Wooster Baroque

Branislav Jakovljevic

Introduction Urb... The death of theatre, which in the West has been lamented at least since Aristotle, does not come with the passing of great tragic poets, or with religious persecution, or with the advent of new technologies. It comes with the death of death. Or, more precisely, with the death of the dead; that is to say, with the evacuation of the material presence of death from our every- day experience. Theatre not only dies for wont of a living, working, paying audience, but also because it is deprived of the population of the dead, of corpses imperceptibly decomposing under the audience’s feet while the spectacle unfolds in front of their eyes. Such is the stunning proposition that Jean Genet makes in his text “That Strange Word...” The strange word he points to is “urbanism.” It is strange, he claims, because it simultaneously refers to the city, urbs, and to those guardians of the First City who bore the name of Urban. It is urbanists, not religious leaders, who can bring about the extinction of theatre or restore it to its full glory. They can do that, Genet proposes, by placing theatres in close proximity to ­cemeteries or, at the very least, to crematoria. Theatre needs actual corpses placed before it,

TDR: The Drama Review 54:3 (T207) Fall 2010. ©2010 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 87

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88 Branislav Jakovljevic arrangement of arrangement spatial the productions,as two such the between similarities trivial by explained be could lapse of performance a see to about were we that coming,announced for audience,and us the thanked of front in stepped LeCompte Elizabeth Racine’sSchmidt’sof Paul translation on based (Phèdre) 9/11,of the events the Woosterafter progress in work their presented Group New Saturday,downtown York.in Garage Performing the at 2001 September 22 days few A flesh. burning or rotting of stench the by nated impreg- is word each of and gesture each of gravity the which in theatre a for short,asks Genet night”2003:108).and (Genet day In cooked are corpses where Crematorium buried,a [...] dead the and dug be to continue would graves where a cemetery one,through a “live but [...] a cemetery”of “dead steles remaining performance. few witnessing a after through not And graves through way their thread to spectators its dead.needs the It of traces discursive the not Group: while in while Group: the another,of to Woosterwork points the similarity in formal continuity profound more screens. plasma on images purely digital This with experimented they which in production first the of Woosterbeginning technology,video of Group’suse extensive whereas ones: formal Garage.purely Performing Or the of length the You,Racine’sJean mentioned,on already was, based I (2002) Birdie! as the 1999). in staged (Brace1991,two in 2003,and revived produced in originally Up! ing pulverized. completely not were that bodies for ruins,looking smoldering still the around carrying hopelessly were paramedics of crews that ones the fabric,to orange identical bright of Theseus,made by stretcher played Willema on onstage,Dafoe,down seen lying was when moment the was improbably so and directly so placed was it which in world fractured the and piece theatre incomplete the between resonance immediate and profound of moment based on Shakespeare’s play; and finally Shakespeare’sand on play; based PoliticalPerformancesSlobodanMilošević,” of in published ATHE’sArtist: Body “Fromto Mastermind article his Awardfor 2008/09 Essayfor Outstanding for WritingNorthwesternby UniversityEventpublished the was Press.and (2009) recipientof Hethe is (Serbia,Croatia,Journal)abroad Spain,England, and Sweden,Art Poland). Hisbook Unitedthe Statesin published been have Hisarticles performance. to event the of relation the on focuses researchhe current his in and avantgarde, the and theatre modernist in specializes StanfordUniversity. at He Drama of Department the in Professor Assistant Jakovljevic is Branislav Paula© Court) toy.(Hai-Tingplush her clutching sleeps Chinn) Figure(previouspage) 1. WessShepherd)“meteor(Scott the reaches for rejecter,” Didone La while is theatre European 17th-century of revisiting systematic this from departs Brusenello.that Francesco work Gian new librettist only and The Cavalli Francesco composer to detect the odor of scorched of odor the detect to claimed many plastic, which and in fuel ash. burning white of fine smelled of air film The a with the of Worldsite the from mile a Tradecovered Center,still were SoHo lower of streets the public.then the Less for bounds of out still was progress in work this watched and sat now we earlier,days where of city couple could.the a ever of Just past part own the its than more mance perfor this onto itself imposing Garage’swas Performing surroundings the of actuality the You, blackface. sorts, digital of However, a mask a becomes screen television flat the Birdie! the The only time I witnessed a performance that came close to Genet’s gory ideal was on was Genet’sideal to gory close came that performance a witnessed I time only The Over the following eight years,eight the following the WoosterOver (includ- productions new four mounted Group To You,Birdie! the and 9 & 1 Route Out of the four new productions, three were based on 17th-century texts: 17th-century on based productions,were new three four the of Out Route 1 & 9 & 1 Route which was on that night presented incomplete, without the ending) and ending) incomplete,the presented without night that on was which they used blackface in a provocative and controversial way,controversial and provocative a in blackface used they in — To You,Birdie! the or as Genet would have it,have would Genet as “cooked” or La Didone La La DidoneSt.La ,Ann’s Warehouse,(Photo Brooklyn,2009. . She quickly corrected herself.corrected 9.quickly & She 1 Route This — (2009), which used the opera by opera Venetianthe (2009),used which in both the audience was positioned across positioned was audience the both in TDR. Phèdre. evening,director That company House/Lights

— To You,the was Birdie! the marked the marked 9 & 1 Route human flesh.human only The Phèdre; (TDR, PAJ,(TDR, Theater, Poor (2004),Theater in 2005,in first To You,Birdie! the Daniil Kharms: Daniil (2007),Hamlet

- oTo oTo Wooster Baroque 89 L.S.D. Sakonnet Sakonnet — Point Point in environmen- 2 Akropolis and - docu In his “Task and Vision: Vision: and “Task In his is surprising if we 1 The Road to Immortality : Frank Dell’s The Temptation of St. of St. Temptation The Dell’s Frank La Didone That brings to mind the distinc- 3 This, in turn, points in to turn, the This, expansion of 4 , and Hamlet, Environmental Theater Environmental ([1973] 1994: 1–39). esp. , Phèdre (1978), followed by (1978), the School epilogue Nayatt (1984/1999), which Atlantic was (1984/1999), originally a part North of (1984), and (1984), the (...Just High Points...) L.S.D. ,” Philip Auslander correctly Philip asserted that this treading of the borderline LSD,” (1977), Road Rumstick (1977), (1981), (1981), 9

In In hisa theatrelandmark historian, essayMichael “On Kirby, theorist,Acting and and Not-Acting,” an actor who discusses acting from the Group, point of occasionally view collaborated of with form Wooster the and quantity rather than style and quality (see Kirby 1987). Robert S. Huddleston writesspace that of “the baroque art is theprojective”: image in the painting recedes towards the vanishing point and at the same time plunges outward to invade the space of the beholder and thus singleestablish coextensive “a (2001:14–15).space” more on body For and space, see Schechner’s Richard Scarpetta: “A 17th century theoretician such as finalized thatScarpetta: Baltasar Gracián rhetoric“A of the truth of appear- ance and contemplated its impact on the world of representation inis whichstill he was immersedTelevision [...] awaiting(1988:26). its LeCompte:Baltasar Gracián” “If I had been born tenI yearswould later, definitively be in (in Kramer otherwise2007:54). Unless noted, all television” translations are my own. The Wooster Group’s choice to Group’s stage Wooster The On closer inspection, On it closer becomes inspection, clear that the baroque-like use of space

1. 2. 3. 4.

(1987), followed by (1987), Anthony mentary video footage of William Forsythe’s dance theatre. The Wooster Group began its work Wooster The dance theatre. Forsythe’s mentary video William footage of in theatre with Three a Places trilogy: in Rhode Island is a trilogy plus an epilogue (1975), Point A similar pattern is recognizable (1979). in Judith its second trilogy, Route 1 & a baroque trilogy stretches over the troubled firstAnd decadenow, of the new millennium. remember how distant their theatrical practice has always been not only from baroque the- right their but straight angles, clear from lines, With atre, contours, the baroque style in general. and exposed corners, skeletal Jim stage Clayburgh’s constructions stand in stark contrast to the baroque and penchant concealed general for soft borders, rejection curved shapes, of lines, line traits stylistic the of summation his In irregularity. of favor in symmetry of and mass, of favor in asserts that “wants the to baroque carry usWölflin awayof Heinrich withthe thebaroque, force but immediate excite- It of and gives impact, overwhelming. us not a generally enhanced vitality, [...] It intoxication. does not convey a state of but present a happiness, feeling ecstasy, of ment, of something anticipation, yet of to dissatisfaction come, and restlessness rather than fulfillment” 1960s late the of theatre environmental Group’s Performance the this, of all In 1964:38). ([1888] is of the course, group This, from is which much the closer founding to members baroque. of the and Group from emerged, which they distanced themselves not Wooster only through the spa- tial organization of but their even productions, more through an acting style characterized by a and certain the restraint, coldness, ambiguity of acting and not-acting. which was based on the film recording of production Jerzy of Grotowski’s the visual field that marked both the baroque and high modernism: whereas the former was tion that French critic Guy Scarpetta makes between romanticism and baroque: whereas the the latter affirms exteri- and psychology, former privileges expressive interior authenticity, life, whereas modernism is marked and Consequently, strategyority artifice, (1988:23). or surface, by the romantic tendency to baroque defy uses illusion, illusion to thus assail bring- illusion, ing the whole This opposition baroque of illusion play reality to with vs. paroxysm surfaces (26). to from stage acting, performance, Wooster Group’s is clearly identifiable in all aspects of the to their design, use of video and digital technologies. tal theatre originates its from its depth and exploration of the three-dimensionality of the body, which coincides volume, with a certain psychological depth. Willem Dafoe in Willem between matrixed and non-matrixed performing led to the diminishing of characterization in “characterization (1997:41). degree as zero” he called it, or, stage practice, Group’s Wooster the precisely at this point the similarities with the baroque Paradoxically, begin to emerge. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

90 Branislav Jakovljevic sources. Titlesas such literary their from directly taken titles simple the with productions first existence,its are formances. the of Woostermany of titles the from even Group’semerges sensibility per baroque certain a art.of Furthermore,work the in complexity experiencing from gained pleasure aesthetic the of audience the from away turned monitors dialogue,video to Society and Society Art Perniola’s(Mario technology digital in revolution the by and,baroque) finally,the of politics neo-baroque,the of in prompted wave interest latest the to pronounced a Debord, Deleuze, had Guy Gilles who and being them among influential most (the baroque the in philosophers and critics social of interest resurgent the to 1986]); [(1975) [1988],[1975],especially,Scarpetta and Guy José Maravall’s Antonio the condition”of Sarduy “postmodern discovery Severo (see,the of example, with work for the coincided that 1970s early and 1960s late the of studies literary in neo-baroque the to 1998); and 1964) Walter([1888] Baroque and Benjamin’s century,20th the of turn Heinrich the as Wölflin’sfrom such baroque: works the in imagery. digital and video to film and technologies,photography visual from new by microscope,the shaped telescope,as was magica,obscura, such latter lanterna camera the and apparatuses optical old) relatively of dissemination the (or new of invention the by transformed

in Stein’sGertrude center: Thornton Wilder’s the of (1972:42).Woostermany double In this recognize to easy is Group’sit performances a as serve to surface textural the from blossoms which one hidden,and is censured; which the term and ‘suppressing’a always ellipse,term.is an there In literature.ellipse,”baroque the “In Sarduy,writes term suppressed the centers: two are “there to geometry and cosmology from orbit.slips cosmic easily Furthermore,the ellipse of the idea irregularity,and decentralization for Gallilean stands the him,ellipse for For the as well as in Latin American neo-baroque literature, recognizes in the ellipse the episteme of the baroque. the of episteme the ellipse the literature,Latin in neo-baroque recognizes American phrase.Sarduy,parenthetical Severo the follows of and theorist and novelist expatriate Cuban precedes that ellipse double the else anything than meanings,more of but ambivalence and obscurity its only not Points...)is High (...Justtitle the this about .baroque profoundly so is What in effectively most ideal baroque titles.the approaches performance linguistic This the of Woostermany that say exaggeration,can we their with Group’sbegin performances announce,order,only but words,other perform.in confuse, challenge: and Withoutmuch not herald.that they phrases performances are the titles about These reveal they than more unrecognized. there,and always aesthetics,latent were their which of aspects baroque a phase,”like “baroque something the entered highlight retroactively productions these that but the works dramatic Wooster17th-century three the of staging the Group with that claiming not style. am visual I mere beyond go that affinities shares it which with age) modernism,digital the (post- neo-baroque of waves recent most Woostertwo the with coincided historically Group [2004],and TimothyMurray’s 6. 5. House/Lights,Cavalli’sor opera La Didone. La

In fact, it is hardly surprising that recent history is marked by repeated waves of interest in interest of waves repeated by marked is history recent that surprising hardly fact,is In it square shapes ([1888] 1964:63). ([1888] shapes square Wölflin’sdevelops circular, over oblong essentially oval over for Here, he preference and baroque the about thesis Murraysee n.29). neo-baroque, (2008:263, and baroque the on texts theoreticalrecent of Forlist useful a The obscurity of signs in the in Woostersigns of obscurity The Group’s work and Hamlet This bicentrality easily turns into polycentrality,into turns easily bicentrality of This sources,also of but only not [1990], Ndalianis’sAngela Doctor FaustusDoctor Mawra’sJosephs film and Lights the Lights Route 1 & 9, & 1 Route , staged after more than 30 years of the group’sthe uninterrupted of years 30 than more Didone,after La staged Our Townin records LP Markham Pigmeat and Digital Baroque: New Media FoldsNew Cinematic Baroque: and Digital Art [2008]). and Mario Bava’s flick Mario sci-fi and Didone La Braceand Up! Neo-Baroque Contemporaryand Aesthetics Entertainment To You,conceal they enigmas: are Birdie! the The Origin of German German of Origin TragicThe Drama ([1928] — Enigmas: in Moment Egyptian The from private references,distorted private to from or a mask for the other”the for mask a cachetteor — is reminiscent of the baroque idea baroque the of reminiscent is Culture of the Baroque the of Culture Planet of the of VampiresPlanet Olga’sShame of House Route 1 & 9,& or 1 Route L.S.D. Renaissance 5

The ­ 6

Wooster Baroque 91 Phèdre The Rhode Rhode The La Didone a (dexter rel- panel), (central panel), Hamlet the (central text panel), to Judith three times three Point , the Wooster Wooster the , Trilogy The Rhode Island to trilogy, or rather, triptych? Does it follow the or rather, trilogy, , they move , Anthony of St. Temptation Dell’s Frank — Sakonnet Point Point Sakonnet baroque and L.S.D. — Route 1 to & 9,

. The Wooster Group trilogies are not the traditional Wooster The . the (...Just High Points...) L.S.D.

