65822569 studies in theatre amp performance a

7/29/2019 65822569 Studies in Theatre Amp Performance A

1/108

Studies in

Theatre &

Performance

ISSN 1468-2761

28.2

VolumeTwentyEightNumberTwo

intellectJournals

|

Theatre

&Performance


2/108

EdPeDe

Un

Th

Ne

Ex

EX

UK

+4

p.w

AAnNa

LaTu

RReDe

Un

+4

r.m

Studies in Theatre and Performance

Volume 28 Number 2

Studies in Theatre and Performance is the official publication of the

Standing Conference of University Drama Departments in the UK. It

incorporates Studies in Theatre Production, which had been a leading

forum for the analysis of theatrical practice, processes and performance

for a decade.

The journal is now published three times a year. We encourage the

submission of articles which are not only descriptive of practical

research, but which delineate the ongoing analysis that formed a partof that research. Articles may also describe and analyse research under-

taken into performance pedagogy. They are particularly welcome when

all this is related to broader theoretical or professional issues.

The SCUDD Website Home Page is at:

Editorial BoardChristopher Balme, University of Amsterdam, HollandChristopher Baugh, University of Leeds, UK

David Bradby, Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK

Christie Carson, Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK

Kennedy Chinyowa, University of Zimbabwe

Jim Davis, University of Warwick, UK

Steve Dixon, Brunel University, UK

Greg Giesekam, University of Glasgow, UK

Gerry Harris, University of Lancaster, UKDee Heddon, University of Glasgow

Kirti Jain, National School of Drama, India

Derek Paget, University of Reading, UK

Meredith Rogers, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Glendyr Sacks, University of Haifa, Israel

Elizabeth Sakellaridou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Denis Salter, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Advisory BoardMartin Banham, University of Leeds, UKAdrian Kiernander, University of New England, Australia

Alison Oddey, University of Northampton

Patrice Pavis, Universit Paris 8, France

Janelle Reinelt, University of Warwick, UK

William Huizhu Sun, Shanghai Theatre Academy, China


3/108

should be printed as colo

onto PhotoCD as a YCC c

Line drawings, diagramcamera-ready state, capab

a Macintosh EPS or TIFF

output.

All illustrations, photog

should follow the same nu

and be shown as Figure 1

Indicate the source belowseparate sheet or file, indi

as to where they should b

We regret that illustrati

publication cannot be ret

Captions

All illustrations should becaption, which should in

number and an acknowle

holder of the copyright. T

responsibility to ensure th

permissions are obtained

NotesThese should be kept to a

identified by a superscript

Please do not format your

in list form at the end.

Referees

Studies in Theatre and Perefereed journal. Strict an

to both authors and refer

Opinionh d

Editorial notes to contributors

SubmissionsManuscripts should be sent to the Editors,

Studies in Theatre and Performance, Thornlea,New North Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4LA UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 1392 264580; Fax: +44 (0)

1392 264594. Enquiries and communication

should be sent by email where possible to:

[email protected]

Articles can be considered if two copies of

each manuscript and an e-mail attachment(addressed to [email protected]) are

submitted. Contributions should be typed on

one side of the paper, double spaced and with

ample margins. The title of the paper should

be written in bold and followed by a list of

about six key-words and a brief abstract

(c. 100150 words). Articles should notnormally exceed 6000 words in length. It will

be helpful if the author also submits brief

notes on him/herself (affiliation, research

interests etc.) on a separate sheet of paper.

Each article submitted should conclude with a

list of Works Cited. Articles accepted become

the copyright of the journal unless otherwisespecifically agreed.

LanguageThe journal uses standard British English, and

the Editors reserve the right to alter usage to

that end. Because of the interdisciplinary natureof the readership, jargon is to be avoided. Simple

sentence structures are of great benefit to

readers for whom English is a second language.

Ill t ti


4/108

Studies in Theatre and Performance Volume 28 Number 2 2008 Intellect

Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/stap.28.2.91/1

Brecht and the disembodied actor

Roy Connolly and Richard Ralley

AbstractThis article examines Brechts contribution to acting theory and the v

claims and confusions that have surrounded this contribution when athave been made to impose unity upon his ideas or to re-inscribe his theory

of his practice. Rather than get caught up in existing debates, our strateg

examine the processes that Brecht describes as a problem of action or beh

to look for a practical method for the actor and to interrogate this method

erence to current ideas in the psychology of embodiment. In doing so, we c

that, although Brechts ideas about acting are (and have been histor

employed to legitimise a range of practices, they are, in their essence, problas they depend upon an over-conceptualisation of the human being and a p

ing of symbolic communication.

Brecht and the Academy

Can the approach to acting espoused by Brecht be practically implemand if so in what ways might this approach be said to differ from

forms of acting? It might be assumed that this question is already thoro

exhausted, as Brechtian acting often appears to circulate as sta

currency for students, teachers and critics of theatre alike. The shor

for Brecht is certainly well known: Brechtian acting is, devoid of em

declamatory, rooted in broad physical caricatures with no basis in r

(Krause: 273). Alternatively, it is popularly held that, even if difficult

cumscribe in their own right, Brechts ideas about acting can at le

elaborated through reference to their opposition with Stanislavskis s

(Zarrilli: 225) or Strasbergs method (Krause: 273). This folk vi

Brecht has significant prevalence perhaps not least because it a


5/108

Brechts ideas as simply antithesis to mimetic actin

ous. These studies provide a more convincing portr

lighting not only the problem of constructing binar

by drawing attention to the fragmented nature of B

regard, Peter Brooker argues against the tendency tfixed and unchanging, or to view it as revered holy

Elizabeth Wright reminds us we are dealing, not wit

with ideas formulated over thirty years which are

writings in the form of aphorisms, poetic fragment

instructions (Wright: 25); and John Rouse draws

absence of the dominance of any single all-powerfualone the dominance of a global acting methodolo

identifies, on the contrary, the application of virtu

customary actor techniques (Rouse: 238).

These studies have addressed some problems in t

Brecht. In doing so, they have, however, done little

of what constitutes the Brechtian performer and,

increase contention. A quick review of the literatur

diversity of opinion. We thus, at once, find Brech

conventional mimetic forms through a theatre found

and the warmth of the presentation of the role (Ed

Brecht as advocate of heightened playing and a

gesture and process (Baugh: 250); Brecht as rebel

performance and actors who will not subordinademands of the play (Hurwicz, cited in Eddershaw 1

as the father of modern theatre, whose ideas, eith

194) or in combination with other practitioners (usu

the basic structure of contemporary drama (Wrigh

Brecht has emerged as the key practitioner for an

proponents of postmodern theatre, for whom Brecht

means of resisting, destabilising, or even dissolving W

tion (cf. Diamond 1997). In such readings Brecht

are held to lie not in theatre but in Performance A

tion is banished from the stage (Baugh: 251) or

performance (cf Love 1995) As Michael Patterson


6/108

the relationship between approach and function that he expoun

doing so, we address the issue of Brechtian acting, not only as a

sophical problem, but also as a problem of action or behaviour, an

whether or not Brecht provides a practical method for the actor. In

fronting these issues, we argue that there are clear reasons why Brtheory is over-interpreted and/or misunderstood, and suggest tha

confusion Brecht provokes is not, as might be supposed, merely a c

quence of contention over his theories, but rather because of the v

the human being that he adopts. In this respect, we contend that B

inherits a dualism which divorces mind from body and privileges rep

tation over action (Clark; Dennett; Damasio 1994). Although privithe mind and the humans symbol-making capacities and corres

ingly underestimating physical processes is, of course, complicit w

vein in twentieth-century epistemology, we argue that in fragmentin

human beings emotional, physical and cognitive processes, B

inscribes a disjunctive view of the actor. Thus, just as it might be a

that the contradictions between Brechts political beliefs and per

behaviours reflect his deferral of engagement with the physical wor

Brechts misunderstanding of human communicative processes (his

conceptualisation of the human and his reliance on the symbolic

produces a considerable problem for the practical realisation of a p

mance style. And, consequently, though Brechts ideas may appear

retically compelling, they do little to negotiate the problem of actin

exists in the real world. In addressing this matter, we turn to the grliterature in psychology that argues that dualist views need to be rep

by embodied views of cognition, which emphasise that thought is a p

cal activity (Cosmides and Tooby; Gibson; Glenberg; ORegan and

and that physical, emotional and mental capacities must be integr

human communication and interpretation (e.g. the actor-audience

tionship) is to be understood.1

Brechts theoryIt might be assumed that the inconsistencies in the reception of Br

theories can be attributed to inconsistencies in the theories thems

with these in turn attributed to the long period over which they are


7/108

grips with things (Brecht: 23). Central to this is, of

effect, in which what is natural will have the forc

(Brecht: 71). The alienation effect promises to tran

icon to signifier, with the actor no longer achieving

a character but instead by presenting the persostranger, with the characters action placed firmly i

125). A concise version of this view is supplied by E

In performance the actor alienates rather than imper

she quotes or demonstrates her characters behaviour

with it. Brecht theorises that if the performer remains oufeelings, the audience may also and thus freely analy

about the plays fable.

