Martin Crimp at Sala Beckett, Barcelona

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1. Research towards this article was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (research projects FFI2009-07598 and FFI2012-31842) as well as, in the case of Mireia Aragay, by the research group GRAE-Grup de Recerca en Arts Escèniques, funded by AGAUR-Generalitat de Catalunya (2009SGR1034).

2. For further details, see Sala Beckett: 20 anys, ed. by Toni Casares and Eduard Molner (Tarragona: Arola, 2009).

3. Ibid., p. 9. Unless indicated, all subsequent translations from Catalan or Spanish are the authors’.

4. Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, trans. by Karen Jürs-Munby (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 23–24.

5. Sharon G. Feldman, ‘The Sala Beckett and the Zero Degree of Theatricality: From Lluïsa Cunillé to Carles Batlle’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 17 (August 2007), 370–84 (pp. 370–71).

6. El Teatro Fronterizo, ‘Sólo una sala’, (Pausa.), 1 (October 1989), 4 (p. 4).

7. Ibid.

8. See, for instance, Carles Batlle, ‘Contemporary Catalan Theatre: Between the Desert and the Promised Land’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 17.3 (2007), 416–24; Toni Casares, ‘Dramaturgia catalana hoy’, La Vanguardia, 25 July 2007, p. 2; Feldman, ‘Sala Beckett’, pp. 370–79; Andreu Gomila, ‘Què ha fet la Beckett?’, Avui, 20 October 2008, pp. 32–33.

9. ‘Editorial’, (Pausa.), 1 (October 1989), 3 (p. 3). For further information on (Pausa.), see <http://www.salabeckett.cat/lobrador/pausa/publicacions-pausa> [accessed 29 May 2014].

10. See Mireia Aragay, Victor Molina, and Pilar Zozaya, ‘Dossier Pinter’, Quimera, 152 (1996), 19–43; Mireia Aragay and Ramon Simó, ‘Writing, Politics and Ashes to Ashes: An Interview with Harold Pinter’, The Pinter Review: Annual Essays, 1997, 4–15; and Mireia Aragay and Ramon Simó, ‘Writing, Politics and Ashes to Ashes’, in Harold Pinter, Various Voices: Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–1998 (London: Faber and Faber, 1998), pp. 58–70.

11. José Sanchis Sinisterra, ‘Pensar el teatro’, (Pausa.), 20 (2005), 9–10 (p. 10).

12. For further information on these playwrights, see Batlle, ‘Contemporary Catalan Theatre’, pp. 419–20; and Feldman, ‘Sala Beckett’, pp. 374–75 and 379–84.

13. Casares and Molner, Sala Beckett, p. 168.

14. Martin Crimp, The Country in Plays Two (London: Faber and Faber, 2005), pp. 285–366 (p. 328).

15. Víctor Muñoz i Calafell, ‘Martin Crimp i la recerca constant’, (Pausa.), 21 (2005), 101–14.

16. Carles Batlle, ‘Notes sobre la fragmentació en el drama contemporani (I)’, (Pausa.), 21 (2005), 115–25 and ‘Notes sobre la fragmentació en el drama contemporani (II): De la teoría a la pràctica’, (Pausa.), 22 (2005), 103–17.

17. Davide Carnevali, ‘La crisis del drama en la contemporaneidad: Attempts on Her Life de Martin Crimp’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 2010).

18. Clara Escoda, Martin Crimp’s Theatre: Collapse as Resistance to Late Capitalist Society (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013).

19. Guillem Clua, ‘La influència del Royal Court: la Sala Beckett obre un cicle dedicat a l’autor britànic Martin Crimp’, El Periódico, 18 February 2005, p. 19. See also Gomila, ‘Què ha fet la Beckett?’, p. 33.

20. Casares quoted in Juan Carlos Olivares, ‘15 anys de la Beckett: l’èxit d’un fet diferencial’, Avui, 20 September 2004, p. 36.

21. Santiago Fondevila, ‘La temporada alternativa’, La Vanguardia, 19 September 2004, p. 63.

22. Toni Casares, ‘Dramaturgia catalana hoy’, La Vanguardia, 25 July 2007, p. 2.

23. For further information, see Andreu Gomila, ‘La Beckett, al 22@’, Avui, 4 November 2009, p. 45 and Fundació Sala Beckett/Obrador Internacional de Dramatúrgia, ‘La Casa dels Autors Teatrals’, 2011, <http://www.salabeckett.cat/fitxers/fundacio-des11/dossier-fundacio> [accessed 22 November 2012].