One way of approaching these questions Group’s is by looking at the order Wooster of the The third trilogy. What does it bring to an end? To work in three-step structure means to means structure three-step in work To end? an to bring it does What trilogy. third The from politics of to open contextualization confrontation, of to utopian its politics, seeming dis- “In the appearance: course of the action three is pieces, gradually recast dem- as contemplation, onstration and as the discussion, combative If as (Savran that the 1991:52). is solipsistic” the case, how are we to understand the third trajectory of the second trilogy, thus leading to the further trajectory withdrawal of this into the time solipsism, second trilogy, disguised as theatrical past? Or is it rather chronicling the accelerated fragmentation and dis- placement of the political? Is it trying to give some kind of coherence to the dispersed and frac- to back gesturing thus self, the rearticulate to attempt rather it does Or history? of sense tured trilogy? first the In this chronology productions. performative is triptych, transposed and into each space, pro- duction constitutes a panel rather than an installment or It a started sequel. with Racine’s (sinister panel), the (sinister canonical panel), text of European dramatic literature that is fairly unknown to and American continued audiences, with general Shakespeare’s atively obscure Musicologist baroque and opera. opera historian Philippe-Joseph Salazar sees in the 17th-century opera a new art form that strives to represent the unity of the perfect state What makes mastered and some nature aesthetic (monarchy), (Cartesianism), unity (1980:14). of the European baroque American alien audiences to is the cultural difference between this art of monarchic anti-reformation and a culture founded on the ideas of Puritanism and an oppo- Group seems to suggest that things Wooster have the their triptych, With sition to monarchy. and that changed, in the first decade of the American 21st democracy century is finally catching from the same As period if that try- is most familiar to an average English-speaking theatergoer. ing to seal the point of the the triptych baroque, concluded with progress from one point to another, from progress from one point to another, techniques, effects, and meanings. It and extends meanings. beyond effects, the single techniques, works and establishes series and groups The of performances that David Savran (1986). early on “trilogies” characterized as performances based on the baroque drama constitute such a clearly distinguishable group. points in dramatic sequences of three works established to accommodate narratives that exceed a sin- They are closer to gle the drama. visual form of where a the triptych, most significant feature is not the The ordering purpose of but of a grouping a sequence, as triptych such. is not to make room for an image larger than any of its three but constitutive to panels, bring together three This form calls relatively attention independent not compositions. only to but the also pictures, to the gaps It between allows them. whatever is behind or around the images to enter the visual thus disruptingfield, their purely Or mimetic as the function. Deleuze relationship observed, between the separated parts of a “neither triptych narrative is nor “does logical”: not it imply a and it This progression, does prohibition not of tell (Deleuze narra- a [1981] story” 2003:58). as tivity we “a results, are circular going in organization to in rather see, the than triptych, a lin- painting’s the of openness and flatness the questions also triptych the Further, (60). one” ear much very is polycentricism This a window. like fold to image hinged the allowing by format about Writing trilogies. Group’s present Wooster in the Group’s first, Savran assertsfirst, that the in notionGroup’s it, of memory has beenexpanded from an indi- vidual to and the from group, the recollection of the narrative to the reflection of the process of devising the “The performance chain itself: of cause and effect is doubly disrupted (‘Which pro- and duced the which?’) artifact further If entwined with (1986:71). its interpretation” addresses issues of memory and subjecthood in Trilogy relation to the Island production of an art - Group interrogates the notion of Wooster the argues Savran, then in work, the second trilogy, the end of He revolutionary makes politics. a persuasiveand claim the more political, specifically, in the that, arch from Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

92 Branislav Jakovljevic (Phoenix Sports Books, 1956) Books, Sports (Phoenix Racine’sIn tragedy, Phaedra find we PerformanceThe of Anals PanelSinister standpoint. ideological an from research scientific legislating from away shy not state,did who George of office in terms two the with W. the Bush, of president-son, head that conservative the state.baroque the of all,ideal After the the with up Woostercoincides Group’striptych baroque from Figurecourt, Badminton 2. these with these Troezenthe of seashore.rocky shores,“Somber shoresdreaded,” associates discourse Ubersfeld: poetic writes “The the on sun scorching the under die sister (1981:203).to her strands left Ariadne,Like is Phaedra Racine’stragedy, in references topographical privileged most the of reading loci. spatial defined excellent clearly her these in between observes As Ubersfeld Anne power,Phaedra’sof of past,center place netic the as Crete and Troezen space a as across comes Epirus,dangerous mag- and the foreign as the Athens references geographical Athens.as Having in place takes that succession for struggle a of reports by followed Theseus’sis death of rumor Troezen,Epirus.husband in her expedition of Theseus,while an king on Athens,the The away is walls. Can the dramatic space spell out in more unambiguous terms its terrible message to the the to message terrible its terms unambiguous more in out spell space dramatic walls.the Can tragedy,an but often is space dramatic the of wise,space the spaces: other”each Racine’s(203).dramatic cross Dead,of privileged and the one meet is coastline The of Land to the Epirus to Attica,from Crete leading from ways the all where death,crossroads a Salazar argues that baroque opera represented the epitome of the principle of the monarchic unity of state of unity monarchic the of principle the of epitome representedthe opera baroque that 7. Salazarargues 8.

tragedy,Frenchthe to Phèdre.resortversion, will I Racine’s to references In etc. Enone, Phaedra, Paul characters’Schmidt’snames: adopting the am of I spelling research.cell Presidentof think George only W. regard,need Inthis we (1980:14). nature and Bush’s stem on positions - like ships; anchored the and shore the camp,to military close a in place takes Iphigénie is adjacent to the harbor with ships ready to sail out. Racinian sail In to ready ships with harbor the to adjacent Andromacheis dangerous shoresdangerous. Troezen and evil to threshold,gateway infernal a an is The Phoenix Book of of Badminton Book Phoenix The 8 and her teenage stepson Hippolytus alone in the castle of of castle the in alone Hippolytus stepson teenage her and between the open sea and the foreboding city city foreboding the and sea open the between interval by FredChoong. byEddy and Brundle are shores and coasts or or coasts and shores are Phèdre

7 Wooster Baroque 93 - - Henry V, badminton Henry is Phèdre was originally per Brace Up!) mirrored by the Brace second panel at the is not without depth. However, the strict the Birdie! is not However, without depth. You, To What carries over from badminton court to the scenography 9 Set Design: Jim Findlay. Technical Drawing: Drawing: Technical Findlay. Set Design: (Phèdre). TheBirdie! Jim You, To

While tennis dates back to the Renaissance and is, for instance, mentioned in Shakespeare’s considerably more recent. Various kindsconsiderably of games more recent.Various similar to badminton were practiced for centuries in Europe and Asia, but historians of this sport agree that its modern version was devised at Badminton the Duke of Beaufort’s Hall, Gloucherterhire, in 1870. The rules of the gamewere codified by the early 20th century (see Brundle and Choong 1956; and Davis 1987). The symmetrical stage space in The court is placed on a slightly elevated platform that has a set of steps on On each side. Elizabeth LeCompte and the stage designer Jim Findlay evoke this frontal focus of Racine’s To You, the Birdie! are not just the dimensions of the or suchplaying itsas field, elements, the You, To 9. mance advances, it mance becomes advances, obvious that depth and flatness are not spatial properties that are generally applicable to This all discrimination characters of and space all comes situations. rear of the platform. symmetry of the the series stage, of frames positioned along its and central the axis, flat tele- vision screens significantly reduce As the the impression perfor of physical the depth. stage’s of but the net, perfect symmetry of the space. the rear edge of there the is platform, a pair of handrails similar to those used in swimming pools and a At in pair center place of court, of benches the behind posts them. that hold the net, there are two metal poles with flat plasma The television flat screens screens mounted on them. can move up like and tiny down, glass in curtains a at (indeed, visual the pun, intermission the image of a theatre curtain appeared on Directly the behind screen). the there front television, is a large glass panel (similar to the one used in

formed in the like Hôtel which many de was, other Burgogne, theatre houses a in con- Paris, rendering it Group’s is placed in a gym dominated Wooster verted by in tennis a the court, court for a similar racket game. tragic protagonist? “You have no ground to rest your foot upon,” “Everything it con- have whispers: no ground to rest your foot upon,” “You tragic protagonist? caught are with besieged, your back against rising the water wall, already You spires against you. have no otherThere is no licking way your out: toes. you cannot You undo what you have done. option but to turn toward to the entrust sea, yourself to the surface.” calm water’s Whereas onto a badminton court. theatre Troezen by transposing Figure 3. for Final set Figure drawing Bozkurt Karasu. (© The Wooster Group) Wooster Bozkurt(© The Karasu. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

94 Branislav Jakovljevic York,2001. Francesleft): Kate McDormand, Valk, AriFliakos.The Garage,Performing New FigurePhaedraglass. 4. the pressedagainst (Photo © Paula© (Photo Court) 10. 1960s, mid the feed. evidencedRobertsBlossom’sAsin experimentstheatrecompanyhisFilmstage with in it,itself,performance. with space nents,the and the but compo- mediated and live perception.into of Now,fragmented is that image the longer no is it fragmentation the increases performance in video of 1986:37).use Savran the of expansion This on work their in that asserting by video of use structural this describes elements.accurately integral LeCompte its of one but performance,to medium new a of addition an just longer performance.no them,in is For video Together direct of capability its through performance fragmentation,impacts with video See the special issue of issue special Seethe 10 film projections in avantgarde theatre were usually used as a background for for background a as used usually were theatre avantgarde in projections film on Film and Theatre (1966: esp.Film 49–61). (1966: Theatre on and TDR To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre)(From . Route 1 & 9, & 1 Route the Wooster(in the as Group ‘music’” video “used ists,the WoosterGroup art- video early from ture depar 1970s.a and In 1960s the of arts experimental the in image film and tronic elec- the of appropriations the from departure extreme an as seen glass”be the can theatre,this against “pressing in media screen of history glass.the against pressed face her shows that set television flat the behind concealed shoulders and head proscenium,the her at stands she which in one the is tion produc- this in Phaedra of ion.Finally, image iconic the fash- crab-like ways,a in side- walks often Phaedra court,the on steps she when screen.glass Even the around and of front in area row nar the to confined are Enone nurse her and Phaedra between court,exchanges the the on ton badmin- play Theramenes tutor his and Hippolytus stage.the of section Whereas certain a with character each associating of strategy the through clearly most across rehearsals, and as a prompt a rehearsals,as and in aid material,an source as a as video used have they from Starting performance.of creation the in video of role the expands Within a context of the of Withincontext a ­central Route 1 & 9, & 1 Route ­badminton - - Wooster Baroque 95 - To You, You, To Brace Up! In Brace As Kathy O’Dell As asserts Kathy in O’Dell generator” is a generator” flat screen that 11 , an actor’s hand is concealed an actor’s , L.S.D. To You, the : Birdie! its full integration You, To Phèdre are threatened by the para- (1968), live feed (1968), not only capa- shows video’s Free Will Will Free the Wooster Group used video structurally, in Group used video structurally, Wooster House/Lights the Route 1 & 9 to dimensional painting: it can be easily hung, suspended in space, lifted or lowered, and or lifted lowered, in suspended space, it painting: can be ­dimensional hung, easily