Theory set against practiceThe problem of these statements begins to emerg

Brechts practice. Here it becomes clear that the asp

cumscribed above (abstract and philosophical idea

the exigencies of Brechts rehearsal room. Eddersh

that, in rehearsal, the ambition articulated in Brecht

side in place of pragmatism (Eddershaw 1994: 254

suggests that Brechts practice reveals an emphasis

fore only partial engagement with the mechanics results are achieved. Similarly, accounts of the detai

room work pull against the theory. Though the reh

have become known as Brechtian undoubtedly hav

than a manifestation of difference, we find techniqu

in many respects to, and in some cases overlap mark

niques developed by other twentieth-century Europe

as behavioural analysis, role-swapping, narration, a

cf. Rouse; Eddershaw 1994, 1996). These techniqu

of a theoretical position than a means of textual an

more or less inventive responses to the problem of sta

this Brechts process is documented as relying to


8/108

interesting case, as Brecht depicts him as a Gordon Craig-like renais

figure, expresses reverence for Laughtons inimitable, extra-thea

qualities, and even praises Laughton for the very thing he is usually

to oppose: his command of inspiration (Brecht: 163). Brechts la

engagement with the practical problem of acting is further underlinthe dismissiveness with which he is reported to have treated the com

ties of the actors task at various points in his career, as Thomson no

failure to appreciate, or even to recognise, the needs and vulnerabili

actors (Thomson: 26) and his refusal to entertain the task-based di

ties they might experience (Thomson: 27). Brechts real-world relatio

with actors might then be variously characterised as based on pratism, reverence or aloofness. Though these attitudes reveal diverse em

sis, in all cases there is a clear ambition in Brechts view of acting

does not find equivalence in practice. The pragmatic Brecht, conc

with the practicalities of acting, iterates other theatre forms or draws

the extra-theatrical characteristics of actors to negotiate the gaps

theory. The aloof or reverent Brecht meanwhile displays a tenden

over-regard ideal forms and to avoid engagement with the real-world

plexities of realising a method. Bearing this in mind, it is important to

with circumspection the suggestion that Brechts ideas are workable

when, properly understood, as it is precisely this kind of attitude

underlies the confusion that actors and students experience whe

introduced to Brecht.2 To develop this point further, it is helpful to

our attention to the historical context that informs Brechts attowards the actor.

Brechts AdversariesBrechts theatre is founded, like most twentieth-century theatre

ments, on the rejection of existing paradigms (cf. Zarrilli: 222): specif

according to Eddershaw, the style of acting he observed in Germany

1920s and 1930s (Eddershaw 1994: 254) which swamps the aud

with emotionalism and thereby deceives or dupes them. Brecht thu

tends: We need to get right away from the old naturalistic school of a

the dramatic school with its large emotions . . . This isnt the kind of

sentation that can express our time (Brecht: 68) As will be evident


9/108

on the basis of its collusion with emotionalism and

Brechts attack on the actor convincing an audienc

is the character (see Eddershaw 1994: 255) proceed

characterises this theatre as one in which the acto

role, persuading himself and thereby others that thcompletely into the character (Brecht: 137, 214). In

a theatre in which the actor is a demonstrator. There

rather disingenuous about all this. Brechts accoun

certainly guilty of the very thing for which he admon

conflating representation with reality. His referenc

the actor convinces himself and thereby the audiencrepresents or misunderstands realistic acting. The

certainly stands out, for even though realism m

iconicity, realism is never like reality. In psychologica

is always just that, acted. Even if the stage environ

and emotion provide enough information to convin

nature of the truth, there is still no need to think o

clinically, a different person. The actor may be immebut this does not create an independent, continuo

free of the actors own ability to monitor and control

The enacted role is merely the centre of narrative

terms). On these terms, for Stanislavski (for exampl

skill in terms of combining sensations and memor

active and dynamically varying contexts, but this fact that the actor always has control over the char

acting. Piscator makes a similar point, reminding us

the self-conscious regard for what is shown to an au

way, demonstration (see Krause: 272). Brecht then s

ill-defined and highly questionable opponent. Ari

once generalised, conflated with emotionalism and

plishing an ontological shift. Subsequently, Brecht is

as he is forced to qualify exactly what it is that he

theories play out in light of this. Furthermore, in m

tions, exactly what it is that he opposes is subject to

drifting as it does between the extremes of heighten


10/108

critics, Weigels Courage is the definitive Brechtian performance an

thus much cited as an exemplar of the Brechtian approach. Further

this exemplariness is held to adhere in one sequence of Weigels p

mance in particular: her use of a heightened and elaborate, yet also

scream to express grief at the death of her son Swiss Cheese. On terms, according to Rouse, Weigels scream is an example of the ty

carefully elaborated physicality that the ensembles actors were exp

to develop (Rouse: 236). He argues furthermore:

The very physicality of the moment moves it beyond the level of natura

grief with which an audience can empathise. We are shocked, stunshaken by Courages grief, but we are not allowed to share it on the plan

petty emotional titillation. The technically accomplished extremity of Wei

acting, in short, defamiliarises Courages grief through the very demonstra

of that grief.

(Rous

This kind of elaboration of natural behaviour is thus held to caBrechts idea of action formed on a large scale and given a stamp

sinks into the memory (Brecht: 83), or alternatively, using Brechts t

this may be identified as an example of the gestic principle taking

from the principle of imitation (Brecht: 86). Though this may be cri

exigent, when we examine the detail of what is described here, w

existing theatre technique if not the nature of Western theatre itselbeen co-opted as Brechtian. As critics such as Victor Shklovsky and

Stockwell argue, the key feature of all literary and theatrical work

make the familiar world appear new to us by focusing in, re-ordering

taposing, and heightening reality. Thus, all theatre might be said to in

something very similar to the kind of defamiliarisation Rouse iden

that is, all fictive experimenting with human experience opens up a

for reflection on the world and/or critique (cf. Shklovsky; Stockwel

In terms of the specifics of Weigels approach, it is also difficult to

where her approach departs from mimetic or Aristotelian theatre.

mimetic theatre, the emphasis is also less upon faithfully depicting ap

ances than upon distilling and heightening real life In both approa


11/108

of existing theatre practices (Brecht: 199). If Brechts

suggests) follow behind practice, Brechts theorisatio

marily a reconceptualisation and redesignation of e

Elizabeth Wright effectively sums up the point:

What he calls epic theatre is not a wilful invention d

theatre, the point being that there is no such thing. B

theatre have demonstrators who show their interest

caught up in the events and prepared to take the role

case there is an interplay of art and life: the experienc

atricalised, rather than imitated as if it were happenin

Contemporary Brechtian performersWhat, though, if we look at the area where Brecht

cates are most likely to be found, in the field of exper

Might the practices of avant-garde theatre uncover t

Brecht? As already mentioned, Brecht provides, if nthen certainly inspiration for those seeking a mean

sentational frames of conventional theatre (Love: 27

of the actors Lauren Love and Duane Krause are in

formers offer reflections on their attempts to imple

For each practitioner, Brechts appeal rests on the sa

When he appears on the stage, besides what he actuall

essential points discover, specify, imply what he is not

will act in such a way that the alternative emerges as c

his acting allows the other possibilities to be inferred .

every gesture signifies a decision . . . The technical ter

fixing the not . . . but.

Following this idea, Krause states that, when adopt

actors should attempt to reveal to the audience t

made in presenting their character (rather than m

3. In this regard, bothpractitioners drawheavily on theaccount of Brechtoffered by ElinDiamond in her 1988essay Brechtiantheory/feministtheory: towards agestic feministcriticism, and later inUnmaking Mimesis.However, althoughDiamond attests tothe stunning effects

of Brechtian acting,she offers little in theway of practicalmethod, concedingthat A-effects are noteasy to produce(1997: 47).


