Backpages 32.3-4

Abstract

Backpages is an opportunity for the academy to engage with theatre and performance practice with immediacy and insight, and for theatre workers and performance artists to engage critically and reflectively on their work and the work of their peers.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Susan Clayton, Christie Manning, Kirra Krygsman, and Meighen Speiser, Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance (Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2017) and ecoAmerica.

2. Judy Wu, Gaelen Small, Hasina Samji, ‘Climate Anxiety in Young People: A Call to Action’, The Lancet 4, no. 10, (2020): 435–36.

3. Pinu Pihkala, ‘Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis: An Analysis of Eco-Anxiety and Climate Anxiety’, Sustainability 12 (2020), np.

4. Glenn Albrecht, ‘Psychoterratic Conditions in a Scientific and Technological World’, in Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and the Technological Species, ed. P. H. Kahn and P.H. Hasbach, (MIT Press: Cambridge, 2012), 241–64 (250).

5. See Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (London: Routledge, 2004).

6. Charlie Kurth, ‘Moral Anxiety and Moral Agency’, Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics 5 (2015): 171–95.

7. Duncan Macmillan, Lungs, (London: Oberon, 2011).

8. Mike Bartlett, Earthquakes in London, (London: Methuen, 2010).

9. Rosie Elnile, Prayer, Gate Theatre, London, 2020.

10. Elnile, Prayer.

11. Elnile, Prayer.

12. See Stewart Pringle, ‘Review: The Encounter at The Barbican’, Exeunt, February 23, 2016. http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/review-the-encounter-at-the-barbican/ (accessed January 19, 2022). This aspect of the show and its reception is also addressed in Holly Williams, ‘Revisiting The Encounter’, Exeunt, May 23, 2020. http://exeuntmagazine.com/features/revisiting-the-encounter/ (accessed January 19, 2022).

13. Kae Tempest, Paradise (London: Picador, 2021), 137.

14. See (for example): Stephe Harrop, ‘Unfixing Epic: Homeric Orality and Contemporary Performance’, in Epic Performances from the Middle Ages into the Twenty-First Century, ed. Fiona Macintosh, Justine McConnell, Stephen Harrison, and Claire Kenward (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) , 262–274, and Justine McConnell ‘“We are still mythical”: Kate Tempest’s Brand New Ancients’, Arion 22, no. 1 (2014): 195–206.

15. See Chapter 3 of Fiona Macintosh and Justine McConnell Performing Epic or Telling Tales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), especially 46–47.

16. The recent National Theatre ‘Olivier tradition’ begins with Bacchai (dir. Peter Hall, 2002), followed by Oedipus the King (dir. Jonathan Kent, 2008), Antigone (dir. Polly Findlay, 2012), and Medea (dir. Carrie Cracknell, 2014). Also relevant to Paradise is Moira Buffini’s adaptation of Antigone, Welcome to Thebes, which was directed by Richard Eyre in the Olivier in 2010. Preceding and intersecting this tradition were Katie Mitchell’s production of the Oresteia (1999, Costelloe), Iphigenia in Aulis (2004, Lyttleton), and Women of Troy (2007, Lyttleton).

17. The gap between Greek tragedy as an artform practised in fifth-century BCE Athens and the later conception of Greek tragedy as influenced by such figures as Aristotle and Stanislavski has been recently discussed by Zachary Dunbar and Stephe Harrop in Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Margherita Laera’s insightful Reaching Athens (Bern: Peter Lang, 2013) unpicks some of the ways Greek tragedy has been used to perpetuate such myths as the notion of the West’s ‘classical inheritance’.

18. For a list of some of the terminology deployed to describe adaptation, see Julie Sanders, Adaptation and Appropriation, 2nd ed (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2016), 5.