There are many examples of projection of film images on smaller surfaces, which results inIn fragmentation. (2000), Xtravaganza TheBuilders Association staged avery simple and effective trick: a performer places in front of him a piece of cloth roughly at the level of his hips, and then an image of moving legs is projected onto it. This, of course, produces the effect of fragmentation and not of unification. If from Roland Barthes suggests that stage productions of 11. moved. In it theatrical ceases moved. terms, being a prop and becomes a coulisse. other words, as the other an video words, object, monitor loses its sculptural properties and becomes more like a two- relation to the works of Vito Acconci and Dan Graham from the early 1970s, “the interpolation “the interpolation and Acconci Dan from Graham the early 1970s, Vito to relation the works of “disallows the of “split that audience video creates in a into a experience” sense performance” of demonstrated Anastasi William As the artist (1990:138). with the performer” identification direct in one of the earliest video installations, does not need a support on which or to the stand, rails on which as to in glide, bility for instant mediatization and tautological repetition of an image, but to also calls attention of an repetition image, and tautological for bility mediatization instant the flattening of the His physical installation space. consistedof a monitor placed in a corner of a gallery that showed the image of the same corner captured by the Chrissie video Iles camera. as shape to physical be experienced, “also the allows monitor’s out points that this setup simple the viewer moves away from the frontal image of the corner and perceives three- the monitor’s synchroniza- Group’s The same effect is produced Wooster (2001:57). in dimensional the mass” tion of At video one images point and in live performance. which shows the The same television behind hand monitor a holding television a monitor, gun. that at the same time conceals and shows the hand that holds the gun retains its three-dimen- a box that sits on the table It “solid next is object,” to a the If live televi- performers. sionality. in “the the effective wordssion ofis distinguished Jacques Rancière, from film projection by, then plasma television is distinguished performance from of its the more set,” cumbersome pre- “image-­ decessor by the its distinct Here, performance (2007:6). for the theHere, first videotime, monitor isthe not Birdie! they started using it theatrically. or perched on or a hung tucked table, above into the but a performing placed corner, area, made possible byThe plasmaflattening screen of tech- squarely the center monitor, stage. allows LeCompte to place the video image in front nology, of the in performer a and, com- to synchronize direct and live video prerecorded performance, feed, footage. pletely new way, Already Ariin played Fliakosthe we by and opening find Theramene, scene, Hippolytus and Scott Shepherd, seated on the bench after a game of Thebadminton. plasma screen positioned in front of their lower bodies shows a supposedly live feed of what it conceals and leaves their they As perform they verses, a exchange series Racine’s of mundane busts open to direct view. touching their gestures, knees and the rearranging the Then, towels that cover their genitalia. The slow images down suggesting jump, and that accelerate, what video footage becomes jerky. we see on the screen is not live video feed but a prerecordedThis tape. and other instances illustrate what I mean by the theatrical use of video in in the theatrical game of revealing and concealing. Like theatre itself, here video introduces ambiguity into Wethe canfield no of longer vision. trust what What we see. distinguishes this uncertainty from theatre proper is that in its nature it is not only more optical impor but, temporal. tantly, live performance, while live video performance, radically reversed this relation between the performer and the does its a magnitude of filmsufficient projection When used in performance, image. recorded The andthatscreen might be anything placed usual feat of a creating spaceof unified illusion. in front including is Conversely, of live awash it, performers, in the light from the projector. video introduces fragmentation into the field of representation. dox that On stems from the language the one hand, status of language in Racinian tragedy. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

96 Branislav Jakovljevic AriFliakos.St. Ann’s Warehouse,Gearhart) Mary © (Photo Brooklyn,2002. in stage Figurethe Frontalof 5. view its rhythm. its disturb thus and language of flow the forward fast or reverse to recording sound of property Schmidt’s to approach initial Group’s Woosterthe lost, inevitably is alexandrines Racine’s of melody and rhythm the which in translation English an with worked they though even Interestingly, (142). drama Racine’s of heart very the at ensemble,”and is of that “musicality time tragic the obscures and drowns stage, delivery,”“Racinian detail”of of tyranny that “clarity double result” the “bastard of French the on that claims he hand, other the On 1992:120). ([1960] Barthes itive,”writes such,the irreversible: to “surrendered 12. temporality with up bound is rises above the whispering echoes, only to drown in them again.them in drown echoes, to whispering only the above rises Hippolytus’sfor of love Phaedra’srealization Aricia. of angry screampoint Her the at only disperses swarm The space. aural drama’s radio the of silence vast the into off spin or behind, voices.of another,swarm one a echo into speech,They turns own Phaedra ahead,rush lag voice,rather,own or her in her drown with to coincide voicings.seems to her She Unable in speech.own her of echoes and whispers by voice.accompanied is Phaedra’sutterance every Phaedra’s of doubling persistent the to screams Theseus’s from ranges that voices actors’ in prominently figures that solution technical of distortion the is Valk’s production radio that was originally broadcast in 2000 on BBC Radio 3, and to access archivalmaterial. access to and 3, Radio BBC on 2000 in broadcast originally was that play radio Wooster the the WorkHapaz, hear to Clay Group’s me (2007:262). for Book possible it made archivist, the Woosterof Foraccount brief a Group’s Schmidt’son work Phaedra,Kate Valk,theStan, precisely Lance used with together it directed who 12 Apart from firmly situating firmly from Apart was through language and sound. In the radio play based on Paul on based play radio sound.the and In language through was Phèdre (From left): Scott Shepherd, Koosil-ja, Fiona Leaning, Leaning, To Fiona Koosil-ja, Shepherd, You,Scott Birdie!left): the (From(Phèdre).

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the tragic act is tragic precisely because it is spoken, and as as and spoken, is it because precisely tragic is act tragic the , time cannot be reversed, its creation is defin- is reversed,logoscreation be ,its cannot time Phaedramedia,audio anothercontemporary within PhaedraQuick’sAndrew see , The Wooster Group Wooster Baroque 97 To You, the the You, To As I perceive the

14 Sur RacineSur was published in More recently, following on Starobinski’s ideas, Timothy Timothy following ideas, on Starobinski’s More recently, To You, the Birdie! promotes a specific idea of synchroniza- You, To 13 the present. What we witness on the the present. screen are not only images — L’oeil vivant in 1962. L’oeil or rather exposes

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On the level the of plasma effects, screen makes possible a certain (Ra)cinefication of the Through the symmetry of the stage space and the clear distinction between the forestage, 1960 and Starobinski’s 1960 and Starobinski’s This layered spatial structure echoes the basic technological structure of plasma television.Instead of the cathode tube, this technology is based on the layering of plates of glass that hold electrodes and cells filled with molecules in the colloquial description of of this xenon and new neon television gas, technology. hence “plasma” Starobinski’s exposé on visuality in Racine came almost simultaneously with Barthes’s condemnation exposé of on the visuality tra- in Racine came almost simultaneously with Barthes’s Starobinski’s tragedies: ditional Barthes’s emphasis on musicality in onstage recitations of Racine’s This doubling and multiplication followed Phaedra from radio In to her stage. interview Actuality is when the lighthouse is dark between the flashes: it is the instant between the tics of the watch: it is a void interval slipping forever though time: the rupture between past and future: the gap at the poles of the revolving infinitesimallymagnetic small field,

Murray contemplated the of suggesting possibility Racinian of “tele-visuality” theatre, a certain “the mechanistic that legacies of cinema inscribed have in the the Ra-cine” unique proper name, ability to reveal texts in a Racine’s vision and morality “something imprinted of on an electrified screen that positions subjectivity in the virtual zone of (1998:14). traumatic fantasy” Birdie! not only question answers about Murray’s the televisuality but of also Racine, pushes the provocation further. LeCompte theatrical employs stage. screens in andorder even to reflections, create close-ups, she The does screens not introduce stop at transformations that. of the However, live image. into performance this a diversifi- temporal order that is completely alien Most to obviously, it. cation of temporalities is achieved through changes In of scenes the speed. based video image’s on the synchronization of live performance and this video slowing image, down or speeding up opens up of The objects but synchronization and also of bodies, images live of performance time. and video is not their only a synchronization but of also images, of that their is movement, to say, there Their is de-synchronization no transforms the present tempo. into an unforeseen: simply, way of knowing if actions taking place behind the screen correspond to the images that appear The gap yawns between on the screen. two-dimensional image and the three-dimensional body, and that rupture sucks the future into the the Of video present course, image moment. does not is engagehave thethe spec- magic property to Whatalter it however, the canflow do, oftime. faculty of tator’s anticipation. the and central the area, backstage, tion in which the spatial distribution of performance elements The is replaced by their layering. behind whichflat is screen is the then glass in the front partition, badminton of court, the body, and behind that another and television then screen, another glass partition. with Andrew Quick, LeCompte explained that the splitting of the character of Phaedra between between Phaedra of character the of splitting the that explained LeCompte Quick, Andrew with who performed enabled the her movements, who Valk, Scott spoke and Shepherd, her Kate lines, to accomplish a greater physical mediation precision ofonstage Sheppard’s (Quick 2007:263). voice leads Phaedra’s to multiple onstage mediations accomplished through audio and video tech- Group It approaches is the precisely specific through this multiplication Wooster that the nology. visuality theatre of “absol- that Racine’s Jean and Starobinski recognized “materialization” as a of the 78). utization” gaze (1962:75, images on- I and simultaneously offscreen, attempt to establish connections between the dif- This spatial ferent structure layers extends so of into my images. time, impatient imagination rushes away from the images that are already onscreen in order to grasp those that have not yet The gap between the screen arrived. and the body can be seen as the spatialization of tempo- if ral intervals that make As possible George the Kubler structuring wrote of memorably, events. somewhat laconically: 14. 13. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

98 Branislav Jakovljevic in Paul Schmidt’s translation set to a rolling techno rhythm. As a chorus of faint female voices female rhythm.faint techno of rolling chorus a a to Schmidt’sAs set Paul translation in low,butt,earth,and and and high head plummeting.and elevation 18. 17. 16. 15. 16 feathers from the wing of a goose. Hence the birdie. goose.the a Hence of wing the from feathers 16 history, to century,14 20th inserted the were of cork,which turn of into the made at was base the tail. Thesetwobasic structural elements areof disproportionate weight. Early inbadminton’s a and base a shuttlecock.of play’sa consists the as title missile,from known the prop also The misses them of one whenever glass shattering of sound loud the speakers,with the together from coming referee invisible an of comments the by birdie.accompanied are gestures vigorous Their energies. sexual of discharges violent and suppression the of and lows and highs the emotional of Woosterdevice baroque uniquely a employs Group distance this traverse to insurmountable.order appears In image the and body the between gap from The WoosterGroup’s To You,(Phèdre)Birdie! the of CD body the Willempale of and cover Dafoe.slim the the Even to contrast chant” are outlined against the background of these intervals (1962:77). intervals these of background the against chant”outlined are the of “Racinian modulations melodic one, the last while the of silence the and gaze first the of suffering the between mediator the is Racine,word in the that gaze. suggests and He speech between interval similar a in Racine’sprecisely in tragedies theatricality locates Starobinski that movement”1986:37,of present”accidental ([1983] differential able not 44). of and is sort It “a interval,a an as as “vari- present the of manifestation this to refers itself.Deleuze asserts Gilles present the temporalities.which these in of leaps any require between They passage smooth game...sports the no of is time feed,There accelerated video the live the of time simultaneous footage,video the recorded of time movement,delayed rhythmical the of time measured the audience, the by experienced performance, duration the the of time fictional the productions: the in Woosterwork at are that temporalities different Group between up open voids Similar by a cane-like aluminum support with a seat instead of a handle. a of instead seat a with support aluminum cane-like a by down falling from prevented ily,air,is the she in time up same veil the dark at her and blows she stage.the above high clouds,Kate positioned feathery As is and Valk’s sky heav- pants Phaedra video shoes,the dressy and of pair ground,a showing the to lowered is front the in monitor video the earth: fall,heaviness, and and and sky flight ness To light - between You,tension the of examples numerous are there production this In Birdie! the gravity,of force the and of lows,inertia orientation and between spatial heights the epitomizes slowsdown asitgoes upand then accelerates again asitfalls down. Thissuspension between hit, birdie is the it hard gravity.how of down.matter force going No starts and midair in turns It the of command under comes birdie the and weakens momentum path,initial its the through journeyitisdriven bythe force from theslam ofthe racket upon itsheavy base. Then,halfway

The opening number on the CD is entitled “I Hate My Life.”My entitled Hate is “I CD the is,on It number basically, opening The Racine’s text Center-court, in between the transparent panels, two young bare-chested men spank the the spank men Center-court,bare-chested panels,young transparent two the between in between events.between (1962:17) void the happening.is is It nothing when pause interchronic the real.is ultimately It but production. this of documentation of piece Interestingly,availablecommercially only the is songs of compilation this show.the of run regular the during saw I that performances the in not work-in-progress but the version, in blowing used were veil and panting The animal”(2001:252). the to themselves adapted likewise having devices these and it, capture to designated originally contrivances the to itself adapted having animal the transformism, of form curious a of example living a It is tail. truncate-conic its of feathers striated sometimes white, the for note bird, a is shuttlecock “The Jarry’s Alfred Hewrites: of One shuttlecock. the “siloquies” to dedicated is échappées.”ches sur dessinent se racinien chant du modulations “Les 18 ismarked bythis opposition between sky monitor in the back, featuring the blue blue back,the the featuring in ­monitor 16 Upon launching, in the first half of its its of half first launching,the Upon in 17 Theseus’sheaviness stands in 15 However small,However the LoveSongs: Songs worthy ­worthy