24. Vicky Angelaki, The Plays of Martin Crimp: Making Theatre Strange (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 5; see also Steve Waters, ‘Pinter’s Influence on Contemporary Playwriting’, in The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter, ed. by Peter Raby (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 297–309 (p. 305).

25. Georgina Brown, ‘Review of The Country’, Theatre Record, 20.10 (2000), 616.

26. Michael Billington, ‘Review of The Country’, Theatre Record, 20.10 (2000), 618.

27. See Joan-Anton Benach, ‘La helada sonrisa de las máscaras’ [review of El camp], La Vanguardia, 19 February 2005, p. 51; Gonzalo Pérez de Olaguer, ‘El camp, un bon “thriller” psicològic de Martin Crimp’ [review of El camp], El Periódico, 22 February 2005, p. 72; Guillem Clua, ‘La influencia del Royal Court: La Sala Beckett obre un cicle dedicat a l’autor britànic Martin Crimp’, El Periódico, 18 February 2005, p. 19; Elena Hevia, ‘La Beckett descobreix el provocador dramaturg Martin Crimp’, El Periódico, 15 February 2005, p. 62; Marta Monedero, ‘La Sala Beckett estrenarà la nova obra de José Sanchis Sinisterra’, Avui, 14 September 2004, p. 45 and ‘El teatre incòmode de Martin Crimp’, Avui, 15 February 2005, p. 45; and Juan Carlos Olivares, ‘15 anys de la Beckett: l’èxit d’un fet diferencial’, Avui, 20 September 2005, p. 26.

28. Monedero, ‘El teatre incòmode’, p. 45.

29. Mireia Aragay and Pilar Zozaya, ‘Martin Crimp’, in British Theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with Directors, Playwrights, Critics and Academics, ed. by Mireia Aragay, Hildegard Klein, Enric Monforte, and Pilar Zozaya (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 56–76 (p. 58).

30. Olivares, ‘15 anys de la Beckett’, p. 26.

31. Feldman, ‘Sala Beckett’, pp. 373 and 376–77. For further details see Batlle, ‘Contemporary Catalan Theatre’, pp. 418–19.

32. José Sanchis Sinisterra, ‘Una poètica de la sostracció’, in Accident, by Lluïsa Cunillé (Barcelona: Institut del Teatre, 1996), pp. 5–12.

33. Olivares, ‘15 anys de la Beckett’, p. 26.

34. Casares cited in Hevia, ‘La Beckett descobreix’, p. 62.

35. Cited in Aragay and Zozaya, ‘Martin Crimp’, p. 58.

36. Waters, ‘Pinter’s Influence’, p. 304.

37. Emmanuel Levinas, ‘Ethics as First Philosophy’, in The Levinas Reader, ed. by Seán Hand (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989), pp. 75–87 (pp. 82–84).

38. Nicholas Ridout, Theatre & Ethics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 52.

39. Dennis Smith, Zygmunt Bauman: Prophet of Postmodernity (Oxford: Polity Press, 1999), p. 163.

40. Crimp, The Country, pp. 363–64.

41. Ibid., p. 365.

42. Ibid., pp. 317 and 316.

43. Ibid., pp. 346–48.

44. Martin Crimp, Whole Blue Sky in Fewer Emergencies (London: Faber and Faber, 2005), pp. 3–20 (p. 14).

45. Augusto Boal cited in John Keefe, ‘A Spectatorial Dramaturgy, or the Spectator Enters the (Ethical) Frame’, Performing Ethos, 1.1 (2010), 35–52 (p. 44).

46. Ibid., p. 35.

47. Crimp, The Country, p. 329.

48. Smith, Zygmunt Bauman, p. 32.

49. Hevia, ‘La Beckett descobreix’, p. 62.

50. Monedero, ‘Teatre incòmode’, p. 45; see also Monedero, ‘Martin Crimp debuta en los escenarios catalanes con la obra The Country’, ABC, 15 February 2005, p. 28; and Belén Ginart, ‘La Sala Beckett dedica un ciclo al dramaturgo Martin Crimp’, El País, 15 February 2005, p. 43.

