Theatre and the Critical Silence

Memory of Me by agsandrew shutterstock_621487832 .jpg

In 1972 I was organising the Orientation Week at Brisbane's Mount Gravatt Teachers' College which later merged into Griffith University. But in 1972 it was a small minion for the Bjelke-Peterson Government in Queensland. I had organised to bring in three special guest speakers: Zelman Cowen (then Vice Chancellor of University of Queensland), Ray Whitrod (Qld Police Commissioner) and Qld Liberal Senator Neville Bonner. Hardly radical speakers who might upset the conservative apple-cart! Yet I, and my student organising colleague, were brought in to meet with the College Principal Mr Nimmo to "explain". His eyes were blazing and the anger was palpable. He raged at us. "How dare you?" he snaked at us. "How dare you". Now I am not sure how many times this phrase was repeated. But then it came: "How dare you put on the same platform as the distinguished Zelma Cowen and Ray Whitrod ... a 'BLACK MAN': Neville Bonner?"

I can assure you I have never forgotten this moment and how it crystalized so much for me as a future educator and artistic activist. Here was a person of power and influence expressing such a reactionary and racist thought. But this wasn't the only incident that helped shape a life-long attitude for me.

Some time later in the year, I wanted to bring out a speaker to address issues of "self-management" as a social and political movement; particularly in relation to Aboriginal rights in light of the newly formed "Tent Embassy" in Canberra. Initially I wanted to do it legitimately with an administration sanctioned event. However, once again, I was brought in to meet Mr Nimmo; only this time, Mr Walker, the Deputy, was also present. The tone was different. I was treated well; even offered a nice small glass of port liquor. I put my case to bring out radical activist, Brian Laver, as a speaker. Mr Nimmo smiled and with a wry expression pointed out to me: "Joe, you and I can discuss these issues but you can't expect seventeen year olds straight out of school to ..."

So there it was. Laid out clearly to me was the need for authority to hide information and to restrain critical thinking and action where it crossed the often hidden agendas of power elites. The semantics of "free speech" and developing "critical and creative thinking" become weapons to disguise and hide the real powers and structures that aim to do just the opposite. Those two moments I experienced as a twenty-year old student at Mt Gravatt Teacher's College did more to clarify and shape my work as a teacher, artist, director than virtually all that followed.

And so now I direct "The Trojan Women" by Euripides and adapted by the cast from DTC. The cluttered visions and the cacophonous noise of twenty-first century narcissism negates the critical silence needed to stop and feel the weight of manufactured realities that deceive and destroy. The Taliban in Afghanistan have banned girls from schools; blatantly consolidating the dehumanising of women and reducing humanity to bargaining objects. Nimmo's rage at a Black Man speaking on a podium with "distinguished" white men distilled that white supremacist rage at being challenged; then to bar students from being able to see the arguments and discuss the social dimensions of such thinking only reinforced the lie of education being for the well-being of all society.

Euripides knew these same things over two thousand years ago. A year 11 student from last year, Amy Goedecke, suggested we put on "The Trojan Women" as a wake-up call. So here it is. With students doing all their own interpreting, research and adapting to today's world and seeking comparisons in the play's content with the situation in Afghanistan, the production exhibits an organic response that theatre creation rarely sees. Seventeen year old students and younger well and truly were able to discuss and process this information and the world views on display. Wynter Grainger took on the role of Dramaturg while supported by Amy, and fellow past student members, Tilly Watson, Lillia Bank, Georgie Wiley and Jack Curry. While my role has been to shape the work and provide artistic direction and facilitation and challenge, I hope that in this instance and in all my work I have never been a Nimmo and hopefully, never will be a Nimmo!

After all our efforts, I know the audience will feel the critical silence of The Old Chapel Studio space that makes room for critical and creative reflection and future thinking ...

My gratitude goes out to all members of the DTC staff, Daramalan staff,

cast and crew. Special thanks also to Michael Castrission, Ayaz Pazhohish and Helen Musa.

