.

·         Documentary Solo performance arose as a reaction to the lack of effective potential theatre in the last 25 years of America. It is a reaction to what didn’t happen successfully in theatre, or what was close to being revolutionary.

·         ‘Traditional parables’ as Brecht pointed out ‘allows the spectator to congratulate themselves on their sympathetic feelings without seriously questioning their behaviour or beliefs.’ (15). Documentary Solo performance strives to make them question own behaviour/belief, not necessarily to create a revolution about that political theme, but for the spectator to actively think instead of passively self-congratulate for feelings of sympathy etc.

·         ‘Effective political art in boom-time America must be cunning, and the documentary impulse is a form of cunning, even if its practitioners don’t always see that.’ (16). Documentary has more of a political impact than normal solo performance.

·         Documentary Solo performance searches for freshness, a way of discussing gossip alongside ‘powerful topical narratives’ in order to make the performer become active politically throughout their art. (16)

·         Anna Deavere Smith is a very popular Documentary Solo performer. Very important and influential.

·         Documentary Solo performance works by interviewing people about certain specific events of choice, and impersonating them on stage ‘using their exact words and mannerisms.’ (16)

·         Documentary Solo performance looks to perform authentic speech, true characterisation and to share the individual experience.

·         In Documentary Solo performance you need to perform all characters, even the hateful or evil ones and to not show a bias. Documentary Solo performance can be shown therefore to a wider and more integrated audience instead of a specific one.

·         Documentary Solo performer Wolf says you don’t change people’s attitudes through facts, but through personal stories. Documentary Solo performance performs the unspeakable, and makes the mundane remarkable.

·         If Documentary Solo performance is not as loose a concept as it is labelled, it would be called something else and be part of another genre.

·         Documentary Solo performance can potentially be diluted politically if there is more than 1 actor, it can be weaker with more than one. Solo has more of an impact.

·         However, David Hare’s solo performance was not effective, ‘utterly inept’ (23). So not always successful as Solo performance, especially if they have no acting experience such as Hare.

·         Documentary Solo performance looks at real events, in real scale, real things and real situations that are timeless.

·         However, Hooch does not see himself as documentary in style because his characters are in his head, not people being interviewed. He works in the same way through embodying the characters and creating a political discussion/debate.