Wooster Baroque 99

Songs. CDLove cover art. Design by Caspar Stracke. Figure 6. Figure (© The Wooster Group) Wooster (© The and, the much more commented on performance of Marina — was the Birdie! just one of You, three artistic works presented York in New To , presented Cloaca, from presented 25 to for January 28 Contemporary2002 April at Museum the New significant in the sense that they signalize the dramatic status of the character obviously obviously planned well before the events of September 2001, the installation is a room sized —

Unable she to walks stand, with the and metal when staff, she stops she uses it as — , The presentedHouse with View from the to 15 Ocean 200226November November at Sean Kelly 19

Art in SoHo The enema tube takes the prominent CD. place in the image onWooster Group’s the cover art of the Group’s Wooster the Interestingly, City in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that prominently featured bodily cleansing. The other twoWim are installation Delvoye’s machine that simulates the process of digestion Abramović, these three together, works come Galleryclose to inTaken outliningChelsea. the full range of the possible meanings of catharsis in art. Far from being an instance of random scatological humor, the Wooster Group’s introduction Group’s Wooster Far from the being an instance of random scatological humor,

a support for her bottom. Then a she support slowly for revolves her on bottom. this one-legged throne. of the enema elevated into tragedy Racine’s is both justified by the text and historically accurate. Lucien Goldmann points out that the stage “very directions rare are and always highly signifi- cant in Racine” 19. chants rhythmically “I chants want rhythmically to die! I hate cries “I and whispers: Valk Kate my life...,” like a had Venus my I mother had sickness, virus If in (Schmidt in my 1998:10). blood” “black desire” tragedy Phaedra’s Racine’s is leading her into her in own the demise, staging it Group’s is taking her Wooster this And scatologi- yet, to the enema chair. cal episode comes across as all It but farcical. takes place in the as second the act, specula- tions about dynastic succession and Phaedra’s passion for Hippolytus simultaneously reach LeCompte their eliminates peak. the farci- cal undertones that scatology usually takes in theatre by casting it into striking stage The scenes of the court images. intrigues concerning the vacated Theseus throne of advance and on Phaedra’s Hippolytus take place in both quick staged succession, in on the carefully First, arranged tableaux. extreme we stage findright, Phaedra dressing assisted by up, her the two whole attendants, image framed As by they the discuss two the transparent pool screens. of candidates for the Hippolytus is throne, emerging from the swimming pool indicated by the sound of water lazily splashing In against an standing marble. almost Scott behind imperceptible Shepherd, shift, thus allowing reads lines, them and the both to Hippolytus’s platform, Phaedra’s fully turn the whole Then, tableau their moves attention laterally to across their the gestures. stage until Phaedra reaches the enema chair positioned on the steps on the The left edge of the platform. transparent screen in front of the platform is promptly moved to the extreme stage left in order to frame the single instant of passion between Phaedra Perched and on Hippolytus. the chair, she grabs his bare buttocks as the two attendants insert the tubes into her and pump the liquid. what protestations my (“My God, Hippolytus’s god, “Give me screams your sword,” Phaedra’s build up trois” deux, are and “Un, you This rhythmic even saying? is music, an / shameful”), Then she weak steps on oblivious aside, towards her of climactic the legs, the discharge. queen’s yellow tube that protrudes from under her long silk dress and drags behind her as she advances center stage. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

100 Branislav Jakovljevic Figure7. Tragicenema. Kate Valk.St. Ann’s Warehouse,Gearhart) Mary © (Photo Brooklyn,2002. To You,Birdie!the (Phèdre)(From Frances . left): Koosil-ja, McDormand,

Wooster Baroque 101

- lavement 20 enemas, ­enemas, Route 1 & 9 ([1668] 1878). hysteric women were believed to suf- To You, the Birdie! they place scatol- You, To — L’instrument de Molière: traduction du traite De clysteribus du traite traduction de Molière: L’instrument traditionally, fainting has been seen as one of the major traditionally, symp- — Scatology is not foreign to the Wooster Group, either. In either. Group, Scatology is not foreign Wooster to the and is unable to stand and walk 21 —

furor uterinus

Laurinda Dixon Laurinda writes Dixon that baroque medicine saw a the vastly complicated human hydraulic body complex, “as with the abdominal region acting as an intricate sewer system. bodily Every function was understood in mechani- cal terms, and blockage of the uterine vessels or the hypochondries was treated much in the same way as a clog in (1993:33). the plumbing system” See de Graaf’s 17th-century booklet The analogy moved and beyond this medicine, anal fixation of the baroque was often rid- iculed in theatre: the syringe was one of the props frequently featured in commedia dell’arte, and Molière used it to such a great effect that the physician Reinier de Graaf referred to it as instrument.” “Molière’s 20. 21. toms of fer from and swollen were feet, thus often portrayed in a Both seated symptoms position. clearly such reveal as her Jean physical Liébault, and Physicians psychic of condition. the 17th century, wrote confidently that “makes the curious womb and so to speak petulantmovements in the vagrant, These movements convulsive, are various descending, [...] ascending, body. woman’s gullet, lung, heart, breast, stomach, diaphragm, spleen, The womb rises to the prolapsed. liver, The inner wanderings (in of and Dixon the head” 1995:53). uterus and the passions it ignites on The taming of its the itinerary maternalare all manifested on the exterior of body. the hysteric’s animal and called cooling for bloodletting, were a some number Diet, of of the procedures. com- monly Odors prescribed were treatments. used for uterine repulsion and attraction: women were asked to inhale fetid smells that were believed to repel the wayward uterus from their heads, while pleasant odors were applied to their genitalia in order to lure it to its Rose proper place. water was injected into vaginas and using the clysters, same instrument was used for which were believed to be the best relief for the perturbed intestines of More baroque patients. during the 17th and the 18th enema centuries, was viewed as generally, a preferred cure for a number of diseases that afflicted both men most and notably women, hysteria and melancholia andHippolytus theformer, with is afflicted Phaedra that evidence ample contains text (Racine’s with In the the medical 17th latter). histories, century is referred to as a century of clysters. Some of the more extreme uses of this device can be traced to church those and pillars court, of the baroque society: the former used syringes filled with holy water in order to perform intra- the and court uterine when of baptisms, it Louis comes XIV to was the awash latter, in (1972:91). Phaedra swoons (1972:91). (washing), as the (washing), anal enema was euphemistically referred to: the king himself sometimes under went as many as four This treatments craze per for day the (Dixon enema 1993:28). came from the conception of human internal organs as analogous to a complex plumbing system. ogy in a radically It different is context. one of the rare instances in which it is not employed for the to the production my only of and, knowledge, one comic in effects, which an enema occurs this And induced evacuation once begins transferred its into the world of tragedy, in a tragedy. entanglement with definition ofthe Aristotle’s tragedynotion Starting of as with the catharsis. representation of and an in action doing that so provokes brings pity about and a fear, purgation ) (katharsis of catharsis these has emotions, been considered one of defining elements of tragic Aristotelian concept The of catharsis does not owe theatre. its peculiarity only to the strange mixing of pathology medicine but and and to literature, mimesis, the curious circle between dis- cursivity The and cathartic non-discursivity body that is it the establishes. body that escapes the dictate of It the is mind. a body that has no referent and no law other It than is itself. out of this unregulated and indescribable body is induced into its trancelike state by Yet, the control. This a distance discourse certain between itself, kind of discourse that came to be called tragedy. the body and the discourse resembles the gap between The the baroque body and the image. separation the preserving while possible as much as interval this narrow to order in analogy uses they took over routine Pigmeat in Merkham’s which a character soils his pants after he mis- in takenly ingests a great quantity of However, castor oil. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

102 Branislav Jakovljevic Paula© Court) Theater, New Public The (Photo 2007. Raymond. York, Bill FigureSilentconfidante. 8. 23. 22. in the chair, as if her death is but an enema gone wrong. gone enema chair,an the but in is death her if as hurried a “Un,and deux, trois,” release.climactic Enone’sno slumps and body buildup no but ceremony.attendants,without the and of herself, help it without does Enone noise, is There time,this and treatment; her undertook Phaedra where from stage the of side opposite the on chair.enema the on duction,suicide commits Phaedra’sEnone nurse positioned time,is This it tional, not only physical. only not tional, emo- be can constipation effect: body,toxic the corrosiveand in a havefood emotions stationary stationary like Just motion. constant in be to have nutrients, like Emotions, 1973:211). passions” (Sellin tragic proper the ing movof - “ultimatelyprinciple catharsis single of the considerations subordinateto Heinius,Danielwhose became critic literary followed 17th-century Boileau, Dutch and Racine of those specifically theories, dramatic classical Racine’s in work at also is that literalization catharsis. argues of of neo- R. Sellin French principle views Paul The Universe”the excrementof the (Foucault 1994:22). [1966] “man’sbody; world,”“thethe parts”to of baser comparable are “the parts likeand arefouler [...] souls damned swollen the to is bladder the of explosion the sky,what the nature to are is clouds tempest gathering the and what body the to is belly ether, swelling the the to is heaven of face the what body its to is ogy, face human the epistemology. baroque the of figures main the of anal- baroque one According to is analogy Foucaultthat asserts . Dominique Bousquet and and Bousquet Dominique Hamlet .

amplified. In the closing moments of the pro- the of moments closing amplified. the In even was and remained death with enema the of piece, association the the of version final alizes it. alizes doesn’tcatharsis,enema liter resemble but bowels.her However,of evacuations lent her vio- to similar convulsions bodily into late ever,distinct. remain another.to analogy the sides, two how- The of side one from passage violent a at attempt an is enema the of operation anal the then performance,of images spatial the to ogous anal - as positioned are images video Birdie! 2003:93).in ([1981] If theatre to comparable Artaud’slanguage discursive screams,”signs,and linguistic breaths non- a of movements,consists “expressive that para- language analogical the them in sees Deleuze grammar.and logic defy often relations pair of pair any between relations proportional up ting logic: to relationality: and proportion ­designates comparison.mathematics,and In sition it sides.two juxtapo- the both of uses Analogy over-the-top effect was removed from the from removed over-the-topwas effect this materials.though hazardous Even ing indicat- sign a with stamped receptacle tic plas- yellow a chair medical her beneath procedure,from Phaedra’sremove attendants enema the of Birdie!completion ,the the after of version work-in-progress the in go: lightly.alization will it as far as it pushes She as b Phaedra’s ceaseless agitations trans- Phaedra’sagitations ceaseless a:b::cd is to is c chosen things in the universe. the in things ­chosen 23 LeCompte does not take this liter this take not does LeCompte ). set- possible makes figure This (or,d formal of notation the in To You,the 22 These To You, is a - - Wooster Baroque 103 -

- 24

- 25 Phèdre nor in , directed by by directed Hamlet, To You, the Birdie! You, To To You, the Birdie! was You, To North . Atlantic North she used Paul Schmidt’s Schmidt’s Paul used she the Birdie! You, To Hamlet LeCompte renounced the text alto- intrigants of Shakespearean tragedy finds his end.Benjamin , become voiceless. It become is voiceless. precisely , this kind suivantes of , lurks in , the wings intrigant of the baroque drama. . Whereas Whereas in Hamlet. confidentes and Hamlet a She hospital seemed feel. to linger not only at the edges of the . In her Hamlet. informative study on the evolution of the confidant from a drama-

Dressed in black and with the white cap on every her now head, and then she would emerge She rejoined the Wooster Group in the Group spring of 2010 for the Wooster remounting She rejoined of the In In fact, that is where one of the most archetypal writes thatregardless of Polonius, his court,official still position carries in Claudius’s a deep mark “old of the which model distinguishes of him demonic from a fool,” conventional confidant ([1928] 1998:127). In effect, the In traditional effect, figure of the confidant is featured neither in Racine’s from the wings to silently cross move the a stage, piece or of hand furniture, someone a prop. most of the The time only she female stood member silently of the cast other Valk, than Kate in a corner and observed the In action what onstage. seemed to be more or less regular inter but physical at stage, the borders of the In performance contrast itself. to the rest of the cast, who had her speaking acting roles, was entirely More task often these driven. than tasks not, together with had which, her set no white her purpose, costume, apart who from stagehands, vals, she pushed vals, across the If stage a contraption that resembled a walker. imbued with the atmosphere of the a presence health pool), of club the (badminton, nurse and the walker added to nurse that LeCompte adds to her translation of Racine as the primary in textual source, gether and worked from the film recording of the 1964 Broadway production of John Gielgud and with Richard When Burton it in comes the to title casting role. and general mise- performance stays Group’s fairly close to the version filmedWooster at thethe Lunt- en-scène, with one Theatre, significant exception:Fontane LeCompte the adds to the cast a silent character, who hovers nurse, in the corners of the stage like a footnote pointing back to Shakespeare’s Shakespeare’s demonstrates that, Worth-Stylianou Valérie turgical device to a full-blooded dramatic character, Corneille made the confidants ind’Aubignac, his tragedies increas- following the opinions of L’abbe Before they ingly 31). reappear silent radically (1999:29, transformed in the late tragedies of Racine, especially female confidants, 24. 25. Confidence and Silence nurse as Phaedra’s written Judged by by Racine the isstandards of French neoclassical tragedy, Barthes described the ofconfidant “functionalneo- an as figure” unusually a complex character. There the “insignificanceone authorizes ([1960]whose his 1992:53). ubiquity” classical tragedy, is an army of confidant-like characters in They the appear theatre under of the this guise period. these In peripheral general, personages advisors. are silent teachers, friends, servants, of nurses, and devoted followers of the mere tragic materializations hero, of the imperative of verisimil- itude that bans soliloquy from the French Giving baroque the stage. tragic heroes an oppor “voice as oftunity writes a to Barthes, hear the echo of their they own appear, deliberations, Far from “utterly (54). being but stupid a an reason” simple sounding board for the her reason,” oine takes entangled an in active the part throes in of her her Enone, own tragic stupid fate, way, in the intrigues In surrounding orchestrating Phaedra. the story rape about of Hippolytus’s his she does much She more dictates which, than words. her facilitate actions, Phaedra’s stepmother, Played by the makes her in the the perpetrator. highly charged world of neoclassical tragedy, Wooster Group only for that onefilm project, actress who Frances joinedMcDormand, the 1st Intermezzo Enone is an involved and highly mobile character who scales the wings in order to better mold and manipulate the action that is taking she place In approaches center short, the stage. figure of “anthropological, demonstrate writes an Benjamin, “cold calculations,” whose the court intriguer, even a that Alongside psychological fascinated knowledge” baroque audiences ([1928] 1998:95). or the thethe courtconfidant, schemer, Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