12/108

the issue of whether or not his practical methods achieve their ex

ends, Krause is rather circumspect. He offers the conjecture that th

formance is no doubt strange as well as surprising for at least so

the audience (Krause: 274), but does not interrogate the viewers e

ence beyond this. Thus, though Krause may successfully draw attentthe duality of performance, he does not distinguish the duality he

grounds from the duality that is present in all acting (actor/role). H

tainly does not get as far as explicating the relationship between th

disrupting characterand the audience engaging in critique. Loves appro

more politically motivated than Krause. She aligns herself with a fe

performance project and seeks a performance technique which will the actor to point to the construction of . . . gender (Love: 276). For

the basis of resisting organic performance lies in two things. She m

Krauses desire to have the character and actor present simultaneou

she argues having an actor who stands beside the role, and steps i

out of character (Love: 287, 288) creates a unique tension which, in

opens a space for critique (Love: 282). In addition, Loves approach

marked by the endeavour to disrupt the conventional idea of femaleacter and thereby resist collusion with the male gaze (Love: 284). Sh

foregrounds the importance of playing against the texts overall im

and rewriting character through performance. However, although

enthuses about the possibility of resistant performance on this basi

approach like Krauses stumbles on the point of intentional fa

She focuses on what is intended to be read in a highly selective maFurthermore, upon inspection, the resistant element in her work

more to Stanislavskis notion of the superobjective than anything in Br

theory (cf. Love: 286), with the performance she advocates resemblin

performance of any actor playing with an awareness of subtext, and

ing a reading or interpretation of a role. Giving the inconsistencies im

here, we find Love ultimately unable to testify to the efficacy of her

and acknowledging that the outcome of her efforts is rather du

Whether or not the spectators questioned their assumptions about g

or representation is unknown to me and highly doubtful (Love:

Consequently, though placing their faith in, and weight behind, B

both Krause and Love end their reflections upon their work with


13/108

being. In order to make this argument, it is appro

turn to something that may appear to have been

from this article Brechts politics, for it is Brecht

the clue to the problem with his view of the actor.

The constructed humanIt is, of course, commonplace to note the influence o

on Brechts thinking, so we do not propose to visit t

present purposes (our discussion of Brecht and t

though, two aspects of Marxism that are particul

Marxisms suspicion ofthe natural order of thing

emphasis, in league with early twentieth-century ps

structedness of the human.4 And, secondly, Marxism

consciousness about the power relationships at wo

human structures. Drawing on Marx, Brecht seeks

human nature, natural order and universal situat

to reveal the human world and by extension the hu

as an artificial or arbitrary construct, bound up political and economic factors (Brecht: 86). In doin

subjects to become aware of their socialisation an

This view of the human as social rather than biolog

at its most extreme when Brecht speculates: as in m

the series which assigns meaning. One is no one. O

by another; man only comes into being via the lanby being called upon to occupy a place. Identity is no

produced within a signifying system (cited in Wrigh

the human being is represented as narrative matte

identity at best unstable.

The influence of behaviourismThe depiction of fluid identity may suggest chaos at

Brecht finds a point of anchorage amid this account

an appeal to rationality and science. Furthermore,

natural ally for his perspective in behaviourist ps

Marxism focuses on the social influences on beha

4. See Durkheimsinfluential suggestionthat society is a bodyof ideas that is notconstrained byhuman natureand which providesthe mould for thecontent of themind (Durkheim[1895]1962). For aconverse modernview see Buss (2001):Culture rests on afoundation of evolved

psychologicalmechanisms andcannot be understoodwithout thosemechanisms (Buss:955).

5. Brecht seesbehaviourism as thesource of a new artcapable of affectingthe world: We haveacquired an entirelynew psychology:viz. the AmericanDr WatsonsBehaviourism . . .Such is our time, andthe theatre must be

acquainted with itand go along with it,and work out anentirely new sort ofart such as will becapable of influencingmodern people(Brecht: 67).


14/108

(Brecht: 23). As a consequence, Brecht aims not merely to reflect the

but to lift the world onto a dialectic plain through abstraction, and to

upon symbolic meaning and the essential aspects of social forces.

Appealing to consciousnessBrechts privileging of rationality and second-order or symbolic mean

bound up with a sense of the necessity for communication to take pla

the conscious plane in order to facilitate critical detachment and an

that is, playing has to enable and encourage the audience to draw ab

conclusions (Brecht: 100).6 In this respect, the play-audience relatio

is seen as being underpinned by the kind of algorithmic rules by wmathematical problems may be solved, and the actor is inscribed a

that can be fragmented and read in multiple fashion by an autono

spectator. Brechts view here is utopian. He wishes to produce an aud

who will confront the contradictions and flux of the social world (B

76). Emphasising ideology and social change is, though, also for Br

means of addressing what he sees as the covert operations of existing t

practice, where acceptance or rejection of actors actions and uttertake place in the audiences subconscious (Brecht: 91). For Brech

kind of physical, non-mediated, non epistemised interaction is to be re

at all costs. The body, unlike the mind, is not to be trusted, as it

duping the audience or flooding the human system with the chaos

organic.7 In this regard, Brecht sees flesh and blood not as a well

of human nature and communication but as site of dysfunction, ibody is the source of a cloddish resistance that stands in the way of

(Brecht: 46).

Disembodiment in practice/the disembodied actorA conception of the human as data rather than physicality, then,

the basis of how Brecht approaches the actor. He demotes the physic

focuses on laws and that which is available to consciousness. He see

to exploit physical communicative capacities but to disembody the acto

the semiotic, so that a language of metaphor stands in for direct exper

and the actor operates as a signifier (a symbol) rather than as a re

(cf Wright: 114) This preoccupation with the symbolic order is ref


15/108

(Brecht: 58). In all cases Brecht sees it as his task to

the art of acting, with devices such as the alienation

and narration operating as symbolic devices designe

inary unity between producer and text, actor and r

stage (Wright: 2). As Elizabeth Wrights notes, this is similar in spirit to Barthess project in S/Z (Wr

Brecht works with actors, and not as Barthes doe

runs together organic experience (what is presented

symbolic (what is read).

Brechts ErrorIn conflating the human with the operation of the hu

and, indeed, inferring that the body needs to be h

sciousness, Brecht overestimates mental processes

underestimates physical capacities, direct human co

body. This misunderstanding or mistrust of the

divorce information from its carrier and cut the acto

ied or post-human theatre (Brecht: 95). In seekinfrom an organic process to the manipulation of data

extent to which the organic and not the textual (ex

and information from outside the play) must be draw

and audience (Brecht: 54). Similarly, in expecting t

scious control of acting Brecht fails to appreciate how

develop his works actually function. His acting theorwith what the actor is able to achieve. Human pre

ignored. They are central to communication. Withou

acting is reduced to a mechanical process. In prac

reality of the human will always intervene and get in

awareness. The tension here is confirmed by prac

commentaries of actors, for whom Brechts theori

and/or misconceive the nature of acting. This sense

by Alec Guinnesss contention that Brechts theorie

nature of the actor substituting some cerebral proc

(cited in Eddershaw 1994: 265). And it is also reflec

Sher and Charles Laughton who despite being re


16/108

one hand, he conceives of emotion as a source of disruption which in

helpless and involuntary lurchings (Brecht: 89) and so suggest

actors should play against emotion (Brecht: 122) portraying incide

utmost passion without delivery becoming heated (Brecht: 93). H

claims that demonstration can lose its validity if emotion is repro(Brecht: 122); and at his most provocative asserts his disdain for the

who want to have the cockles of their hearts warmed (Brecht: 14

the other hand, Brecht notes that neither the public nor the actor m

stopped from taking part emotionally (Brecht: 173) and admonish

frequently recurring mistake of supposing that epic production disp

with emotional effects (Brecht: 88). After considerable debate on this

most critics have abandoned the old assumption that Brecht throws em

out of the theatre, and now accept that emotion is, in fact, very m

part of his work (cf. Meyer-Dinkgrfe: 64).

