Was I being that ridiculous? Oh well...
Martin
Judy Prince wrote:
>my grateful thanks, MJ (sorry, don't know your first name). i'll die, surely, of profound ignorance and semi-tolerance, but somewhere within's a glimmer that Truth'll be made known to me, and that i'll recognize it. you've awakened that glimmer and awareness, thanks be to God.
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>judy
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>>From: MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]>
>>Date: 2005/12/11 Sun AM 08:50:09 EST
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: Poem/Play (was Re: Pinter on Blair et al.)
>>
>>There is a longstanding debate about Seneca's practice & intentions with
>>his plays. I believe more advanced theories support full-scale
>>theatrical production during Nero's reign. Certainly the "progeny" of
>>his drama, meaning Elizabethan tragedy, was generally meant for
>>performance. The renewal of Senecan tragedy in English in the last
>>century began with the very successful Peter Brook/Ted Hughes production
>>with Gielgud & Worth - a great loss that it was never filmed. If Peer
>>Gynt was only meant for reading, why did Ibsen then bother to get Grieg
>>to compose the music for theatrical production? He understood that
>>poetry and music go together well in the theatre - and reading can never
>>supply that frisson. Flecker's The Golden Road to Samarkand, to cite a
>>similar example, perhaps Britain's reply to the Theatre of Cruelty avant
>>la lettre, had a very successful production in 1923 with the
>>unforgettable music of Delius. As for Faust, it was, has been and is
>>performed quite regularly in German-speaking countries (as is Madach's
>>Tragedy of Man in Hungary & elsewhere). Try to see Peter Stein's amazing
>>production (there must be a video, I taped it off the TV) with Bruno
>>Ganz et al (two Fausts, two Mephistos).
>>mj
>>
>>Knut Mork Skagen wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>>There is a dimension of the theatrical performance of a text, though,
>>>>that creates a third consciousness (that is, one besides the
>>>>audience-as-audience and the performer-as-performer), even in fairly
>>>>traditional dramatic texts like my own, which are constructed with
>>>>plot and character and all that stuff we've come to expect from a
>>>>night out at the local playhouse. If I can be permitted an example
>>>>from my recent play "In Public": a character in the second scene is
>>>>sitting at a bar, flirting casually with a colleague, when she comes
>>>>up with this monologue:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>I immediately think of two things when I read your examples and your
>>>explanation of this extra dimension. The one of them you describe with
>>>"spoken by the same actress within a 15 or 20 minute period" --
>>>stating the obvious, drama, unlike poetry, is a time-based artform.
>>>Lyric poetry is perhaps the least time-based form of literature, which
>>>strengthens its role as object-on-the-page. It exists, in a sense,
>>>without a proper beginning, end, or sense of time having passed.
>>>
>>>I also think of how a dramatic text is meant to be inhabited and
>>>embodied by a performer -- mentioned earlier in this thread -- and it
>>>seems to me critical to that the performer is not performing his or
>>>her own words but those of a "character." (Character, of course, in
>>>the broadest possible sense, given that less traditional drama won't
>>>have such precise divisions). But still, the performative context of
>>>a text is automatically a fictitious context. Even in performance art
>>>where the performer is the writer is the character, the act of staging
>>>produces an artificiality which enhances the impact of portions of the
>>>text while reducing others.
>>>
>>>Contemporary lyric poetry isn't anywhere close to being staged, on the
>>>contrary, it's often passed off as the opposite, some kind of "direct
>>>communication." This may well be illusory, but is often an underlying
>>>assumption on the part of the reader.
>>>
>>>There is a crossing somewhere. As drama approaches the purely literary
>>>is enters the unperformable realm. Norway's own "national play" Peer
>>>Gynt is meant to be read rather than staged; Goethe's Faustus;
>>>Seneca's plays. And on the poetry end of things there is the point
>>>where lyric crosses over into epic.
>>>
>>>--Knut
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>--
>>M.J.Walker - no blog - no webpage - no idea
>>
>>Nous ne faisons que nous entregloser. - Montaigne
>>
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--
M.J.Walker - no blog - no webpage - no idea
Nous ne faisons que nous entregloser. - Montaigne
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