104 Branislav Jakovljevic used in this production transforms the performance into an elaborate montage of images.of montage elaborate the an As into performance the transforms production this in used platform.screens the of underneath stage,wings,number even the the sheer and above The to close arranged monitors television and screens Theater.plasma eight than less no counted I St.at spaces box black Ann’sthe in stage,recreated scenium was Warehouse Public the and pro- the for space,common vaulted quite the of impression screens,overall video the of ment projections.video arrange- for careful screen a large Through a by elevation upstage long the production.original the of arrangement spatial overall Lunt-Fontane the the reproduced Theatre,in also recorded but video technicians, she was always prominently present onstage.present prominently always technicians,was video she puppeteers.toe,and Bunraku to sound resembling head the from unlike black And in clad were 27. 26. Hamlet. the ofas production “script”performance her this for of recording a acting.used LeCompte on accent actors,greater with a hoped,who,and place had setting would he minimal a in edy in Elizabeth with Taylor),relationship his him direct to him asked and Gielgud John approached to due largely came (which celebrity a and actor an as powers his of peak the Burton,at then Richard Theatre, Lunt-Fontane at opening play.its before Shakespeare’s of year A production them,of in in Whereas Dividual the of Rise The CentralPanel and at the same time outside of it: an instance of innocence in the midst of tragedy.of midst the in innocence of instance an it: of outside time same the at and the is She muteness.her is prince Danish the of story ing.the Prince’sin Richard nurse of remains What menac- longer no death,is and but blood to close still nurse.is his She appropriates LeCompte blood,processes,to death”bodily ity 2007:52).and Prince’s(Spector procedure,Repeating own proxim- their bandits,as in hospital nurses terrifying “sinister of paintings format large into turns priatedsubjects” aremedical nurses, which hecopies from thecovers ofmedical pulp novels and media.printed in cowboys, from cartoons,Apart his girlfriends, among and “appro- prominent published appropriation,photographs is,his the that for photographing known best perhaps is character.nurse the adopted LeCompte that imagery Prince his from is Prince,it Richard and tapes,DVDs.VHS and contemporary artist the American by designed was cover Playbill The of stack a by mask, then surgical and the by first concealed; doubly is part lower program.Hamlet face,cap,her Wethe of forehead, part eyes, upper the and the while see can notHamlet orany other major character, whoappears onthe cover ofthe WoosterGroup’s nurse,the is it that is surprising more is Bousquet.what Dominique But by played was role her list; cast the in is purpose technical or function dramatic no with Nonetheless,character this images.of language,and auditor,of language this owner of This mute,speech.herself without is repository the watches. is she her, She and confidence.in listens them She gives she return in and silentpartner. Theconfidant is the one who does not speak, but is spoken to. Everyone confides remainedwithin earshot. way,Ina sheconstituted thepure excess inrelation toperformance, its

. It turned out that for some time Gielgud had planned to stage Shakespeare’sstage trag- to planned had Gielgud time some for that out Hamlet.turned It In the and In Woosterplatform a by replaced is left Group’sstage on production,ramp the Silent and noiseless, and Silent (in Kramer 2007:268). Kramer (in of script the at looked “I LeCompte: scenes. the behind ear,quickly disappear to only St.Ann’s at his into performances something preview whisper the to of him Warehouse, approached she when one during Shepherd’sScott audience the during to was address onstage mouth her open her saw I time only The 27 Here, she not only asked the cast to duplicate the gestures and behavior of actors of behavior and gestures the duplicate to cast the asked only Here,not she of “The rest is silence” (Shakespeare 1997:1755). She is at the center of the work,the of center the silence”at 1997:1755).is of restis (Shakespeare rest She “The they perform in front of a large video display of the filmed 1964 Broadway 1964 filmed the of display video large a of front in perform they Hamlet To You,front in placed screens on images video with interact performers Birdie! the 26 she was never directly addressed by other actors, yet she always always actors,she other yet by addressed directly never was she four months ago, after I’d been working on it for a year and a half” half” a and year a I’dfor it after on ago, working months been Hamlet four books,Hamlet

Wooster Baroque 105

, Hamlet John John Gielgud The 29 Susan Susan

that dark, closed that dark, — Hamlet live performance and video Hamlet are more diverse and less depen- Figure 9. Set drawing for 9. the Set drawing Broadway production Figure of L. Richard Sterne’s designed From by Ben Edwards. Burton Richard in Directs Hamlet: of A Rehearsals Journal (1967). (Courtesy of L. Richard Sterne) Then (third), in Then just on (third), two 30 days, June and 30 is - and, after the play, and,there sheafter was,the all play, in pink, like Kennedy, Jackie

28 —

Hamlet , LeCompte used Kenneth Brannagh’s 1996 film, asLeComptewell Hamlet asused theKenneth celebratedBrannagh’s she had my name

—

To You, the Birdie! the video images in You, To , the Broadway production was implicated, in one way or another, in the a Broadway - signifi Hamlet, production in was one implicated, way or another,

directed by Grigori Kozintsev (1964). Kozintsev directed by Grigori Hamlet becomes a laboratory for the splicing of images and the parsing of time. The Wooster becomes a laboratory for the splicing Wooster of images The and the parsing of time. —

Elizabeth Taylor Elizabethloved Sontag wrote that “hearing John Gielgud’s voice on tape, even thus Cinemarized, reminded one of beauti- Sontag wrote how that Gielgud’s “hearing John verse sounds when it ful is Shakespeare’s spoken with grace andBut then intelligence.” she adds rest of that “the the performances gave only various (1966:160).degrees of Somewhere pain” in the audience was young Elizabeth LeCompte, who some 40 years later described that night in the theatre in her characteristically understated way: “I invited I mywanted mother. to go because it was Burton,might andbe thatthere. meant Taylor that Elizabeth I Apart from Burton-Gilegud’s Apart from Burton-Gilegud’s Soviet minimal and mediatized participation in the performance critical Gielgud’s received attention. Even Long before the Wooster Group decided to use the recording Long Wooster of before Richard the Burton and John coming out of the stage door. It made a deep impression” (in Kramer 2007:54). coming made out It a of deep the impression” stage door. was birth. It issued Industryto coincide press reported with this the to 400th have anniversary of Shakespeare’s been a commercial success: the sold record for $17 a piece and had 25,000 advance (Lefforders 1981:21). 29. 28. projection projection of the film versions of second recording came during when the the run, entire production was recorded and published as an audio LP record by Columbia Records. cant number of recordings. First, even cant though number First, Gielgud of insisted recordings. on a in low-tech his production, staging of He the so himself ghost scene appeared, he resorted to audio recording technology. in to the speak, role of the ghost by taping his voice and replaying it in live performances. Gielgud’s Gielgud’s Group disturbs the narrative time of the play by creating temporal circuits that emerge from the performance only This to complex plunge circuitry back is into made it. possible by the jux- taposition of the recordings video and Here, footage live is performance. no longer used just the images for on close-ups the or video slight depart distortions of the Now, live performance. The screens from exchange the images live in performance the and engage with one another. same The way video that image performers is trade no lines. longer subjected to the simple economy itof bouncesprojection Instead, aroundand thereflection. space of the stage in the same A way visual sounds echo and of voices sorts. do. unfolding on the big the screen live upstage, feed of the ongoing performance is running The video camera on cap- plasma screens. tures or an a image, moment from the per and adds formance, it to the scenography of that Every very now performance. and then like an this footage freezes unexpectedly, unshakeable memory of what just took place These dregs of performance right onstage. are and digitally in altered, that way detached from their point still of in origin, progress, The effect itself irreversibly transformed. is that of the live performance shedding its and which crumble, own then images, fade, decompose in order to form a set of indepen- This new texture dent visual compositions. forms the environment for the performance from which the images In originally came. comparison to They are in a images constant work process with of and pasting against and each scrap- other. The stage composition making and and ping, decomposition, unmaking. room dent on the live performances that take In place onstage. 30. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

106 Branislav Jakovljevic portable tape recorder concealed in his bag. These recordings were eventually approved by bag.approved his eventually in were concealed recordings recorder These tape portable a using rehearsals of process entire the roles,recorded minor secretly of couple a played also initially,that,least recording at a the to tapes”of turns “Hamlet public. then less much was 31. (23). million a over of capacity seating combined a Canada,had and which time-affair,one a September,States as 24 United released and the was 23 in on theatres 971 in it performance: live the of dissemination and extension an as conceived was film the of release commercial 1981:22).the (Leff Even audience (invisible) an of presence theatre,the the in in spontaneously,recorded performance theatrical live the of uniqueness the and Burton Richard of appeal celebrity the attractions main the as film, highlighted the Sargent for campaign tising production. film adver Indeed, of the standards in the fit to unaltered performance theatrical of recording particular this lighting,makes which additional require not onsite. did editing technique and filming mixing new the The all did He hired Williamdirector,television Colleran,unaccomplished of an filming the handle to theatre. the outside camera movie Electronovision,ified of Sargent, Inc., owner William the mod- a to there stage,from the and underneath located board mixing electronic an to mitted trans- were cameras the a from studio,to signals TV resemblance the further cameras. a TV In methods. of filming The production film with television in used technology recording electronic the combine to attempt an video. was preceded It that technology Electronovision, new using a done was recording film 1 Theater, New © (Photo 2007. York, Court) Paula Shepherd.Scott Richardand FigureBurton 10. performance: live and image Video July, the theatre performance was filmed for release in movie theatres across the country. the across theatres July, movie in release for filmed was performance The theatre the The fourth recording: Richard L. Sterne, then a young actor who was an understudy and understudy an was who L.actor Richard young Sterne,recording: a fourth then The WoosterPerformance”Archiveof Groupthe and (2008:303–22). scholarship,see W.B.studies performance recent to recordedrelation in Worthen, The GroundZero: “Hamlet at Burton’sof production the of Fordiscussion illuminating an was done during actual performances, using seven electronic performances,seven actual using during done was Hamlet one of the first video recordings of a of recordings video first the of one Hamlet , as well as of the questions of live versuslive of questions the of as wellHamlet as , . The The Hamlet. Public 31 However, story the Hamlet. - Wooster Baroque 107

34 TDR (1992), Hamlet - reproduc Benjamin’s Benjamin’s One such ” in 32 Brace Up! Brace John Gielgud Directs John . It is Irving’s stu- . is It Irving’s Hamlet Hamlet is a live Reproducibility (and other -abilities) indicates (1992). World in Directors Rehearsal: A Hidden The Wooster Group’s Group’s Wooster The 35 This series of performances resembles a family tree 33 possibility itself, and not merely [...] an anticipation of a possible qua (1974). effective effective (1937). Gilder’s book Gilder’s A (1937). Record of Performance Hamlet: Gielgud’s John cessors in the 1930s dreaded so much: to act as little as possible and instead Apocalypsis cum Apocalypsis figuris