However, the various debates about whether or not Brecht p

emotion, and, if so, the nature of this emotion, have obscured th

problem: Brecht inscribes an emotion/reason dualism which misu

stands the way people transmit and receive information (Brecht: 1more on Brechts view of rational and emotional points of view see B

145). Though this is consistent with much of European epistemolog

a perspective that is problematic from the point of view of modern

chology. Here, the idea that cognition is skewed towards represen

and abstract problem-solving is increasingly being replaced by appro

that look at the affective nature of mind. Under such approachehuman is no longer seen on the one hand as a coldly rational proces

information or, on the other, as irrational and error-prone. Emoti

rather, accepted as an integral part of thinking. This can be termed

from coldto hot cognition. In hot cognition, motivational systems ar

to drive cognitive systems, and emotion and purpose are held to be

heart of thinking and engagement with the world. A growing num

researchers working from this premise thus argue that emotion helps h

beings organise and select responses when negotiating the environ

and each other (see Brecht: 193). For Metzinger, emotion is central

notion of the self. For Panksepp, emotion provides a precondition f

emergence of thought and reflective self awareness (Panksepp: 150


17/108

phenomenon such as a play, by giving an indication

tendencies that need to be drawn upon if literary a

their effects (cf. Carroll 2007). In this regard, we m

manner in which drama functions, that is, how it d

meaning to context. For a dramatic world to functiobe allowed to immerse himself in that world, and th

to familiarise himself with local laws, find his way r

participatory relationships between characters, an

relation to shifts in location and time (cf. Stockwell:

cognition suggests that emotion and empathy are t

deictic engagement, that emotion and empathy bin

play and facilitate the identification that is essential

ters perspective (Stockwell: 153). In addition, emo

the source of the ability to intuit another persons

and beliefs and to envision the world from someon

(Carroll: 641; Stockwell: 1713). On these terms e

cannot be seen merely as unfortunate after-thoug

practice such as drama, they must instead be regmakes drama possible: i.e. without emotion and em

would have no means of navigating a dramatic worl

be no positive or negative feelings to prompt the spec

In this regard, it follows that it is the affective, and no

ness, that is the source of the spectators ability to

phenomena such as dramatic stage presentations. Coviews of cognition imply that there is a binding prob

ratives that are shaped by conscious forms rather th

subconscious imperatives of (evolved) psychologica

accounts suggest that, in itself, the conscious mind

fabulatory and even a source of irrationality (e.g.

Metzinger: 2347), and that what binds the human

social, is a warmer kind of cognition, emerging frupwelling subconscious, part of which may be the

physical states (Damasio 2000).

Under these views, thinking is part of action,

much part of thought In contrast Brecht explicitly


18/108

The subconsciousBrechts view of emotion inscribes a common metacognitive human e

the human beings tendency to overestimate the ability of his/her

consciousness, which is tributary to an overestimation of verbal, lo

conscious intelligence, and corresponding de-emphasis of emotion, vation, and context (Levin; LeDoux; and see also Dennett). Consciou

is not, though, the kind of representational and processing summ

that it subjectively seems. In fact, even the fraction of the humans

action with the world that is incorporated into consciousness is in

pletely assembled (see Simons and Chabris). Evolutionary psych

helps develop this point. It emphasises that the mind is more than

scious cognition, and that, though the human mind solves proble

does not necessarily do so by dealing in abstract formulations but r

according to built-in adaptations (see Cosmides and Tooby). Further

as the limited evolutionary remit and capacity of consciousness ma

unable to process everything adequately for performance, subcon

processing is the rule rather than the exception (LeDoux). Perce

motor, semantic and response processes are all regularly engaged wconscious awareness (Dehaene et al.; Milner and Goodale), and even s

and imagery, which appear to be bastions of the conscious manipulat

information, are products of subconscious manufacture. Similarly,

relationships and social decision-making depend on physical functio

as the latent activation of motor responses is needed to understand o

actions, emotions and intentions, and these motor responses occur dthe observation of actions without ever necessarily being available a

resentations in consciousness (Damasio 2003; Gallese, Keysers and Riz

2004; Rizzolatti and Fogassi 2007). In all respects, the minds n

inclination is to distil the essence of engagement with the world. The

sifts out useful rules about how to act, and then seeks to make these

ponents of future responses as readily available as possible, for examp

reducing them to permanent and unconscious skills that are efforrecalled via the process that is commonly known as procedural mem

Consciousness and techniqueBecause he seeks to draw attention to representation and the hidden


19/108

actor from his natural human state aids the pro

play as a rational, perceptual problem to be solved b

also posits that this assists the spectator in becoming

of meaning who analyses rather than feels as his/h

for whom consciousness rather than the body interof the play. In psychological terms, Brecht is then f

knowledge that is consciously reportable. However,

only a subset of learned knowledge (i.e. most know

procedural and bodily). The subconscious plays a key

and in organising activity, and it is here that most h

communication) is sourced or generated. Consequen

ling the emergence of complex behavioural patterns o

ones does not capture how directed purpose is em

form (how the actor acts). Thus, where Brecht expre

this is a theory of the mind and not the body. In this

as a practice where Knowledge is a matter of know

96). However, employing techniques alone, withou

in emotion and the subconscious sources of actioreminds us, a senseless exercise (Stanislavski: 238)

an idealised actor who exists abstractly, but it does

who must deal with the contingencies of the real

acting as representation and convention involves too

the human operates. Emotion and the subconscious

modated, as they facilitate the direct cooperation oformance (Stanislavski: 24) and scaffold human com

that seen in bodily mechanisms that allow a direc

between performer and viewer to exist without re

symbolic conceptualisation (Gallese et al.). Emotion

mission of meaningful information, cannot be freely

lated, and so in particular confront the human with

(see Metzinger) that through shared inheritance ptransmission of information, if the emotional contex

focusing on representation, it is therefore important t

connection for the actor between outside and inside

purpose or objective are not sufficient on their own


20/108

(something we have already noted Brecht is culpable of in his v

shifts between reverence for actors, aloofness, and pragmatism the

of the pudding is in the eating). This lack of engagement with the rea

the human and the physical and affective (as well as conscious) nat

the actors task might thus be seen as the source of the competing cconfusions, debates and deferral that surround the topic of Br

approach to the actor.

ConclusionThe embodied view of cognition is sometimes critiqued for offer

reductive view of the human. This is because stressing fit-for-pu

mechanisms and the natural necessities that impinge on the human

tying the individuals responses too closely to the external environ

that specify them. In this regard, emphasising the importance of

mechanism (subconscious, automatic, procedural processing) can a

to entail determinism or to turn human behaviour into a mot

process. It is important that this kind of position is avoided, as it m

inverts the problem of the overestimation of consciousness that wediscussed with regard to Brecht. On these terms, Brechts experim

and didactic approach to the actor is not to be dismissed as mere es

cism. While acknowledging that the functioning of the human m

constrained by its biological nature, we can also note that a persp

such as that of Brecht has a contribution to make to constructing a

prehensive account of the human. In this regard, Brecht raises impoissues that provide a challenge to psychology. His insistence on

sciousness foregrounds an important issue the humans non-co

bound capacities (i.e. how the human being is able to detach itsel

immediate circumstance, employ counterfactual thinking (see Glen

and explore and evaluate alternatives [Carroll: 640]). As a conseq

Brecht makes a contribution to confronting psychologists with no

less than the issue of how humans alter the world in which theyThus, while acknowledging the tensions in Brechts view of the h

(and the actor), Brecht reminds us that not only the body and n

response needs to be at the centre of any account of, or appeal t

human (and the actor) but also consciousness and all the comple


21/108

explanations of behaviour (Barton 2007: 138

Gallese 2003, 2007). Consequently, the evolved cap

relation, action and empathy are fundamental r

acknowledged if a theory of acting is to be constru

cepts and social laws that Brecht discusses are to bgated by spectators.

Works cited

Barton, Robert A. (2007), Evolution of the social brainsystem, in Dunbar and Barrett, pp. 129144.

Baugh, Christopher (1994), Brecht and Stage Design, in Thpp. 235253.

Bentley, Eric (2000 [1964]), Are Stanislavski and Brin Carol Martin and Henry Bial (eds.), Brecht Sourcebpp. 3742.

Brecht, Bertolt (1964), Brecht on Theatre: The DevelopmenMethuen.

Brooker, Peter (1994), Key words in Brechts theory anThomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks (eds.), pp. 18520

Buss, David M. (2001), Human nature and culture: An cal perspective,Journal of Personality, 69: 6, pp. 9559

Carroll, Joseph (2007), Evolutionary approaches to litDunbar and Barrett (eds.), pp. 637648.

Clark, Andy (1997), Being There: Putting Brain, Body, anCambridge MA: MIT Press.

Cosmides, Leda and John Tooby (1992), Cognitive adaptat

in Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby (New York: Oxford University Press.

Damasio, Antonio (1994), Descartes Error: Emotion, ReasNew York: Putnams.

(2000), The Feeling of What Happens: Body, EmConsciousness, London: Heinemann.

(2003), Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and theHeinemann.