Joe Woodward

Myth & Reality from Greece to Afghanistan with Euripides

Daramalan Theatre Company former student actors in cinematic aspects of "The Trojan Women" theatre production

When we visit the theatre we might so often wonder "why bother"? Seeing standard theatre fare done in a standard theatre style dating particularly to the 1950s with stock set changes and vocal articulations that emanate from somewhere near Oxford or Cambridge ... god ... why bother? Theatre is much more. Isn't it? The social justice of artistic persuasion is so often denied in practice as the initial impulse of Oscar Wilde or Bernard Shaw is bastardised into the cultural hegemony of the ironic class of supercilious intellectual snobbery and semantic demarcations. I mean what footy fan would go to theatre to see some emotionally challenged production of some English, American or Irish play devoid of any real connection to the world today?

So, forgetting about footy fans, might we consider the function of a theatre presentation that links myth with the reality of misogyny in cultures today. More specifically, let us connect the Ancient Greek play "The Trojan Women" by Euripides with the mythic and the reality of very similar events that are taking place today in Afghanistan.

"The Trojan Women" in 2022

Amy Goedecke as Cassandra in "The Trojan Women"

Being political in school contexts is not normally encouraged. I've been told that even doing Brecht in some schools is discouraged. I personally received a most insulting letter from a parent who challenged my company's choice of "Mother Courage and Her Children" in 2019. The suggestion that schools might discourage anti-war sentiments goes back a long way while our nation promotes involvement in wars wherever it can: eg. The Boer War, WW1, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan etc ... where-ever our allied masters suggest we go, Australia has landed. War is seen as a kind of necessity to promote mate-ship, honour, cultural values, the national spirit, patriotism etc etc! I mean how could there be a "NATION" without war as its foundation?

So schools historically have been silenced in any encouragement of critical assessment and evaluation of contexts, motivations and eventualities of war. This certainly applies to any evaluation of the extent to which women have been abused, raped and otherwise damaged by Australian forces in wars overseas or on our own land in the events surrounding the massacres and warfare with Aboriginal nations up until the 1920s. So a choice to develop and present a production of "The Trojan Women" by Euripides with reference to the Afghanistan take-over by the Taliban must consider the ramifications.

Pro-Am and Student Production

Former student members of DTC working on cinematic sections of the production

Daramalan Theatre Company bridges the current student body with past students now working in allied and related industries. The complexity of merging an ancient Greek play with the current world situation required additional inputs and skills beyond the resources of the school. Professional actor, Jack Curry, along with Tertiary students Wynter Grainger, Lillia Bank, Georgie Wiley and Joey Gardiner have added very considerable maturity to the work. In addition, Tilly Watson, now a Registered Nurse and a former Assistant Director of the Company has joined again to provide powerful professional assistant and role modelling. Katie Woodward, with a significant performance career involving Butoh, Burlesque and Theatre performance, provided detailed Movement coaching and opened up whole areas of performance for the cast.

If a company comprised of young people is going to be political and presenting theatre as a call to action, then they have to be good ... and very good. One can get away with naïve performances of standard and stock productions and people will accept them from students. However, once you step up into the political and social arena where you are offering a call to action, you MUST be very good and professional in what you do.

DTC has taken decisive action in developing strategies to ensure a distinctive quality in a potentially controversial work. The goal is for a professional standard work that will be up to the audience to judge and follow up with action inspired by the performance.

Unlike theatre

Yes indeed! "The Trojan Women" by Euripides is as much a ceremony as it is theatre. The intensity engendered by the young cast will be like few performances seen in Canberra over recent years. All cast members are committed to the call to action; and are unapologetic in utilising theatre to provoke and challenges communities for action.

Joe Woodward

PS. The bar opens for pre-show drinks 30 minutes prior to performance.