This technique of liverecording performances through detailed written descriptions wasby marginalized the emergence were still there of instancesnew in which,technologies, such long as after filmHowever, and video. the beginning of the widespread use of these technologies, writing seemed indispensable for the recording of theatre critic Malgorzata live example, produced Dzieduszycka performance.a the description For Polish of Grotowski’s In his essay, Gielgud does not limit this transfer of In performance his only essay, to personal contact, dent, Ellen Terry’s son and Gielgud’s second grandmother cousin,son Kate,and Edward Gordon Craig.Gielgud’s also Gielgud’s an Terry’s dent, Ellen sister. Terry’s actress, was Ellen anddemonstrates inin hishis 2008Virtualityessay book “The ofMedia” Weber theAs Samuel - “citabil as frequent use in of “translatability,” the formation word using -barkeit (-ability, ­-abilities, Benjamin’s is not just a question of style (2000:305). “reproducibility”) ity,” Among other models and sources of inspiration that Gielgud mentions, there is another that, together with Irving, seems to have exerted an especially great influence on hisown thinking about the impartable as “immediately realization” (309), while realization” reproduction designates a process that stems Replacing from a this mode potentiality. of becoming by (reproducibility) an actuality seemed (reproduction) a natural choice for Harry Zorn in his Work of Artessay in“The the Age publishedMechanical of Reproduction,” in Benjamin’s translation ofWalter (1968). Illuminations Group’s Wooster Rehearsing the Hopping: “Island See, for example, Arratia’s Euridice and the chapter on Elizabeth LeCompte in Susan Letzler Cole’s and the chapter on Elizabeth LeCompte in Letzler Susan Cole’s

of Gielgud’s staging of this play, which was recorded with primitive video technology. This which was recorded with primitive tion video staging of technology. of Gielgud’s this play, reproduction by means Group’s of performance was made possible precisely Wooster by the ­disavowal of the traditions of stage acting that and Gielgud by cherished, their full accep- tance of precisely that kind of acting Wooster that Over the he the recognizable rejected. years, Group performance style evolved through a close engagement with the new technologies of electronic recording and reproduction of images. 32. (1967). This record of the A of staging Journal Burton Rehearsals (1967). of in Richard Hamlet: belongs to a minor genre of theatre books that document specific performances. Gielgud and Burton, Gielgud and and Sterne Burton, used them in putting together the book book is Rosamund Gilder’s includes a long article by Gielgud himself, “The Hamlet Tradition: Some Notes on Costume, includes Tradition: a “The long Hamlet article by Gielgud himself, Gielgud reveals Here, that in his own and work Stage on Business.” the role he relied Scenery, of performance memoirs “minute Henry for description” Irving’s her heavily Terry’s on Ellen of Hamlet from 1874 (Gielgud 1937:29). Benjamin, like Gielgud, was like aware Gielgud, that apprehension Benjamin, the towards actors’ the new technology of reproduction from of in their images part, fear comes, of the degradation of their profes- He cites sion. reports from the industry that reveal that the actors are instructed “as to little act and as are possible” used as One props of (2003:260). the most persistent features in the reports rehearsals prompts are Group’s to LeCompte’s her actors to do exactly Wooster that from the which their prede­ task-oriented perform stage simple, actions. in which attitudes, stage compositions, and in stage even which compositions, specificattitudes, movements and gestures were handed Richard Burton from one down performance from to one another. performer to another, and by doing so attached introduced himself it to to this a theatrical wide genealogy, film audi- Group. Wooster to the eventually, ence and, but also includes writing as a medium particularly suitable for preserving past performances. He claims that a skillfully written description of performance an can actor’s convey a good enough idea of and her then “but art, he I adds: do not believe that any mechanical - reproduc tion can recreate an acting performance “The that Gielgud one wrote has (42). never seen” Benjamin was working virtually at on his the essay same Walter time as Tradition” Hamlet first published in German 1936. Art Age in of of the Mechanical Reproduction,” Work “The 34. 33. 35. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

108 Branislav Jakovljevic onstage actors are taking from the screen are not only the movements and gestures of the actors the of gestures and movements the only not are screen the from taking are actors onstage image.video But,missing the the what for surrogate the becomes reversal,actor surprising the action.a his In continues Shepherd pixels,onstage empty while of zone gray disturbed slightly a disintegrates,into he turning process the side,in right but its towards dashes and screen the of side left the on appears performance.Burton live Richard the and recording video the imperceptibly,almost around.and between way Slowly up other open the leakages of number a performance,cue.not the right and cue the should to that score Wethe is it that forget almost its until tape.“score”suspended the temporarily rewind gets is or performance forward The fast to technician video the ask to prince Danish the of role his from out steps Shepherd Scott street.one-way Occasionally,a not is stage motions.and its screen between exchange This with synchrony of again.out depart and to in only fall it They to return actors run,the cal and mechani- business.its stage continues own score their onscreen pursue The to game that of out faces.shadows,pale drop onscreen and then the robes shadow black They their with actors the scale,gray including a of limits narrow the within exists everything which in world austere an recording. of equipment.ing means the from further,inseparable And is behavior human that demonstrates it record- the by transformed and affected been has that behavior the us shows triptych baroque operate.they which in environment The the transform Woostermedia ing,new the Group’s distortion.represent- temporal and recording,visible of making process very Therefore,the in and spatial its of price eye,the naked at the to imperceptible is which ronment,that including man’sfollows.display that envi- on one puts the equipment and The it preceded that one the actions,of or,sequence the disrupt to from potential is,action words,the an other on isolate in that fragmentation; their of possibility the on performances,also repeat but and record to ity abil- this on only not based gestures.is of gestures study of the knowledge for The instrument behavior,recording for equipment”apparatus an (2003:265).an only also not but is camera The the of the capacity constitutes “testing that vision of field the in excess this capture to ability immersed.is,are claims,It camera camera’she the the and actor the both which into ronment envi- the camera,also the but at actor’s directed the performance only not captures nology media. electronic by shaped culture a in spectatorship of situation very the appearance,mere the Woostermore,less,reveals performance,not Group about recording, and performance’sa copying of procedure Surprisingly,simple this in engaging by that out turns it them.in Gielgud’sis images,behind what stage is but what asking not repetition.is LeCompte ballet,classical staged,through in is as that score choreographic moving a tych,becomes video bodies.the entire In their gesture,Wooster with occasional but and lips Group’strip- baroque 1997:66).Similarly, of footage video the remains mance,text “stubbornly,the set”the (Auslander cluttering present, pages physically its say,to disappearing,books.is of that Instead perfor dramatic through sublimated becoming of scene opening the in rial mate- printed the as status same the postures.tures,has bodily footage Here,and video the movements,their ges- duplicate and step their catch to screen,trying back then the on appear to characters their for waiting tion.actors occasions,acting.see many for we On goes same The func- its for than rather appearance visual its element,for stage valued independent an becomes it.to attached remains table,and back,back the context The its from original then, its leaves removed is chair the surprising once in “cuts”: results performance live into images film of feral together.attached are before,two chair the a and table However,a seen never trans- literal this had that eye naïve works.a it by which seen in if way As the than important more is appears WoosterGroup’s production. However,set furniture this which in replication,way this the in Broadway his in used Gielgud that chair and table nary video. or film on ordi- traces The their replicating in performances,instead past but reviving Grainy images of electronovision lend their texture to the to Woostertexture their lend electronovision of images Group’sGrainy tech- new this that fact the neglect film to theatre’sreactions the rash that warns Benjamin Even the central stage prop used in used prop stage central the Even , in which cast members simply sit at the table and read from read and table the at sit L.S.D.simply members cast ,which in indicates that LeCompte is not interested in interested not is LeCompte that indicates Hamlet is the text that actors read not only with their with only not read actors that text the is Hamlet are faithfully replicated in the in replicated faithfully are Hamlet Hamlet. is This - Wooster Baroque 109 on Broadway. Hamlet on Broadway. human, that is, with that the is, human, . Scott Shepherd . and Hamlet The Scott Ari Fliakos. Shepherd . The projection of grainy and Hamlet. jerky Figure 11. Ghost in Figure the machine. Paula Court)York, 2007. (Photo © New Theater, Public . The ghost scene, The accomplished ghost on scene, Broadway purely Hamlet. Dividual is both mass and an individual. , an effect that Hamlet, he adopted in his own staging of 36 July 1964, July 1964, the technol- Hamlet in —

half-step forward — June and 1

Interestingly, originally Deleuze developed his notion of the dividual not in Interestingly, relation to electronic surveillance technologies, but in relation to early film experimentation, particularly in the work ofSergei Eisenstein. Deleuze credits Eisenstein “attainfor newinventing real- “compactin andhis that continuousfilms can intensive a series” ity which could be called Dividual, directly uniting an immense collective reflection with the particular emo- tions of each notionindividual” of([1983] the 1986:92).dividual Deleuze’s should not be confused with that for whom the dividual emergesof Weber, Samuel as a result of a theatrical fracturing of the individual: dividuals between life strange and persist, death, and (2004:42). “divided spectator familiar” and actor, This impersonation of the the of impersonation This Hamlet is a play about the everyday that cracks open to let in In the modernist supernatural. 36. that performed the Lunt-Fontane Theatre the Lunt-Fontane on 30 but also the movements of Their the equipment itself. motivated by actions, the are interrupted narrative, by unmotivated and alien movements of the video Through jerky move- image. ments hand and raised back, and then returned ogy penetrates their actions. In human this performance, and inhuman movements merge to create a hybrid behavior halfway between organic and technological. flickering video image brings of theme spying the to in dimension new a whole electronovision footage reminds me that I partake of the visual culture of surveillance on a daily makes me realize basis; to the what enactment degree of it these however, images onstage, of part integral an become now by has that The elaborate surveillance partakes apparatus of me. our daily lives not only perpetually produces the electronic images of my own appearance, but rewind: Burton Let’s dashes across my behavior. conduct, my appearance: very that dictates also the screen; his image disperses; his movements The are electronic taken over by Shepherd. image and the This body but live Hamlet are they actor’s is synchronized, never fully merge. not a bourgeois individual: he is the a sort dividual, of subject produced by the control society. According the to control Deleuze, society differs from the disciplinary society in that it is no longer characterized by the duality of mass but and by individual, an internalization of that division (2002:319). theatre, this form theatre, of the supernatural has been identified with the non­ It is technological. therefore not surprising while “mechanical that opposed repro- Gielgud, to did not object to the use of audio duction,” technology to distort the voice of the ghost in the 1936 production of It is precisely this single technological solution production in that Gielgud’s came to haunt the production of Group’s Wooster has through no sound action effects, score that can and be no replicated bodies onstage, that can The jerky be movements copied of in actors performance. imitating a videotape have already invested this performance with an this unprecedented is amount Indeed, one of of ghostliness. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

110 Branislav Jakovljevic val enters the actors to fundamentally restructure their behavior.their restructure fundamentally to actors the enters val around,inter way the other interval, the the images.but inhabit between longer no actors The image.intervals video the grainy are the gaps of These trembling the by replaced is body the of ellipses.and However,gaps by catharsis,punctured of melancholia,is that like shudder the now elements.in these seen separate have that we vals As images,of inter sounds,composed the entities as objects,and well beings as human embodied play.the within from personages other resembles ghost The play actorless an as functions that scene the with legion.merges a It and time, no-body same a stage.the across is, dispersed the ghost and at The objects on projected image kaleidoscopic a is table.the of top screen,ghost’son body back The seemingly nonexistent the on nium,head the prosce- the to close screen plasma the on sorts.appears of close-up collage in video hand a The images.the fragmented In of Wooster assemblage Group’s an as onstage appears ghost image,the video then the of jumps mechanical random the of light, impersonations thunder, from artificial comes acting their in ghostliness fog). the stage If (dimmed effects scenic banal of arsenal overused the from than actors’rather the performances of productions rare the mance. They combined it with another medium: the telephone. If video footage brings into brings footage telephone.video the If medium: mance. another with it combined They Thornton Wilder’s on film teaching old an from video,footage used the extensively they which in production technologies.other In from isolation in it used ever they video,have nor the which Woosterin triptych.way baroque one the no with used is end) has There to Group image.electronic of culture the to dividual,a then becomes interval in analology),if (or and analogy of effect the produced image video ing.in If simultaneity,and succession about splic- deceleration,and and separation acceleration about but longer no is image its distance.and this performance of between abolition relation rible The distant”1986:82).([1983] The Woosterter the of exploration an is Group’striptych baroque contrary,but,the images on are consecutive which two images between two of correlation a out,distancing carved a is which gap a marks interval longer the “no of Deleuze,theory the space,in points any of perceptions mutual the from but folding.of dynamics baroque this through precisely event the 1993:78).ing”enters [1988] Performance (Deleuze real,”and becom- own its event”of is another subject and of “the becoming participates the “in nexus.its as event event,the perception,private,The has its and and potential public once “at (85).imagery electronic and and video image This with the perception”of “molecular consists parameters” molecular increases by defined image an of that cussion,formation asserts “the he extend”1986:81).reactions ([1983] and actions these dis- far this And,however for importantly it,on act acts, which it or which on points the all perceives itself space in whatsoever point any things,”into themselves perceptions images “carries is,that matter, into perception “puts that so adaptation. passive of story the triptych,is baroque it this in story a is dividuals.inhabited.death),there breeds instead to If It but equivalent is (that discharge violent of price the at traversed interval.longer an no into is turns gap stage This itesimal,in then in If Eventthe of Legibility Intermezzo 2nd The Wooster Group’s engagement with the video image did not begin (and is not likely not The is (and Woosterbegin not did image video the Group’swith engagement frames,adjacent two of collision the from emerge not does interval,meaning an the In on of instead shots film between Let’sgaps on recognizes,recap: emphasis Deleuze an As To You,infin- are screens video the performers’and the bodies between gaps the Birdie! the To You,and performance live of combination and proximity physical the Birdie! the they extend to engulf the entire stage. In effect, the entire space of the of stage.space effect,entire entire In the the engulf to extend they Hamlet Our perfor the Townof devising their for device framing a as used was in which the eerie sense of the nonhuman comes from within from comes nonhuman the of sense eerie the which in Hamlet could be the final chapter in this story of adaptation of story this in chapter final the be could Didone La To You,of structure temporal the Birdie! the : according to according extend: howeverthey far , the ghost scene is staged as staged is scene Hamlet,ghost the insofar as they are both are they as insofar Hamlet the inhabitant of the of inhabitant the Hamlet Route 1 & 9,first & the 1 Route - - - - Wooster Baroque 111 - -