Dehaene, S., Naccache, L., LeClec, H. G., Koechlin, E., MuelleG., van der Moortele, P.-F., and Le Bihan, D. (1998semantic priming Nature 395: 6702 pp 597 600

8. The word graspappears in discussionsof seminal brainresearch (particularlywork by Rizzolattiet al.) that raises

the prospect thatimagining, simulating,understanding anddoing have the samebasis. Hence, withreference to empathyand the brain systemsthat directly linkhumans, as referred

to in this article,Metzinger (2003:379) applies the termgrasp to underlinethe importance ofaction to conceptualunderstanding.


22/108

Gallese, Vittorio (2003), The manifold nature of interpersonal relations: thefor a common mechanism, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society S358: 1431, pp. 517528.

(2007), Before and below theory of mind: embodied simulation a

neural correlates of social cognition, Philosophical Transactions of theSociety Series B, 362: 1480, pp. 659669.

Gallese, Vittorio, Christian Keysers and Giacomo Rizzolatti (2004), A unifyinof the basis of social cognition, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8: 9, pp. 396

Gibson, James J. (1979), The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, BHoughton-Mifflin.

Glenberg, Arthur M. (1997), What memory is for, Behavioral and Brain S20:1, pp. 155.

James, William (1890), The Principles of Psychology, Cambridge MA: H

University Press.

Krause, Duane (1995), An epic system, in Zarrilli (ed.), pp. 262274.

LeDoux, Joseph (1998), The Emotional Brain, London: Weidenfeld and Nicols

Levin, Daniel T. (2002), Change blindness as visual metacognition, JouConsciousness Studies, 9: 56, pp. 111130.

Love, Lauren (1995), Resisting the organic: a feminist actors approaZarrilli, pp. 274288.

Metzinger, Thomas (2003), Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of SubjeCambridge MA: MIT Press.

Meyer-Dinkgrfe, Daniel (2001), Approaches to Acting, London: Continuum.

Milner, A. David and Melvyn Goodale (1995), The Visual Brain in Action, OOxford University Press.

ORegan, J. Kevin and Alva No (2001), A sensorimotor account of visiovisual consciousness, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24: 5, pp. 9391031

Panksepp, Jaak (2007), The neuroevolutionary and neuroaffective psychobiologyprosocial brain, in Dunbar and Barrett (eds.), pp. 145162.

Patterson, Michael (1994), Brechts legacy, in Thomson and Sacks (eds.), pp. 273

Rizzolatti, Giacomo, and Leonardo Fogassi (2007), Mirror neurons and social coin Dunbar and Barrett (eds.), pp. 179196.

Rouse, John (1995), Brecht and the contradictory actor, in Zarrilli (ed.), pp. 228

Shklovsky, Victor (1965), Art as technique, in Lee T. Lemon and Mario(eds.), Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays, Lincoln: University of Ne

Press.

Simons Daniel J and Ch istophe F Chab is (1999) Go illas in o midst: s


23/108

Suggested citation

Connolly, R., & Ralley, R. (2008), Brecht and the disem

Theatre and Performance 28: 2, pp. 91110, doi: 10.13

Contributor detailsRoy Connolly is a Senior Lecturer in Drama, and program

Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Sinterests include cultural identity, acting and directing.E-mail: [email protected]

Richard Ralley is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the U

research and teaching interests are in cognitive psychology,

of perception and action, and the relationship of consciousE-mail: [email protected]

S d h d f l 28 b 2 2008 ll


24/108



Following the dream/passing the mem

Shakespeare in translation

Mike Ingham

AbstractIn this article I will investigate why Shakespeares plays are sites of transadaptation-appropriation par excellence for memetic propagation with

across cultures. I will explore one of Shakespeares most famous and

works, as well as one of his most adapted, A Midsummer Nights Dreamrefer to a number of adaptations, appropriations, variations or even evolu

mutations, as one might call them in the terminology of gene and meme

What I am principally interested in, for the purpose of this article, is the qu

of relevance and applicability of memetic concepts to Shakespeare, himselfthe most significant cultural phenomena of the last 500 years. As argua

most influential adapting and subsequently adapted author of all time,

speare is ideal for the purposes of the present study. The sheer popularity

larity of performance and cultural continuity ofA Midsummer Nights Dmakes it, along with Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Romeo and highly representative in its universality. I will refer to a number of diac

appropriations and adaptations, including Henry Purcells The Fairy QBenjamin Brittens more faithful operatic version of the play and George

chines sumptuous 1962 ballet version based on Mendelssohns famous s

will also discuss the current vogue for Asian adaptations of Shakespeare

number of examples, focusing especially on Jung Ung Yangs recent approp

of Shakespeares Dream into a traditional Korean theatrical idiom for Seou

Yohangza Theatre Company.

This exploration of literary adaptation and appropriation has had reco

at several points to companion art forms such as film and music and to


25/108

Background and meme theory

That virtue of originality that men so strain after is

nothing new); it is only genuineness.

(John Rus

In Michael Bristols book Big-time Shakespeare, the a

Blooms theory of poetic cultural influence, partic

and, extending the etymological proximity of infl

likens it to a virus, which replicates itself exponentia

Shakespeares longue dure, Bristol touches on the qu

cultural transmission of Shakespeares work has s

with concepts of biological replication connected w

and, by extension, digital replication

Does the principle of a self-replicating code or informa

the domain of culture? Blooms theory of influence sug

literary works are a complex form of obligate parasitlinguistic hackers. On this view the literary artist u

natural language to devise the self-replicating code. T

human bio-ware, where it makes copies of itself.

Julie Sanders contemplates a similar scenario of dyn

tion in her 2006 study of literary adaptation and ap

necessary link, rather than a loose metaphorical ana

cal and cultural adaptation phenomena

What begins to emerge is the more kinetic account of

priation . . . . . these texts often rework texts that often

texts. The process of adaptation is ongoing. It is not

that the disciplinary domains in which the term adapt

resonant are biology and ecology . . . . . Adaptation pr

[adaptive variation in species] to be a far from neutra

mode of being far removed from the unimaginative ac


26/108

brain. Susan Blackmore discusses its fundamental characteristics i

Meme Machine: What then makes for a good quality replicator? Da

(1976) sums it up in three words fidelity, fecundity and longevity

means that a replicator has to be copied accurately, many copies m

made, and the copies must last a long time although there may be offs between the three (Blackmore: 58).

Dawkinss agenda is sociobiological. He tries to represent an

dimension of human evolution stressing the role of the brain in g

transformation. He is careful to differentiate between the gene an

meme: . . . In general, memes resemble the early replicating mole

floating chaotically free in the primeval soup, rather than modern

in their neatly paired chromosomal regiments ([1976]1989:

Nevertheless, Dawkins believes that memetic evolution is achieving

tionary change at a rate that leaves the old gene panting far be

([1976]1989: 192). With methodologies of natural science, one mig

so far as to argue that memes can affect the biological function

brain, therefore other body functions and ultimately genetic revol

That would be an ambitious and significant task for human beingsunderstanding. Yet for the present occasion, I limit myself to usin

concept of the meme without exploring the biological implications (

for which I am, as a non-scientist, eminently unsuited!). In any ca

should bear in mind that Dawkinss original hypothesis of the meme

that: a hypothesis and an interesting postscript to his genetic theor

he has been at pains to point out in introducing Blackmores develop

of his hypothesis (1996: xvi).

Notwithstanding reservations about the demonstrability of the m

in Dawkinss recent best-selling broadside against revealed religio

creationist propaganda, The God Delusion, he appears to have retaine

fidence in his original concept: The meme pool is less structured an

organised than the gene pool. Nevertheless, it is not obviously s

speak of a meme pool in which particular memes might have a frequwhich can change as a consequence of competitive interactions with

native memes (2006: 223). Speaking of the thorny issue of fideli

compared to Darwinian replicators, Dawkins offers the exquisite

example of master apprentice transmission of craft skills He conc


27/108

that I want to foreground: the way that ideas sprea

are translated, just as biological evolution involves m

a translator is not someone whose task is to conse

propagate something, to spread and develop it: tra

change (Chesterman: 2). In his discussion of the Souin Translation Studies, he emphasises this idea as bei

being about movement along a path: cognitive ling

path schema, with the translation itself being the tr

this path (Chesterman: 8).

This is useful for our present purpose because the

offers a special dimension in the way we think ab

memes. According to the hypothesis, a meme reprod

mutation involved in the process. The new meme

parent-meme. They exist side by side. If the parent-m

it is because it does not adapt to either a changed o

never because it is replaced by the new meme. An

or play director can understand this perfectly well

adaptation/appropriation can never replace or effalthough the original might not be read by the tr

seen by spectators of the adaptation. This is true for

tion and inter-cultural transposition. I am particul

present article, in what Roman Jakobson called inte

or transmutation that is, translation across sign

words into music, from music into dance, and from

painting (Jakobson: 147).