19. Elizabeth Freestone and Jeanie O’Hare, 100 Plays to Save the World (London: Nick Hern Books, 2021), 90–92.

20. Annie Siddons, Dennis of Penge (London: Oberon, 2019), 37. Dennis of Penge draws on Euripides’ Bacchae.

21. Marianka Swain, ‘Del Boy meets Homer in Kae Tempest’s bold and vivid Paradise’, Telegraph, August 12, 2021. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/del-boy-meets-homer-kae-tempests-bold-vivid-paradise/ (accessed February 14, 2022); Alan Fitter, ‘Paradise at the Olivier Theatre, London | Review’, LondonTheatre1, August 13, 2021. https://www.londontheatre1.com/reviews/paradise-at-the-olivier-theatre-london-review/(accessed February 14, 2022).

22. Tempest, Paradise, 116.

23. Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 69. For an example of political appropriations of the ending of this play, see one of Biden’s final campaign ads in the 2020 election: Joe Biden, ‘The Cure at Troy' by Seamus Heaney | Joe Biden for President 2020’, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCvwvcT1zE (accessed February 14, 2022).

24. Kae Tempest, Hold Your Own (London: Picador, 2014), 91.

25. Lloyd Evans in the Spectator was (perhaps unsurprisingly) riled, ending his review by asking, ‘Why are audiences at the National Theatre so keen to hail artists who are plainly saturated in loathing for the culture that supports the NT?’. Lloyd Evans, ‘Homeric Levels of Misery: Paradise at the Olivier Theatre, Reviewed’, Spectator, August 21, 2021. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/homeric-levels-of-misery-paradise-at-the-olivier-theatre-reviewed (accessed February 14, 2022).

26. Freestone and O’Hare, 100 Plays to Save the World, 90.

27. Lyn Gardner, ‘The National Theatre’s Temporary Space Must Spark Permanent Change’, Guardian, April 28, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/apr/28/national-theatre-temporary-space-must-spark-permanent-change, (accessed February 15, 2022).

28. The space was modelled after the ancient theatre in Epidaurus, Greece – though that theatre was built in the late fourth century BCE and had key differences from the theatre space on the south slope of the acropolis in Athens where all extant Greek tragic texts were first performed.

29. Tempest, Paradise, 138.

30. In 2019, the National’s joint chief executives Rufus Norris and Lisa Burger responded to criticism of androcentric programming by noting that they ‘have a duty to stage plays from the canon’. Georgia Snow, ‘National Theatre Responds to Playwrights’ Letter Criticising All-Male Programme Announcement’, The Stage, April 2, 2019, https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/national-theatre-responds-to-playwrights-letter-criticising-all-male-programme-announcement, (accessed February 15, 2022).

31. ‘Matt Hancock Gets Emotional as The First Covid Vaccine is Administered’, ITV/Good Morning Britain, December 8, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLG1-vIGuo&ab_channel=GoodMorningBritain (accessed March 2, 2022).

32. Harold Bloom, The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of the Ages (New York: Riverhead, 1994).

33. Antonio Gramsci, ‘Notes on Italian History’, in Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (New York: International Publishers, 1971).

34. In 2018/19, the Royal Shakespeare Company reported a net box office income of £53.4 million. See ‘Royal Shakespeare Company Income in the United Kingdom (UK) 2015–2019’, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/510715/royal-shakespeare-company-income-by-type-united-kingdom-uk/#:~:text=In%20the%20financial%20year%202018,roughly%2053.4%20million%20British%20pounds (accessed March 2, 2022).

35. C.f. Arts Index England, 2007–2018 which reveals a decline in public funding, philanthropy, and business support for the arts over the last decade.

36. Emer O’Toole, ‘Shakespeare, Universal? No, It’s Imperialism’, Guardian, May 21, 2012, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/21/shakespeare-universal-cultural-imperialism (accessed March 2, 2022).

37. C.f. James Shapiro, Shakespeare and the Jews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996); Kim F. Hall, Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995); Ayanna Thompson, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021); and the RaceB4Race conference series and network community.

38. Bloom, The Western Canon.

39. ‘CST Annual Review 2021’. https://cst.org.uk/data/file/5/9/CST%20Annual%20Review%202022%20ONLINE.1646132484.pdf (accessed March 2, 2022).

40. The Tempest, Royal Shakespeare Company, 2016. Available to stream on Digital Theatre: https://www.digitaltheatre.com/watch/37666837 (accessed March 2, 2022).