"The Trojan Women" by Euripides and adapted by the DTC cast,

directed by Joe Woodward with music by Jo Philp

23, 27, 28, 29. 30 April at 7.30pm and 30 April at 1.00pm Old Chapel Studio

Daramalan College

4 States of Artaud: The MESH

Photo by the late 'pling ... Acting Artaud Shadow House PITS at The Street Theatre in Canberra 2004

The four states of Artaud

There must be more to life and living than mundane daily routines, problems, failed relationships and what-evers ... There must be something akin to religion; if not religion itself and its promise of higher things! Art and theatre has always suggested this otherness. However some practitioners and exponents have been explicit in outlining this "otherness" and its implications for theatre practice. One key such exponent is Antonin Aartaud. Artaud provided a disruptive prescription for creative practice that drew subliminal subservience to the invisible shadows that dominate cultural and human actions.

SO: Let us evoke a M.E.S.H. unearthing of the very creative bones of Antonin Artaud in order that "we might invoke a new domain for theatre in contemporary culture. We must recognize the avenues that opened up for our role and function within society and culture as a result of this unfortunate man's life, experience and insights.

Antonin Artaud, it seems, had strong Gnostic leanings. He also was a habitual drug user as a result of a childhood illness. Much has also been romanticized about his madness. Artaud was certainly plagued by mental instabilities. But to suggest his irrational behaviour and delusional ravings were inspired prophecies is to debase the very real contribution his life and art made to the development and survival of theatre and theatrical processes both already achieved and in potential. Artaud might have been a powerful modern day Shaman had he been able to transcend the bind of his mental instability.

From my reading of Artaud and his own writings, I am sure that his madness (if this is the appropriate term) was certainly partly a result of his contradictory highly attuned spirituality and ingrained beliefs in puritanical, if not Manachean / Saint Augustan, inspired beliefs in the essential evil nature of all things flesh and the higher order of all things spiritual. There is considerable writing from Artaud that is contradictory on this subject. At one moment we are to be erotic and sexually explicit and then we are supposed to accept his assumption that all things sexual are filthy and degenerate and base. In his last years he is both aesthetic Catholic receiving Holy Communion and blaspheming demon out to destroy the hold of religion over people's desire for eternity.

Artaud was dabbling with and held prisoner by religion because there was little else to provide adequate explanation for the absurdities of life and the quest for meaning below the lies and profanities of officially sanctioned doctrine (from the left and right of the socio/political spectrum). And in different moments he spat on such platforms of deceit.

When his colleagues attacked him for his Theatre Alfred Jarry's staging a play by the Catholic writer and political aspirant Paul Claudel, Artaud denied his original reasons for doing the play and publicly adopted the shallow reasoning of the dogmatic surrealists who shouted the play down. Artaud's own insecurities about his contradictory beliefs might be the source of an academic study some day. However, for our purposes, it reveals a very human side to Antonin Artaud: a side which suggests vulnerability and sincerity coupled with a need for acceptance; an acceptance which Artaud was never to receive in his life time!

It also suggests we cannot take verbatim what Artaud wrote. Artaud didn't prescribe methods of working. He was no Stanislavsky, Mayerhold or Brecht. Artaud's life was his prescription for art and change. Metaphor preceded reality. Reality preceded metaphor! Absurdity held truth. Common sense was comprised of lies. Semantics were for arguing over.

But essentially, his theatre needed to explode the commonly held belief systems and infect believers with alternative possibilities and realities. His ravings, writings and public performances were testimony to such explosions. The images and metaphorical seeds plague us with their haunting resonances which, in all likelihood, match our quiet contemplations when separated from the need for rational discourse.

We are left to sift through his writings and life to form a conjecture as to what it was all about. And for me, Artaud's life and art in purest form was about release; release from the organs of the body, release from strictures of the mind, from the inadequacy of words, from cultural hegemony, from stifling routines, from society's self destruction, and from boring orthodoxies of all kinds. The list goes on. But if we start by identifying Artaud's central idea as being that of "release", then other simple to comprehend concepts follow.

