writing.performance

The more things change… I’ve watched the news out of Italy on the heightened persecution of the Roma (Gypsies) with great dismay. Guardian article here: The rounding up and extermination of the Roma during WWII, though often overlooked in discussions of the Holocaust, is still within living (more…)

Epic Theatre presented a powerful and well-written production of Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End, directed by Danielle Topol (see previous post). I highly recommend it. It consists of three separate monologues by persons involved in war in Iraq– Lynndie England (of Abu Ghraib notoriety); David Kelly, the British weapons inspector who suicided; Nehrjas Al Saffarh, “a leading member of Iraq’s Communist Party whose family experience unimaginable suffering during the Baathist coup that led to Saddam Hussein’s rise to power” (citation from Epic Theatre’s website). The writing is powerful and imaginative and only very occasionally dips to a predictable sentimentality. And the material– gods.

This play was great because it delved into the unknown of the known. We have access to knowing the horrors perpetrated in Iraq (I say “access to” rather than “know” because most of us won’t take them in; it might require action–a point very sharply made in the monologue given Kelly’s character). But Thompson’s strategy in the writing is to take public figures (England, Kelly, Al Saffarh) and to invent/ imagine their inner lives. These are not documentary ciphers but a playwright’s imagination of their inner worlds–a creative response to the 4 am haunting question of “how could human beings do this to one another”? The fact that the writer (and production) takes this question seriously, rather than rhetorically as a vehicle to righteous dismissal of evil acts, is what gives the play its disturbing power. Here, good and evil are as braided as the strands of DNA. (more…)

Off to New York this weekend to see Palace of the End by Judith Thompson (fantastic Canadian playwright) produced by Epic Theatre and also Crave by Sarah Kane produced by the Potomac Theatre Project, who’ve relocated from DC to NYC. I saw a horrible production of Crave about 6 years ago with (bizarrely) Debbie Harry performing. I love her in Blondie, but this really wasn’t the best vehicle for her gifts. Other than that, I’ve heard one brilliant reading of it and never seen it staged…. the Royal Court touring production of 4:48 Psychosis was one of the great theatre experiences for me, so I’m hoping Crave will be good.