In his essay The Task of the Translator, Walter B

idea of what he terms translatability, referring to th

ary text that lend themselves to translation. He goes o

ironically, transplants the original into a more defi

since it can no longer be displaced by a secondary r

can only be raised there anew and at other points ofIt is this use of anew that is particularly illuminatin

tation and translation practice. Each local production

from whatever source-culture it may derive, actively

text for a fresh target audience This is true of ma

h l l d l h


28/108

Just as in the original, language and revelation are one without any ten

so the translation must be one with the original in the form of the interli

version, in which literalness and freedom are united. For to some degre

great texts contain their potential translation between the lines.

(Benjam

It is precisely this nebulous content contained between the lines of

matic text that has inspired directors and actors of diverse culture

generations to explore the vast possibilities inherent in the work, a

encode the work for a fresh target audience, be their praxis intra-cu

or inter-cultural.

The afterlife ofA Midsummer Nights Dream How shalfind the concord of this discord?

Ovids Metamorphoses are themselves a fable of constant translation, o

tragic or ironic changes of identity into new form.

(George Steiner, After Bab

The performance history of A Midsummer Nights Dream exemplifi

view that Shakespeares dramatic work is protean and elastic in its p

mance potentiality. To quote Fischlin and Fortier: As long as there

been plays by Shakespeare, there have been adaptations of those

(Fischlin and Fortier: 1). Given the huge range of adaptations and a

priations of this play, it is therefore somewhat ironic that it is one

few Shakespeare plays that does not appear, as far as scholarship ca

to have been adapted predominantly from a single original source. D

from around the same time as Romeo and Juliet and probably firs

formed in 1595, the play is, in Stanley Wellss authoritative view, o

Shakespeares most individual creations (Wells 1967:14).

However, that is not to say that the various components of the plwithout traceable literary sources. There are three main plot strand

love affairs and quarrels between the pairs of fugitive human lover

strife and mischief in the fairy world of the forest; and the rehe

and ultimate performance of the workmen preparing a dramatic int

S b t d ti f th l it lf t1 Th lib tt f Th


29/108

Subsequent productions of the play itself or te

lerised versions and adaptations-appropriations in

media have tended to emphasise one or two of the a

quently to the detriment of the third. It seems that,

Pepys diary entry of 1662 in which the performance and ridiculous, the claims of spectacular mimesis o

performances of the play were already firmly esta

ironic considering the magically evocative quality

Little wonder, then, that many educated commenta

noisseurs preferred the reading mode of Shakespeare

live performance mode. As Wells pertinently observe

the plays opportunities for spectacle has too long a h

said, there is little doubt that among Shakespeare

Nights Dream is commonly regarded as one of the m

and enchanting, particularly in an open-air settin

nature in the text can be experienced not only litera

and phenomenologically. The powerful synthesis of n

lies at the heart of the plays power to regenerate its maudiences from century to century and continent to

Henry Purcells baroque entertainment The Fair

on the quarrels of the mortal and fairy couples th

in Titanias memorable epithet and especially the

Indian boy, set Shakespeares central plot line, but n

in any distinctly recognisable form.1 To quote Peter

a wild composite of startling songs, bursts of dialog

Nights Dream, characters who have crept in from pa

musical invitations to scenic spectacle, but for all th

nerve this misshapen spectacular carries the hallm

avant-garde.2 In the creative adaptive process Pur

airs of exquisite, crystalline beauty in his rambling, n

the plays central themes and motifs. The Fairy Queboth vocal and instrumental mime and dance over

element provided by Shakespeares rude mechan

transformed into the presence of a drunken poet, som

the loose narrative and the sexually suggestive antics

1. The libretto ofTheFairy Queen is derivedfrom an anonymousadaptation ofShakespeares AMidsummer Nights

Dream. Subsequentlyit was attributed toElkanah Settle butanother possibleauthor has beenidentified as ThomasBetterton, withwhom Purcellcollaborated on

another semi-opera,Dioclesian. See TheCambridge Introductionto English Theatre,p. 22 for a moredetailed discussionof the idiosyncraticmedley ofShakespeares plotdetails and thelibretto lyrics set tomusic by Purcell.

2. Peter Thomson, TheCambridge Introductionto English Theatre,16601900,Cambridge: CUP,p. 22.

a much more recent variation on Shakespeares source namely Ben


30/108

a much more recent variation on Shakespeare s source, namely Ben

Brittens opera, also entitled A Midsummer Nights Dream (1959) li

by Britten and Peter Pears after Shakespeare undermines any suc

mulation. Brittens opera, by marked contrast with Purcells, exhi

high degree of fidelity to Shakespeares formal and poetic concept, inof his inevitable abandonment of iambic pentameter and trochaic tet

ter. Brittens and Pearss libretto for the opera sets many of Shakesp

lines, although it does take structural liberties by conflating certain s

from different acts and omitting some of the more extended exch

between characters. The three-act structure of Brittens adaptation

much a standard format for opera succeeds in encapsulating all

plot elements in an instantly recognisable form. Certain effects, su

skilfully devised synchronous duets and quartets covering s

exchanges in the original text, capture the mood of the lovers qu

wonderfully well. They convey effectively, more effectively perhaps

consecutively delivered lines of the spoken play, the insistence of e

the lovers on their own emotional perspectives and their refusal to lis

each other rationally.Brittens master-stroke in his operatic version of this quintess

English pastoral piece is to recreate the sound world of Shakespeare

in a paradoxically modern and yet ancient style. In doing so he lays

the ghost of Mendelssohns magnificent but excessively associated inci

music of the romantic era, with its famous wedding march and irres

motifs suggesting the antics of both fairies and clowns. The Mendel

meme had predominated for more than a hundred years and be

wholly identified with Shakespeares play, in spite of a minor variati

it by composer Erich Korngold in a version specially re-arranged fo

Reinhardts 1935 film of the Dream. Britten succeeds in discovering a

elemental soundscape to replace the romanticised world of ninete

century interpretation more chromatically nuanced than the Mende

score which harmonises perfectly with the Shakespearean texbrings out the plays Englishness. The hauntingly beautiful blessing r

Now until the break of day, sung by Oberon, Titania and their fairy re

which closes the opera, is somehow Elizabethan in its use of vo

reminiscent of Byrd Tallis or Dowland but at the same time moder

adaptation mode Britten by contrast saw somethin


31/108

adaptation mode. Britten, by contrast, saw somethin

pastoral and eternally magical in Shakespeares lang

to transpose remarkably faithfully.

At the same time that Britten was composing hi

dent version and there is clear concord in the disGeorge Balanchine was conceiving his neoclassica

(1962) for La Scala Ballet Company, fusing his own

with Mendelssohns inspirational music. Balanchine

burlesque element provided by Bottom and his fe

favour of a two-part structure that highlights the dis

the first act followed by the unifying joint nuptia

The wedding march and the various divertissements

celebratory and narratively static second act indicate

Balanchines interests lay for the purposes of his a

act, apart from the slightly bizarre variant of tr

changeling boy into Titanias cavalier (an excessiv

tion of Shakespeares use of the word squire, it s

follows Shakespeares narrative quite closely. One exconcentration on pure dance and aesthetic harmon

Bottoms dance with Titania, a brilliant compromise

and dramatic necessity. Having dispensed with the

intermission, the choreographer feels free to conce

and spectacular configurations in the second half. P

licence is not so far from the spirit of the original a

Harold Brooks has pointed out, the music, song and

Dream are an intrinsic part of the works plot, not me

(see Brooks 1979). The works spectacle and its sou

hand with the lyricism of Shakespeares dramatic rhy

The recurrent meme in all of these transposition

landmark stage interpretations such as Harley Gr

Savoy Theatre production, Peter Halls 1959 Stratf1970 Peter Brook Royal Shakespeare Company p

transmitting or regenerating the sound-vision ba

Shakespeares play. The physical sound experienc

A Midsummer Nights Dream transcends rather as

Asian Babes Shakespeares Asian progeny and Yohang


32/108

Asian Babes Shakespeare s Asian progeny and YohangTheatre Companys A Midsummer Nights Dream

From fairest creatures we desire increase

That thereby beautys rose might never die(William Shakespeare, So

In recent decades there has been a proliferation of Asian adaptati

Shakespeare, whether for the stage or for the screen. Akira Kuros

Ran and Throne of Bloodhave embedded themselves in the consciousn

Shakespeare devotees world-wide and evolved a cultural life both re

to and independent of their respective parent texts. Many Asian ad

tions of Shakespeare are intercultural and inter-semiotic in essence

the most memorable succeed in transplanting the Shakespearean see

fresh and fertile cultural soil that is culturally alien from Lond

Stratford. Anthony Tatlows perception of more than a decade ago is

ably even truer now than when he wrote it, given the innate conserv

and resistance of the Shakespeare establishment towards any attemtake liberties with the Bard, and the corresponding time-lapse req

for acceptance

A Japanese or Chinese Shakespeare no longer seems a contradiction in te

but can open our eyes to readings we would never have associated

those texts but which seem entirely justified and hence an enlargemen

our understanding. These performances are simply more exciting and

gestively defamiliarising . . . than anything currently available with

purely Western repertory.