Release of WHAT from WHAT for WHAT?

All his writing implies something more than what is observed. By simply reproducing the observable world or by reducing observable action to banal psychological concepts of "motivation" and "intent" or simple cause and effect, Artaud seems to suggest that we reproduce the lies and deceptions that only reinforce the human binds that hold our reality captured. But to release the more fundamental foundations belying the observed action we need to shock and expiate that which isn't initially revealed. Such a notion is closer to the Greek "fates" or Jungian "archetypes" or even computer "templates" which contain the source of meaning in a more comprehensive or embracing way than can be identified through the microcosmic psychological explanations.

Theatre for Artaud is then about releasing the hidden patterns beneath the observable world. In doing so it is more about dream logic than any naturalistic ordering of events and actions. Our dreams may terrorize us or provoke irrational fear that lingers into our everyday activity. They reveal what we dare not think or speak. Collectively, dreams become archetypes that hover and become manifest in spasmodic creations.

For Artaud, the body's organs are like parts of the house where secrets are bordered up as in Edgar Allan Poe's "Tell Tale Heart". The body is like the large house with sealed up cavities hiding bodies of one's victims. Our secret crimes are stored but don't actually die. They seek to escape. Like the virus or bacteria, they cause inflammations that can lead to disease and decay as they chip away at their bordered up cells in order to escape. And like the "living dead" we cannot destroy them. The more we try, the more ferocious and persistent they become.

A culture that seeks to deny its guilt and foundations in violence likewise lays the seeds for virulent growths that seek excising in outbursts of racism, chauvinism, sexual repression and genocide. Cultures and individuals transfer the location of these hidden entities under layers of institutionalized bordering up which might run over generations. Ultimately they lose the memory of the exact location of the problem, so embedded that it becomes part of the fabric of the organism itself.

In the individual the result is physical and mental disease. In culture, the result is social upheaval, violence and repression. Artaud suggests theatre is the means for expiating and releasing these toxins from the organs of the body; be it from an individual or society. It is a kind of exorcism requiring purification of the one performing the ceremony while exhibiting violent shocks on the party subject to the exercise. Individual and society devils are so imbedded that it is necessary for drastic action to release them; exposing them to make them manageable.

Clearly such a purpose for theatre is not easily or readily accepted in contemporary society. And this provides a main source of criticism of Artaud's ideal theatre. Whether the concept is necessarily flawed or whether it simply hasn't been tried is another question.

Alternatively, is Artaud's theatre primarily for the participants in its creation much like the monastic way is for the monks or nuns in organized religions? While there is a Shamanistic tendency in those who have adopted Artaud-like theatre positions (eg. Grotowsky) the essential element is still the actor/audience relationship. This doesn't suggest a cloistered function for the artist. Rather it is one of engagement.

Release through the actors' M.E.S.H.

Without being side-tracked by the issue of Artaud's madness (or questionable sanity) I will now focus on the means for implementing Artaud's "release". I deliberately speak of "release" as opposed to his well publicized "theatre of cruelty". My reading of Artaud is subjective and others will disagree with the model gleaned from his disparate focus.

I propose four states which the actor needs to achieve in order to fulfill the potential of Artaud's theatre. These are:

• the Mesmeric state;

• the Erotic state;

• the Sculptural state;

• the Heightened Emotional state.

For ease of usage, I suggest the anagram MESH.

Exercises and improvisations can be developed and practiced for achieving the Actors' MESH. While the third and fourth states are common enough foundations within acting training, the first two are certainly not generally emphasized. Performers in the Japanese Bhuto theatre might well be attuned to aspects of these areas, needless to say, they are not part of mainstream training in the Western theatre traditions.