51. Cited in Aleks Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp (London: Methuen, 2006), p. 101.

52. Cited in Aragay and Zozaya, ‘Martin Crimp’, p. 58.

53. See, among others, Martin Middeke, ‘Martin Crimp’, in The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights, ed. by Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer, and Aleks Sierz (London: Methuen, 2011), pp. 82–102 (p. 89); and Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, pp. 49–56.

54. Albery cited in Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, p. 192.

55. Ibid., pp. 192–93.

56. Ibid., p. 193.

57. See Ginart, ‘Sala Beckett’, p. 43 and Monedero, ‘El teatre incòmode’, p. 45.

58. Carnevali, ‘La crisis del drama en la contemporaneidad’, p. 55.

59. Crimp, Attempts on Her Life in Plays Two, pp. 197–284 (p. 202); and Attempts on Her Life (London: Faber and Faber, 1997), n. p.

60. Juan Carlos Martel, email message to Mireia Aragay, 26 October 2012.

61. Crimp, Attempts on Her Life in Plays Two, p. 229. Emphasis in original.

62. Martel, email to Aragay.

63. Katie Mitchell cited in Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, p. 198.

64. See, for instance, Carnevali, ‘La crisis del drama’, pp. 99–101 and Heiner Zimmermann, ‘Martin Crimp, Attempts on her Life: Postdramatic, Postmodern, Satiric?’, in (Dis)Continuities: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English, ed. by Margarete Rubik and Elke Mettinger-Schartmann (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier), pp. 105–24.

65. Martel, email to Aragay.

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid.

68. Ibid.

69. See, for example: Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, p. 50; and Zimmermann, ‘Martin Crimp, Attempts on her Life’, p. 113.

70. Zimmermann, ‘Martin Crimp, Attempts on her Life’, p. 114.

71. Carnevali, ‘La crisis del drama’, p. 83. Emphases in original.

72. Ibid., p. 89. Emphases in original.

73. Crimp, Attempts on Her Life, pp. 204–05.

74. Ibid., and p. 249.

75. Martel, email to Aragay.

76. Belén Ginart, ‘Un cadáver exquisito’ [review of Atemptats contra la seva vida], El País, 10 April 2005, p. 49.

77. Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, p. 161.

78. Elaine Aston and George Savona, Theatre as Sign-System: A Semiotics of Text and Performance (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 109.

79. Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (London: Penguin, 2002).

80. Jane Edwardes, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 486.

81. Nicholas de Jongh, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 483.

82. Phil Miller, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 486.

83. Michael Billington, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 483; see also Ian Shuttleworth, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 486; Paul Taylor, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 484.

84. Susannah Clapp, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 486; see also Robert Hewison, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 485–86 (p. 486) and John Nathan, ‘Review of The City’, Theatre Record, 28.9 (2008), 484.

85. Víctor Muñoz i Calafell quoted in ‘La ciutat: Sala Beckett Programme’, 2011.

86. Quoted in Jordi Bordes, ‘Intriga i desencís’, El Punt/Avui, 10 November 2011, p. 50.

87. Begoña Barrena, ‘La ciutat’ [review], El País, 26 November 2011, p. 5.

88. Quoted in ‘Sala Beckett Programme’.

89. Aston and Savona, Theatre as Sign-System, p. 148.

90. Angelaki, The Plays of Martin Crimp, p. 24.

91. See, for example, Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Modernity (Cambridge: Polity, 2000) and Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty (Cambridge: Polity, 2007); Judith Butler, Precarious Life: The Power of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2006) and Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (London: Verso, 2010).

92. Cited in ‘Sala Beckett Programme’.

93. Cited in María Güell, ‘La ciudad: Martin Crimp y la herencia de Pinter’, ABC, 11 November 2011, p. 48.

94. Cited in Güell, ‘La ciudad’, p. 48.

95. Aston and Savona, Theatre as Sign-System, pp. 92–93.

96. Martin Crimp, The City (London: Faber and Faber, 2008), p. 3.

97. Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, p. 2.

98. Cited in Laura Serra, ‘Martin Crimp trasllada la crisi i la precarietat a “La ciutat”’, Ara, 10 November 2011, p. 29.

99. Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, p. 185.

100. See, for example, Angelaki, The Plays of Martin Crimp, p. 8; Aragay and Zozaya, ‘Martin Crimp’, pp. 58 and 62; Ginart, ‘Sala Beckett’, p. 43; Monedero, ‘El teatre incòmode’, p. 45; Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, pp. 87–89

101. Aragay and Zozaya, ‘Martin Crimp’, p. 59.