(Tatlow:

Tatlows book pre-dates new groups such as Edward Halls Pro

company, and he may not have seen Thtre de Complicit at the timboth companies, not to mention Mark Rylances high-quality Shakes

productions at the Globe Theatre, have done much to revitalise n

Shakespeare performance in the last ten to fifteen years. Both Com

and Propeller have also toured extensively to critical acclaim Neverth

Dream, which correspond to the deadly theatre th3. Interview reported in


33/108

Dream, which correspond to the deadly theatre th

unerringly in The Empty Space. As Jatinder Verma

Arts, whose recent production ofThe Merchant of Ve

in Kerala, points out: Shakespeare is strong on clas

archies, but these hierarchies have broken down instill have strong hierarchies. Id say the best way to d

true to him is to do it through Asian eyes.3

One director who sees Shakespeares work as utt

master Yukio Ninagawa. Ninagawas epic Japanese s

plays have become accepted as modern classic produ

well as in Asia, and his work has, not surprisingly

influence on fellow Asian directors. South Koreas le

Su Oh, had considerable success internationally wi

Korean-set Romeo and Juliet. In 2001 the Monsaku

kyogen adaptation of A Comedy of Errors, entitled A

performed to a rapturous reception at the Globe T

part of the Shakespeare Globe-to-Globe season. The

Ong King Sens Shakespeare variations, making useple Asian performance techniques in his 1998 King

own idiosyncratic way extended the bounds of wha

should not overlook the multi-talented Taiwanese ac

kuo, whose brilliant solo performance of all nine maj

xiqu King Lear(Hong Kong Arts Festival 2003) was

atrical experience, one which encouraged us to loo

the tragedy afresh. Such diverse and divergent Sh

have created a benchmark for excellence and innova

delights all but the most conservative and closed-m

the West, and has in the process stimulated the crea

as Mike Alfreds with his quasi-Japanese Cymbeline (2

Another UK director profoundly affected by Asian

and conventions is Tim Supple. Staged in 2006 for tCompanys Complete Works Festival, Supples amb

Dream, with a cast of 23 actors, musicians and da

sub-continent, offered an exciting reworking of the

whose familiarity with Shakespeares work could no

3. Interview reported inSouth China MorningPost, 11 March 2007.

impossible to withstand the shy but sure magic of this honest, deter


34/108

p y g

Dream (Time Out) may well be an index of the plays constant pow

self-renewal and regeneration, and its ability to transcend specific ins

of kitsch and clich in the production design (as was certainly the c

Luscombes conceptualisation especially the ever-problematic fairies, wto be fair, constitute a creative headache for most Anglo-Saxon dire

We may conclude that open-air productions of the Dream, whether

tional Western-style or Asian, or a mixture of the two, generally su

in discovering this pastoral plays magical propensities more than i

productions, where arguably it is easier to fail. However, such a view

be an over-simplification, since many Asian adaptations work equall

in diverse and distinctly un-pastoral venues, as I have witnessed in

Kong and elsewhere. Incidentally, I would include Globe Theatre pr

tions in the category of open-air performances, and it is here that v

groups performing Shakespeare kathakali, kyogen, xiqu and other

genres, find a natural home and audience.

It is very much in the context of this stimulating recent tradit

Asian Shakespeare, and of the Dream in particular, that we shouthe Korean Yohangza production. Yohangza means voyager in Ko

as director Jung Ung Yang points out. Life is a journey and throug

journey of life we meet a lot of people, he adds a comment that

pertinent to the journeys of our dream-lives and of Shakespeare

Dream. First staged in Korea and Japan in 2003, and later at the

Performing Arts Market in 2005, the adaptation was well placed to a

international attention and gain promotion and proliferation in the

region and further afield. It has been a critical success at various in

tional arts festivals, including Hong Kongs in March 2007. Jung

Yang professes not only great admiration for Shakespeares plays, bu

particular attraction to the tragedies, like so many other Asian dir

and adaptors. When asked during the post-performance, meet-the-au

discussion why he chose the Dream rather than Lear or Othello, hwith disarming simplicity and, one suspects, playful disingenuou

because it is a very romantic play and I am a very romantic perso

with Britten, Balanchine, Brook and other highly creative adapt

Shakespeares play the Korean companys version propagates the

those fears on one level, but they can also be used to


35/108

insecurities, which is precisely how Jung Ung Yang and

the text. If an Elizabethan audience, or perhaps a m

audience, were to see this production, their worst ni

to be realised. But perhaps we should not congratulaabout our more progressive and broad-minded attitu

Dream never allows us to sit back secure in our c

assumptions. It is a good Dream, theatrically speakin

is a vaguely disquieting Dream, in which one can qui

or even isolated amid the comic revelry. It is always

like street theatre or clowning, on what is happening

happen if you dont pay careful attention.

The traditional Korean theatre setting in that res

Young Joo-Choi has commented in the article Track

Korea Today, what differentiates Yang from his el

traditional culture without an historical or social cons

in adapting traditional culture into his style is not

interest in his nation, but an interest in aesthetic imalocal languages and communicate directly with othe

This translates directly into a two-way communicat

for audience consumption and delight both at home

theatre style is to welcome the audience into the thea

into a shrine, according to Korean traditions of hospi

designed as more of a house or home (which picks up o

motif of the Dreams final act), although there are str

nature combined with the pine-wood set. The cent

semiotically flexible, at once a living room in which t

audience and a site of action and movement.

Dramatic action is choreographed in a fusion of

comedy and dialogue that borrows lightly from key

the original. The production idiom is folkloric and Korean, as is the visual symbolism of the colour sch

for the lovers opening and closing sequences, but of

and humans for the central body of the play, sign

state and Buddhist purity and unworldliness Alth

the two white-faced goblins or dokkebi mythological Korean fol


36/108

creatures representing the role of Puck. They are not above fright

or mocking the audience, or even ridiculing them with scatological

that are reminiscent of Shakespearean bawdy. Among other acts of

action with the audience, some distinctly unsettling, the twin distribute fluorescent wrist-bands as a sign of welcome. This splitt

twinning of the role is not as arbitrary as it first appears; Puck is al

to as both Robin Goodfellow and Hobgoblin in the same spee

Titanias fairy in Act 2 Scene 1, and admits to all of the appellation

doubling of this role works perfectly, since the two sprites play their

in unison and entirely in dumb-show. The duality of the Puck role

ally enhances the capacity of this character in many ways the southe comedic mischief in Shakespeares original for monkey busin

also facilitates the symmetry of movement in the dance-like sequ

and ensemble work that characterises the confusions and subse

rituals of the production.

Dokkebi (goblin), when broken down, can be rendered as Dot (fi

recurrent image for romantic ardour in Shakespeares text) and(father), and these are the two names given to the Titania and O

figures, respectively. There is a crucial difference in their plot func

however, because the roles are reversed. Here it is Dot (a female Ob

who orders the Pucks to teach her philandering husband (a male Tita

lesson, rather than the other way round. One rationale for this sw

that, in the Korean psyche, it is the women who keep the men in lin

that the womans role signifies domestic harmony in the traditional K

order. The transformation of Bottom, not into an ass but a pig, is likew

conformity with Korean animal symbolism, which sees the pig as p

naturally stupid more suggestive of stupidity than the donkey but

harbinger of good fortune. Variations on the original mechanicals ele

are far more radical than substitution of pigs head for asss head.