is - Akropolis Route 1 & 9, Hamlet by several , video com - Theater, Poor Speaking during L.S.D. the Wake Up Mr. Sleepy! Your Unconscious Your Sleepy! Up Mr. Wake (1976), the New York–based video and York–based (1976), the New Mirage in which Kate Valk tele- Route 1 & 9 in Valk which Kate , Anthony of St. Temptation Dell’s Frank Brace Up! Brace this operation of pushing performance through the (1974) and Funnel To You, The Birdie! and it predated You, To at the Metropolitan Opera) Le Damnation de Faust Richard Foreman’s 2007 Richard Foreman’s Hamlet, devils. The images emerge from TV/video that studio ­devils. improvised to , to , Vision Super this emergency strategy developed into a full-fledged method of electronic sur the Wooster Group designer Jim Clayburgh “since said that Wooster Up! the Brace 37 , which actors The , transcribed Magician in order to “Bergman create action a script”

ghosts and —

Brace Up! Brace In In her performances/video installations such as installation artist Joan Jonas used installation live artistJonas video feed Joan as an instant replication and reflection of the ongoing perfor - mance. In her experimentation with video and live performance LeCompte was following in her footsteps, which she acknowledged by in casting the Jonas role of Masha in The point is not to recognize what aspects of baroque and neobaroque Wooster entered the (2004) A is Series an of important Simulacra Theater: production that coincided with Poor , but subsequently , she also started L.S.D. using video recordings as a stand-in for the - mem , Mind to 2009 is Robert Dead, Lepage’s 37. that for LeCompte and her company, video is not just that a for or LeCompte stage even effect, and a her technology company, that recording is technology introduced Instead, is to an performance. inherent part of their perfor mance vocabulary that goes back to the use of record players and tape recorders Three in the Places in Rhode and Island of plays, walkmans and camcorders in rehearsals of phones an actual fast food joint to order a meal brings performance into the outside world without ever leaving In the stage. technological vanishing point is recognizable in the very technique of electronovision: elec- tronic cameras are capturing the event and channeling under into it the the down, stage, trap which in space, theatre has been traditionally associated with the inhabitants of the under world Ann’s DVD players in and home finally VHS theatres, St. first and reach then the cinemas, Street some in 40 Any Brooklyn, years of after the the original Water event. on Warehouse various insertions Group’s of video and other media into Wooster their performances amounts, to to some repeated extent, attempts to leave the theatre while preserving or, its distinctiveness, in to other findwords, the way to a non-environmental environmentalism. or in but Wooster aesthetics, which what ways Group’s the they correspond to each other, By the end of the “aesthetic Group complex.” had to add to expression, to use this, Maravall’s it became triptych, clear that it was certainly not a new way of staging or old even texts, a rad- ical transformation of the very but idea in a of performance, different what “text” constitutes a way in which What words language can and and be actions, image, conjoined in performance. Group from the recent fashion of Wooster combining distinguishes digital the video - tech nology and live performance (video is ubiquitous on theatre stages The today: Builders from 2005 Association’s microphones and video monitors have Arratia been part like of (in performers, the company” LeCompte started 1992:127). experimenting with the use of prerecorded video footage already in bers of the company make who the couldn’t rehearsal By call the time. time she started working on theatre images from the then outside the world, scene in that existed alongside two other “action scripts” (1992:103). Finally, in Finally, that existed (1992:103). alongside “action two scripts” other rogation of missing performers. More generally, in the performance vocabulary of the Wooster in the performance vocabulary Wooster of the rogation of More missing generally, performers. prerecorded video Group, footage became a mark a of pure absence, signifier that often com- pleted and replaced its Startingown with signified. LeCompte was also using existing film and video footage not only as visual but also as tex- As tual Susan material Letzler for Cole live reports performance. in her detailed account of LeCompte used as source mate- the rehearsal process of apart play, this from piece, Flaubert’s cable Channel J and also Ingmar rials video recordings from York semi-pornographic New Bergman’s pletely replaces the dramatic text of as however live the distant, performance. source, the baroque triptych, but that at the same time departs from the pattern of the 17th-century It was drama. staged immediately after years. In it, LeCompte In used it, the years. film recording of production Jerzy of Grotowski’s Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

112 Branislav Jakovljevic outside the image into an interval. an into image the outside space entire the transforms time same the image,at the and and object the between interval the pencil.obliterates a Frottage with it rubbing and it on paper a placing by surface a from grooves and scratches transferring frottage: of technique painterly the is performance down”a ing of literal this Poor “tak- for in camera. Theater used film LeCompte the that by metaphor The captured was it as versions its of one of repetition close the staging,only original but the into went that techniques and methods the involve not does performance filmed a of reproduction behavior”a form”words,2005:49).of than the live other (Dunkelberg “taking rather of the In about tion to exactly”wanted “copy she that insists who ing.Here, “literally”key,is not “rehearsing,” “translating,”even or “miming,”LeCompte is it for rehearses,translates,mimes,” and MacTaggart’sJames but Grotowski’s of stag- recording film (16).Akropolis However, suggests,not,he is LeCompte Grotowski’sas it that “literally staging a Grotowski’stext”but of on “directing text production based play a not became video the observed,aptly process,2005:17).Savran the Savran Garage” as In in the (LeCompte to back in,actors,everything four go pull or three with work just and everything simplify to wanted I that thought I So [...] me on rested together,ments, it them of bringing lot a finally because and run: its “Tofinished just had You,ele- different the all with struggle a such been has Birdie! the that claims LeCompte piece.the performance as new “text,”itself a Group produce to order in copied actors which of the footage of Williamvideo Woosterand Forsythe’sBallet Frankfurt documentary and 38. Busenello,Francesco and Gian movie,B 1960s a ground.Like With WonderfulComplexity PanelDexter Forsythe’sinterview: video See’sof Sheena reenactment and William Shepherd Scott speak, in to comes so statement thesis ity,elaboration.performance-essay,theoretical this their of receive heart recording The and its repetition,as image,issues such body,which movement, synchronization, variation, ephemeral- represents a significant departure.significant It a represents Didone La them for sense that opera,in into and ventured the become Woosterhas before never making,have theatre they of Group’s method signature Bava. Mario seen, director we have films, Italian as reenacting the While by flick horror sci-fi Within the baroque triptych,Withinbaroque the the legibility of the event. the of legibility the be to consider I alignment.that,what of again,is kinds visibly alignment into this And translate to have all information,they person but other the gives one each that fact the in try,person,own,other their they’rethe they’reon read not independent to have they but corner.the geome- in another televisions into four this translate to have they And...but other’sinstructions each bodies,of read there’s series and a now to have space.they collapsed So a in now is it what and...and space in was it what of FORSYTHE: Yeah,bridge.memory to the between bridge they’reto And...and trying INTERVIEWER: Tobridge. translations.ing Translationside. other the to cross a means literally ballet,they’rea...a...a offer but remember also to trying are FORSYTHE: dancers The Transcribedthe from , the Wooster Group finds itself at the same time on familiar and radically new radically Didone, and La familiar the on time Wooster same the at itself finds Group Poor a in “taking consists performance Theater, a of this recording film “copying”a of , which takes as its dual source a piece of high (modernist) art and art (modernist) high of piece a source dual its as House/Lights,takes which is based on the opera the on based is Didone La video, with the assistance of Scott Shepherd and Clay Hapaz. ShepherdClay Scott and of assistance the Poorwith video, Theater was meant to be a departure from the performance that performance the Poorfrom departure a be to meant was Theater 38 Terroretitle (American spazio nello Poorin statement methodological of status the holds Theater (19). As she related in another conversa- (19).another Akropolis in related she As (1641) by Francesco Cavalli and Cavalli Francesco by (1641) Didone La — also they read from these from read they also Planet of the of VampiresPlanet ),1965 a - Wooster Baroque 113 -

’s complexity and ’s Hamlet (Video still © The Wooster Group) Wooster (Video still © The However, this time around there is the Birdie! However, You, To La Didone. On the left extreme is the band of musicians, and on the right (From left): Jennifer Griesbach, Harvey Valdes, Kamala Sankaram, Scott Shepherd, Ari Ari Scott Kamala Shepherd, Sankaram, Valdes, Harvey Griesbach, left): Jennifer (From the plasma screens are not positioned vertically, at the the Birdie! extreme the plasma screens are not positioned vertically, You, To stare into a multihued fog that surrounds searching the for ship, the quickly disap- 39

In the Wooster Group version of the film, they were played, respectively, by Ari Fliakos, Judson Williams, and Judson by Fliakos, Ari version of Group the film, theyrespectively, were played, Wooster In the Scott Shepherd. MARK: It’s possible MARK: they It’s are an alien form of life. Their forms here could be true. based That’s on a KARAN: different plane DR. of vibra- out of did, Mark, as you, except Flesh-and-blood see [...] man them, tions. quickly, can’t the corner of your eye. And these WESS: strange sonic wails we heard could be (Bava their 1965) voices. In the staging LeCompteof final refrainsthe panel, from triptych’s Unlike in pearing globes of light: 39. is the technical crew. Los 2009. RedCat, Angeles, Valk. Kate Young, John Fliakos, ing a baroque Italian opera and a trashy Italian movie. returns to the simplicity and symmetry of no badminton court the with Dutch its Instead, set central designer axis. Ruud Akker van den devised a series of frames with semi-transparent screens suspended above the stage that high- light the single-point perspective. dead waist center high, next to one high another, and extreme low of but the horizontally, stage, They underline the parallelism as upstage. the main organizing principle in staging opera and The deep stage past brings and together distantfilm. worlds: opera myth and and film, fantasy, These worlds never but fully instead remote merge, comment future. on each other in ways that This parallelism begins but with are also the ironic, illuminating. structural intertwining of the The whole intrigue sci-fiof horrortwo Bava’s isnarratives. based on the attempts of the space explorers to grasp the nature of the life form that takes possession of them while they sleep. and engi- Karan, Dr. Captain Mark, When thefinally alien spotted, beings quickly disappear. Wess neer worked surprisingly well, worked and surprisingly the well, reasons for that go much deeper than the clever trick of pair Figure 12. TheFigure frontal view of Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

114 Branislav Jakovljevic longing frenzy in frenzy longing the in manifested remarkably 320),is which the face”of al.“black undertones et and the 1964:290,(Panofsky face” from melancholia “dark of Wooster free references,not cultural is and historic Group,striking blackface, its even despite Chekov’sof mournfulness nostalgic the add can we of melancholy”instance “wonderful an (211).as episode Miami To melancholy of inventory this a Ron as describes troupe”“cheap,Fuegos Vawter’sand dance Del (214) seedy to Crucible The from woods the in dancing of scene 1986:218,getic”the Savran relates 214).(in Kobland Ken the first time ever, time first the to stage regular center the the yield to aside step members Group Wooster foreignness. and In strangeness of epitome the as figures Dido of character the Aeneid in sorrow Westerngendered and racialized of representations theatre.from Starting Virgil’s prominent most the of one into stumble to soundstage improvised and cheap a around wander Carthage. of North city the African of queen troupe of actors adrift is inseparable from the theme of melancholy.of theme the from inseparable is adrift actors of troupe St.the Flaubert’sof of rendition story. Anthony the of theme the that obvious Here,becomes it the in Woosterlater years Fuegos.few Del a and again Sierra resurface Group’sThey staging of section last the from troupe dance Miami the in predecessors direct its has in it the in Woosterresurfaces that regularity.great Group’swith productions recently,Most find we actors, motif of a group the of idea the with play self-referential the of version another yet as inuncomfortable space suits pretending tobeonanother planet. Thespaceship crew canbe seen uallyareperceived filmasa crew at work. They appear to be filminga troupe of actors dressed grad- and action stage the to attentive are boots,technicians silver the high with black in all Clad (1987:5).Kirby’saction Michael the term, don’tof they a part act,matrix”: are “symbolized but given, use are audience,to they the here and stage the between positioned ambiguously were actors.of band the in and Whereas musicians of band the between moves panytheonstage actions, andone of them, theaccordionist andsinger Kamala Sankaram, freely accom- musicians the show: the into integrated are left.groups stage Both sits board mixing the technicians of group a and right stage positioned is musicians of band scenium,a where dream.her in them conjured she stage,if the as invade aliens undead the and crew space singers. opera Similarly, as identifiable clearly toy, plush asleep, a falls hugging Didone when the camera.the In of front in bulbs light multicolored moving view,rapidly parallax by were,in created only effect cheap a through accomplished is seen, it be as can and perceptible the of limit the at exists that form life film, alien the the In 40. to on”trying “put actors Burton’sof play,ormore precisely, showa within theshow. Thismakes the WoosterGroup’s cast groupa within the set trap” way is “Mouse same Burton’s scene the film same time infused with this Latin energy Latin this with infused time same forming.”point,the Ron to More Vawter graveyard,as the elephant Miami at “the describes New left per Yorkstill is team performing homes? the Old-age And die? south...to moved and way: following “It’sthe in southern,Miami describes it’s LeCompte have émigrés,who people performs,death.it and them,which,which sadness to in emanates according place the with of episode the Miami of the Woosterbers from Fuegos Del identified closely Group al.et 1964:302).Panofsky (see narrative melancholic mem- a The as seen traditionally been has In the latest permutation of the Del Fuegos theme, the space adventure enactors cluelessly enactors adventure theme,space Fuegos the Del the of permutation latest the In The parallelism extends from the two sources to the video screens upstage and on to the pro- the to on and upstage screens video the to sources two the from extends parallelism The Avantgarde”(2005). in theme this Forof excellentinvestigation an , which is not only a copy of Burton’s Broadway production, but is in fact inserted in in inserted fact Burton’sin production,of is Broadway copy but a only not Hamlet,is which and continuing through a long list of list Westernlong a through continuing and literary, artworks,theatrical,visual and The Hairy Hairy The Dido,Ape. dark find the Finally,we now) (for line the of end the at . The troupe that attempts to stage Burton’sstage Hamlet.to attempts that troupe The — , see David Savran’s David Poor see the Theater , of Death “The article vibrant,world,third Central American,jazzy, ener furor melanacholicusof furor , the source of the wails”of Didone,“sonic source La is the Three SistersThree. Further, the of hands the in : it is a play within the the within play a is it Hamlet: Emperor JonesEmperor andin Yank’s 40 Thestory ofSt. Anthony thetechniciansHamlet L.S.D., Donna La Didone,La for L.S.D. manning ­manning Hamlet - -