41. William Shakespeare, The Tempest, I.ii.366.

42. Aneesha watched the production from the very back of the balcony.

43. The performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGtycWIEHo&ab_channel=SnarfWalter (accessed March 2, 2022).

44. Lyn Gardner, ‘Much Ado About Nothing Review: More Sombreros than a Club 18–30 holiday’, Guardian, July 21, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jul/21/much-ado-about-nothing-review-shakespeares-globe-mexican-revolution (accessed March 2, 2022).

45. The Royal Shakespeare Company has just announced a new scheme for taking Shakespeare to the ‘high seas’ in 2022 aboard the Queen Mary 2 of all boats. This neocolonial partnership does not fill us with hope for the future of anticolonial Shakespeare in spite of Weise’s production: https://www.rsc.org.uk/press/releases/the-royal-shakespeare-company-and-cunard-take-shakespeare-to-the-high-seas (accessed May 6, 2022).

46. Just a few examples include Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête which reclaims The Tempest in Caliban’s name, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider which recontextualises Hamlet in Kashmir, and Los Colochos’ Mendoza, an adaptation of Macbeth set during the Mexican Revolution.

47. David Megarrity, The Holidays (Brisbane: Playlab Press, 2020).

48. Christopher Small, ‘Musicking – The Meanings of Performing and Listening. A Lecture’, Music Education Research 1, no. 1 (1999): 9–22 (12).

49. Elise Lawrence, ‘The Holidays (Queensland Theatre)’, Limelight magazine, November 20, 2020. https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/the-holidays-queensland-theatre/ (accessed November 30, 2021).

50. Meredith Walker, ‘The Holidays (Queensland Theatre) Theatre Review’, The Blurb, 2020. https://theblurb.com.au/wp/the-holidays-queensland-theatre-theatre-review/ (accessed November 30, 2021).

51. Chiel Kattenbelt, ‘Intermediality in Theatre and Performance: Definitions, Perceptions and Medial Relationships’, Culture, Language and Representation VI (2008): 19–29.

52. Matthias Rebstock and David Roesner, Composed Theatre: Aesthetics, Practices, Processes (Bristol; Chicago: Intellect, 2012).

53. David Roesner, Musicality in Theatre: Music as Model, Method and Metaphor in Theatre-making (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014).

54. Nathan Sibthorpe (Video Designer, The Holidays), in discussion with the author, October 2020.

55. Bridget Boyle (Director, The Holidays), in discussion with the author, October 2020.

56. Matt Erskine (Sound Designer, The Holidays), in discussion with the author, October 2020.

57. Boyle, discussion.

58. Sibthorpe, discussion.

59. Ibid.

60. Ibid.

61. Erskine, discussion.

62. Boyle, discussion.

63. Sean Foran (Composer, The Holidays), in discussion with the author, October 2020.

64. Ibid.

65. Yen-Rong Wong, ‘Sons, Sand and Surf’, The Saturday Paper, November 28, 2020.

66. Foran, discussion.

67. Sibthorpe, discussion.

68. Boyle, discussion.

69. Virginia Woolf, Night and Day (Auckland: The Floating Press, 1919).

70. Boyle, discussion.

71. Roland Barthes, ‘A propos des Coréens’, in Ecrits sur le théâtre (Paris: Seuil, 2002), 200–25.

72. Bibliothèque Nationale de France archives at Richelieu, Box number 4-Col-124 (6,3), Letter to Gabriel Monnet (June 8, 1957) from Gaston Roux.

73. Interview between Michel Vinaver and Rebecca Infield via email, August 20, 2018.

74. Notes for a conference in Barcelona, IMEC boxes VNV 35.9 et VNV 35.10.

75. Interview between Michel Vinaver and Rebecca Infield in person, September 23, 2019.

76. Ibid.

77. See for instance: Michel Vinaver, Ecrits sur le théâtre (Lausanne: L’Aire théâtrale, 1982).

78. See for instance: David Bradby, The Theatre of Michel Vinaver (Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1993), as well as a few Vinaver’s plays translated into English by Bradby and staged at the Orange Tree Theatre in London between 1987 and 97.