As a word of caution, I also suggest it may not be necessary to achieve the MESH state for all of a performance. However, to achieve the kind of theatre implied in Artaud's writings, the MESH is necessary for a major proportion of the performance.

I now suggest that the MESH be achieved in three areas:

• the body;

• the voice;

• interaction with space, self and objects.

Creating the MESH

The Mesmeric State is where the actor is neither emotional nor intellectual but is in a constant state of movement and rhythm with intensity ebbing and flowing in response to external or internal prompts. It is not a zombie-like state, unless such a manifestation is required. In fact, the Mesmeric State may well be extremely vigorous and even violent. Where there is emotional intensity, such emotion is derived from external stimulus as at a rock concert or a political rally. Frenzy may well be an example. The Mesmeric State might resemble a collective autism where individual volition is subjugated to some unseen force. And it is more.

It is not something that can simply be rustled up with a bit of chanting and banging of drums. The Mesmeric State is the state in which magic and a true alchemy is evoked. It is through this that a "theatre of the invisible made visible" (Peter Brook's term) is possible. The Mesmeric State coupled with the Erotic State provides the distinguishing features that define and separate this theatre of release from some academic exercise performed in the name of theatre but with the sterility of a fluorescent room.

The Erotic State is one of inner stillness and awareness of personal shape, spirit and existence in front of another. It is active within its apparent stillness. It is one of acceptance of physical and emotional exposure. It accepts personal self-consciousness in oneself and within the audience and the resulting tension this may evoke. It is the opposite of denial of this essentially erotic act. It is accepts that art cannot exist without sexuality. In such acceptance, it flies in the face of the more customary institutionalized denial of this connection. To achieve this state, the actor must develop a highly developed personal acceptance of self and a high tolerance and embracing of stillness, silence and personal communication with the self. It requires that actors become personally aware of their own charisma and accept, without flinching, that their art may call upon such usage when intellect and technique prove inadequate.

The Sculptural State is concerned with the actors' ability to objectify personal presence in a given space in order to achieve an image of value. The way the actor connects with other actors and objects and the dimensions of the space should not be the sole prerogative of the director or choreographer. As most acting training is now for the screen where all such decisions are made, the actors' thinking in sculptural terms is diminishing. But to achieve a Sculptural State, the actor needs to be acutely aware of the relationship between sound and space; between the character "point of view" and distance; between that which is dislodged in order to make way for his/her presence; the different effects created by extension of the body or the adoption of different costume or properties; the point of entry and point of departure from the focus of the scene or the space itself. The list can be extended.

The Heightened Emotional state is the most familiar of the MESH. All acting training will demand of actors a degree of heightened emotional response; getting in tune with one's own emotions etc. Working in an Artaud inspired theatre though means heightening the intensity of performance over periods that will require great stamina. This contrasts with the mainly static nature of so much stage acting that mimics the screen form.

Essentially, invoking of the MESH is a reinvigorating process to place creativity back into the body and to provide an alternative schema through which theatrical exploration may take place. The MESH is a deliberate construction based on the principles and ideas articulated by Antonin Artaud. It attempts to incorporate the real processes involved in dynamic performance and give recognition to the essentially artistic as opposed to the academic construction of theatre with its partitioned hegemony of intellectual conceit.

Shadow House PITS is attempting to give a physical form to the theories, principles and ideas articulated by Antonin Artaud. Obviously, such work will not be without controversy and criticism. But we are not concerned with success or failure. Rather we wish to explore something that is worth exploring. We wish to invite audiences and all those concerned with the creative process to join us and be part of this exploration. We wish to focus a means through which culture may challenge and rejuvenate itself. This project isn't an end in and off itself, rather it should be seen as a part of acqainting personal experience with art and what it means to be a social being in association with other social beings. Let us expose the act of creation with all its messiness and potential for disaster to scrutiny and experience. For here lies the defining feature of theatre's relevance and value for any culture.

Joe Woodward (January 2004 / April 2022)

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