Bully Bottom is metamorphosed by the director into a comic old wwandering in the mountains in search of a hundred-year-old ginsen

has no lads or hearts for company, and no play to rehearse. The vi

grotesque Shakespearean coupling of Titania with Bottom com

with asss head is paralleled by the absurd sight of the Fairy King fall

Audience response to the production has been


37/108

doesnt require a Korean audience to appreciate the w

Yangs approach to theatre. The theatre, for Yohangz

humour as well as a meeting-place for audience and a

of the traditional market was a meeting-place for veregards the companys use of their own nations fo

seems well justified in view of Shakespeares skilful inte

lore and mythology in The Dream. Last but not least w

relative de-emphasis on speech and dialogue in this pr

ity of the iambic and trochaic rhythms of Shakespear

to the unfamiliar but effective idiom of song with mus

speech at key moments. Like many other Asian-aesthtations, this version blends indigenous cultural and

entirely foreign to Shakespeares world, with narrativ

the original to produce a seamless work that is both n

Conclusion: And the blots of natures hand,

issue stand

Ill let you be in my dream if I can be in yours

For a play that is, like much of Shakespeares festiv

concerned with harmony, reconciliation and, in a n

references, regeneration and progeny, it is fitting tha

plays success in regenerating itself. That Shakespear

the reception of his work is evident in many of his c

his verse imprecations for audiences understandin

A Midsummer Nights Dream certainly being no exce

cerned with the relationship between higher truth,

poetic imagination. The onward transmission of hDream through various adaptations for stage and

successful, judging by the works continuing popula

sity of memetic variations on Shakespeares origina

to Jung Ung Yang is proof that this play perhaps m

process we know of that can do the job, and does it. We do not nee

h l b h ll ( ) h


38/108

scious human selves messing about in there as well (1999: 240). Thi

testation is nothing if not challenging to notions of individual geniu

autonomy of creation. But perhaps Theseus comments on the see

brains of lovers and poets needs to be understood through HippolytasAnd all their minds transfigurd so together/More witnesseth than f

images/And grows to something of great constancy. Like collective me

there seems, as Hippolyta/Shakespeare acknowledges, something m

work than individual genius in these acts of cultural transmission.

Whether one accepts or rejects what may appear to the sceptic

pseudo-scientific explanations of meme theory, it is clear that the cu

propagation of key cultural artefacts in the history of human cultuwhich A Midsummer Nights Dream is one of the supreme examples, can

explained by individual arbitrary acts of consciousness alone. Transfi

together, the various memes propagated by Shakespeares hybrid pla

its diverse sources amount to a remarkable achievement. Production

Yohangzas demonstrate the fecundity and potential in the work for r

erating the existing meme set, if one chooses to describe the work interms, and producing even more fascinating variants, without in an

diminishing the power and capacity to please inherent in the origina

Works cited

Benjamin, Walter ([1973] 1992), Illuminations, Hannah Arendt (ed.), Lo

Fontana Press.

Blackmore, Susan (1999), The Meme Machine, Oxford: Oxford University Pre

Bristol, Michael D. (1996), Big-Time Shakespeare, London and New York: Rou

Brooks, Harold F. (ed.) (1979), A Midsummer Nights Dream, London: Me(Arden edition).

Chesterman, Andrew (1997), Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in TranTheory, Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Dawkins, Richard (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(1999), Introduction to Susan Blackmores The Meme Machine.

(2006), The God Delusion, London: Transworld Publishers.

Fischlin, Daniel and Mark Fortier (2000), Adaptations of Shakespeare, LoRoutledge.

House Programmes


39/108

Yohangza Theatre Company, A Midsummer Nights Dream,2007.

Teatro alla Scala, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Hong Kong

Website

http:/www.britishtheatreguide.info.

Review/Listing

Time Out, July 410, 2007 Open-air Theatre, p. 132.

Suggested citationIngham, M. (2008), Following the dream/passing the

translation, Studies in Theatre and Performance 2810.1386/stap.28.2.111/1

Contributor details

Mike Ingham has a Modern Languages tertiary backgro

teaches on the English Studies programme at the DeLingnan University, Hong Kong. He is interested in manparticularly drama, poetry and music, and is a founder ma Hong Kong-based theatre group that specialises in actioary drama texts. As well as doing scholarly work on the

cinema, he directs theatre in Hong Kong and writes perflocal media. His books include Staging Fictions (Edwin M

Hong Kong: A Cultural and Literary History (Signal/HKU Pre

E-mail: [email protected]


Article English language doi: 10 1386/stap 28 2 127/1


40/108


Technique in exile: The changing

perception oftaijiquan, fromMing dynasty military exercise totwentieth-century actor training proto

Daniel Mroz

AbstractThis article describes the development and emigration of a Chinese military e

complex calledtaijiquan. It traces the genealogy of this practice from six

century China to twenty-first-century North American and European

sional and university theatre programmes. It provides a systemic descrip

the protocols of taijiquan training in order to analyse its advantages and

tions in the contexts of contemporary actor training. Finally, by offering c

examples of its application by different theatre artists, it presents a por

both its current use and future potential as a major component of actor tra

IntroductionThis article describes the development and emigration of a Chinese m

exercise complex called taijiquan.1 I shall trace the genealogy of this

tice in order to shed some light on how a system of military exercises

sixteenth-century China has become part of the training offered to

American and European actors by many contemporary professiona

university theatre programmes.Folk theory would have us believe that Tai Chi, the slow exercise

tised by Chinese people in the early hours of the day in parks aroun

world is an ancient, holistic system of self-care created many millenn

by the gentle practitioners of Daoism Chinas indigenous religion an

an analysis of its advantages and limitations in the

rary actor training independent of the discourse of t


41/108

rary actor training, independent of the discourse of t

ries surrounding it. Finally, by offering concrete exam

by different theatre artists, I hope to sketch an accur

current use and future potential as a major compon

Ming dynasty rootsThe earliest written records oftaijiquan indicate tha

military calisthenics and combative dills put together b

(16001680). Chen was a successful military officer in

of Wen County in the Henan province of China betw

With the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, his advamilitary hierarchy was blocked by the change of reg

his family home of Chenjiagou, the village of the

Henan province (Sim and Gaffney: 12). In the ea

Dynasty, Chen synthesised a new system of martial

of his home village. It was based upon the best tra

he had come across during his military career. Himilitary training manual authored by a Ming dy

Qi Jiguang (15281587). Composed in 1561, Qis b

the New Book of Effective Techniques, is itself a synthe

military training systems popular in the Ming dynast

and Wile: 7).

In the Ming and early Qing dynasties soldiers we

executing group manoeuvres in formation. They sp

on unarmed tactics and their fighting training consi

titions of simple movements with weapons such as th

Chen Wangtings principal contribution to the story

art is his development of incrementally resistant par

who might be called up for active duty at any time c

ing that might leave them injured and unfit for comthe peacetime training of Ming dynasty soldiers w

repetition of short, set sequences of attack and de

weapons. As fighting techniques could not be pra

approaching battlefield intensity without the risk o

The goal for each player is to maintain control of their posture in the f

perturbations provided by their partner To the casual observer the


42/108

perturbations provided by their partner. To the casual observer, the

tice looks like a kind of wrestling done standing up. Tuishou practice b

very slowly with minimal force and allows the players to learn h

defend against the four major types of attack found in the Chinese m

art, which are referred to as the si ji: grappling (na), throwing (s

kicking (ti) and striking (da). As the partners become more and more

to absorbing or reversing the forces directed at them, they can gra

increase the intensity of the game until they are providing each othe

significant amounts of resistance and impellent force.2

Thus, Chen Wangting developed a method of training for fightin

allowed for improvisation and spontaneity and minimised the risk of iImportantly, it allowed older, more experienced practitioners to ma

their fighting form into middle age and to progressively refine it over

lifetime. Chen Wangting also devised armed versions of tuishou bas

similar principles (Sim and Gaffney: 16). He also synthesised a ser

solo movement-training sequences, which are called taolu.

Taijiquan, in Chen Wangtings lifetime and beyond, became firmly lished as a training system for a rural civilian militia. It remained co

to the Chen family village until sometime between 1799 and 1853

one Yang Lu Chan (17991871) journeyed to Chenjiagou in ord

study martial art with Chen Wangtings descendant Chen Chan

(17711853). Many legends have grown up around Yangs studies

Chen Changxing and the transmission remains mysterious for the

reason that the taolu and tuishou of the taijiquan taught by Yang Lu C

descendants is quite different from that practised by the Chen family

From Chen village to BeijingItemising the structural differences between the Yang style oftaijiqua

the original Chen style, and speculating on the reasons for these differ

are beyond the scope of this article. What is especially significant Yangs studies with Chen is his subsequent teaching of his own mo

system of taijiquan in Bei

65822569 studies in theatre amp performance a

Documents