Wooster Baroque 115 Cavalli 41 Dido, the Queen Dido, of To You, the : Birdie! before You, To ghostly position in the story of American(2001:23; racialization” the Scylla and Charybdis between which all American immigrants have

. Unlike all . Aeneas other works for Dido stage and inspired —

she writes: “The question of racialization of Asian Americans is in some ways

and the Question of Chastity,” like Ariadne and Medea, Ariadne and like Medea, Didone and the Question of Chastity,” La Didone is relatively obscure in comparison with some more prom- Asian Americans occupy a truly The MelancholyThe of Race, —

In In her book more apparently melancholic than that of African Americans in American history in the sense that the history of virulent racism directed against Asians and Asian Americans has been at once consistently upheld and denied. Shuttling between and ‘black’ ‘white’ emphasis added). had to ‘pass’ Cavalli and Busenello’s Cavalli and Busenello’s Am I am a I Queen, Dido? I am no longer either Dido or Queen. But an omen of despairing destiny And of torment. by my own Vilified And threatened by the dead Scorned alike by men and by shadows. I fear I have betrayed you O unhappy husband; I [...] leave Carthage, you, go with the Sword, the pommel hilt, in the earth, And at the judgment of my death. Call all the infernal shadows out of the abyss 41. and Busenello’s Didone, the African queen, is African the queen, operatic the predecessor of Didone, and those Busenello’s alien and or Aida, exotic as women Catherine opera Like who, Clément enjoys Carmen, argues, undoing. foreignness is before Didone’s wom- not anything geographical but, else, and racial, Butterfly, they cross the over invisible line “by a line, that some rigorous, means or anly: other, always, makes them unbearable; so they will have to (Clément Dido be [1979] is punished” 1988:59). more dangerous and feared than a dancing gypsy or an She exotic is the courtesan. the queen, embodiment of For female that rule. she will have And to that be is rejected not and destroyed. enough: she brings the curse doomed to to her Carthage, be own eradicated realm, from the personifies loss andthe face rejection. punished of Dido, ruler the of earth. a vanquished city, such as tragedy Christopher Marlowe’s inent renditions of the same story, or opera Carthage Henry Purcell’s and dedicates the entire Busenello firstby takes actDido, the of story back to the Troy fall of That first defers appearancedeparture Didone’s to from the Aeneas’s his opera homeland. to this choice not only provides the the beginning background of the Dramaturgically, second act. the and two Carthage, cit- for the story but of also Dido, establishes a Troy parallel between it gives an opportunity to the composer ies to destined develop Musically, for lam- destruction. Heller points out in her essay entation Wendy as the As primary mode of female expression. “‘O Cavalli’s castità bugiarda’: Didone belongs to the This order order of is abandoned firmlywomen established (1998:169). triptych: there before were Group’s Didone, Phaedra, in the other two segments Wooster of the who and is Ophelia, rejected Didone’s by Hamlet. Theseus leaves Troezen, whom behind in departure is Aeneas’s In closer response her grief to to finalthan Ophelia’s lament, to Phaedra’s. in order to which seems sword, to have Aeneas’s traveled Dido all clutches the Troy way to this is staging, one of Group’s the rare moments of the syn- Wooster pierce In her the heart. chronization of live performance and video footage reminiscent of the sword that attendants hand it to reaches Didone her, passes behind the video screen that shows the image of that If same for sword. Phaedra the sword is an unambiguously phallic sym- for Didone bol, it is the harbinger She of moans: death. guest performers; namely, to the cast of opera who singers brings lead guest Chinn, to by performers; Hai-Ting namely, Didone yet another melancholia. layer Anne of Cheng “racialized” what (2001) calls Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

116 Branislav Jakovljevic tibly transformed.tibly impercep- and radically returns that object narrative.lost the the of is part undead integral The production.entire Finally,the invade to on goes scene,then but in onstage.appears In he ever when- screens plasma on projected torso his of images the by indicated is being human living a than more monument Dafoe’smarble that Epirus,animated returns; an suddenly is Theseus lured by calls for help from the mysterious planet mysterious Aura. the from help for calls by lured line.the of end triptych,the the is in panel Didone,last the plexity of instrumentation to the lavishness of the spectacle. the of lavishness the to instrumentation of plexity com- the from range that innovations technological extraordinary of site the as opera by away swept be opera,to dramatic soon of limit the existence,also own but her of limit the only not (1980:34).pleasantness So,mere with Didone’sit replaces and opera the of expressivity the diminishes music and drama between ment.balance the of disturbance This orna- pure a to reduced is meaning,text and the music of alliance new the by replaced becomes music.to poetry drama from the opera As the of gravity of center the shifting in consists aria after years two only composed Cavalli that aria”the the in of of “ideology birth the aria.locates and Salazar tive words.her of nity Torecita- of effects different the of aware well very accounts,was all Cavalli solem- the by off lifting aria.from an recitative,prevented as a is not as melody composed The Cavalli’s in music. is reflected lament are Didone’s final Busenello’slyrics entire melancholic 43. 42. 45. 44. the WoosterGroup’s triptych. In in current prominent another yet as undead the of return the of theme the highlights tively retrospec- time Didone’s same of the forsakenness, cause at the and as death to points film the Busenello’sand opera,Cavalli to dead.next the Placed of bodies the invade parasitically that beings vampire-like are planet enigmatic the of inhabitants the that discover gradually Argos out.wiped being from up survivors ends The Galliot the of crew entire the and succeed them another.one kill to attempt to of them Some drive that rage of episodes inexplicable experience and technology.and placing By movie,fiction Bava’s thescience outdated death of limit double this exposes Group Wooster opera into space.into However,opera sequels. endless opera,no space be here,in will unlike there

Planet of the of VampiresPlanet the and spaceships,Argos,Galliot two are the of which story the is Wicked Aeneas,dying,light,am beloved farewell.I 1987:19) (Busenello river: dark the to spirit my Send torments, my Finish grief, my End you,blade, And kind Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe writes in writes Lacoue-Labarthe Philippe stage. abovescreenthe a on projected translations EnglishItalian, with in the Woosterin arias all houses, opera Group’s Followingcontemporary of conventions the case in a much more spectacular manner spectacular more much a in case Group, as it were, out of the picture. the Group,of were,out it as Woosterthe leave Weberto and Deleuze attention and whole the turn would that afraid am I position. oretical the- different a from subject same the approach would panel each which diptych,in a of form the in essay an be would product end The image. the to dividual, the Media”of to [2000]), “The Virtuality essay his (see val inter- the from essay: this for importance central of are that questions theoretical with Deleuze,engages like who, Walterto back Samuel lead to Benjamin’sus would take Weber,turn, technology.in of would, That discussion clue random this to Aura. Yielding planet the resist to have I Galliot, the and Argos the from Unlikecosmonauts Westfahl,Gary see subgenre, the of For overview “Spacean Opera” (2003). Bayreuth.to baroque the from technology on opera toward worked also but instrumentation affected next to next Didone La , the theme of the undead emerges,undead predictably,the of Hamlet,theme the ghost the in that “music, even more than painting or architecture or painting “music,than Musica more that Ficta even To You,in died Birdie!have the to believed Theseus,was who

—

was the site of formidable technological innovations, which not only only not which innovations, technological formidable of site the was La Didone.La Salazar, to According the of ideology the ” ([1991] 1994:xx). He traces this dependence of of dependence this Hetraces 1994:xx). ([1991] amplification” Terrorethe sends spazio,literarily nello LeCompte 45 members landing,crew While the 43 In its pairing of pairing its In it becomes an becomes it Didone La (1643),opera Egisto the lament marks recitativolament 42 were sung sung were Didone La and Didone La

— 44

in any any in

La Wooster Baroque 117 To You, the You, To Flow My Tears, The Tears, My Flow Hamlet and La Didone this investigation is This difficultly It is structural. 47 narrates not Dido’s death by by death Dido’s not La Didone narrates then . The film no longer . Planet Vampires of the 46 clearly privileged in — Aeneid tells of the journey of Aeneas the westward, hero La Didone LeCompte scrupulously avoids this kind Here, of interpenetration. Hamlet the ghost of the electronic equipment merges with the living bodies La Didone remains limited to it a Most is few often, used when scenes. in staging, ­specific kind of illusion thatthis genre demands.

in — , this La interaction Didone, of human and nonhuman aspires to a In full the integration. first

To the 17th-century Venetians, their republic is seen as the continuation of Rome’s old glory. their republic is seen as the the continuation 17th-centuryof Rome’s Venetians, To novel example, in production For his of comments Philip K. on Dick’s Mabou Mines’ Policeman , Said Samuel R. Delany proposes Policeman that theatre is in some ways an “ideal medium by which to mani- fest the reality of imaginarybecause in it, things” the dead are made to walk and inanimate objects to speak. At the same time, he maintains that “it is extremely difficult for the theater to manifest the unreality of real things. When an actor says ‘I, am it thenot is actor, here,’ not that the image belies his statement; it is simply that we know that the actor is lying” (1988:14). Whereas in In If the narration of the mythical past has as its purpose the explanation of the present state is very which well amounts to suited the abolishment of linear temporality, This strategy, cues the but onstage instead action, merely indicates the The general ambiance of the scene. synchronization of video and live performance the interaction with video images is The scaled two down screens to in a the minimum. back are used mostly for the projection of footage from of the actors, of in the actors, Birdie! into a “reach” screen in hands the and actors’ again, hand Time gestures are blown up onscreen. The insistent repetition of this effect order underscores to manipulate the spaceship gadgetry. the obvious pun between the digitality in electronics however, and Beyondin that, fingering. it establishes a temporal and conceptual warp in which digital technology is used to reenact a future This imagined impossible in return an to analog analog past. technology and to analogy as such marks the final point of the baroque triptych. two panels of LeCompte the investigates triptych, different modes of interaction and integra- tion of live performance and asvideo images This, through radical experimentation with form. we has have lead seen, to a multiplication of screens and a perceptual fragmentation of bodies that reveals the complex temporality of In intermedial performance. and body actor’s an of synchronization complex the Here narrative. the of level the to transposed video footage is replaced by a co-temporalization of two radically different times: the mythical past and the In fantastic Cavalli version future. and of Busenello’s the story the of heroine Dido, left her with the point of the remains sword We suspended pressed in against a pluperfect of sorts. then and farewell,” dying, am “I operatic the lament, her of words final the utters She chest. her survives She swoon. mere a but death, not was This again. rises she later, moment a But collapses. in order to whom marry she Iarbas, had But previously this rejected. is a baroque happy ending, heavy Virgil’s with sadness If and doom. to the birth of Rome, from the Troy devastation of 46. 47. suicide, but her survival in the city of Carthage, which would meet the fate of Troy. but her suicide, survival in the city which of would Carthage, meet the Troy. fate of then of the affairs, narration of the future thatfinds At is its least, purpose in reaffirming it. science fiction narratives use Frequently, most often the case with science fiction and fantasy. the future to reduplicate the according present to in That, Boris which the narrative is written. Whereas creates conventional a storytelling Eizykman, strange relies narrative on loop. the premise of a simple narrative order in which a past story is narrated in a more recent past to an assumed science reading fictionpresent, invents a new temporal order in which the hypothetical narrator is telling a future the narrative reading as present if is it was her In own that past. way, addressed from future a (Eizykman future’s 1985:67). for It the can novel. be transposed to a certain degree to film while and in television, the- atre As it many fails critics almost who without have exception. tried to explain the relative absence of sci-fi materiality from prevents theatre theatre’s it have from observed, accommo- dating the Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

118 Branislav Jakovljevic when he replies: he when Galliot,ship sister the Salas,of of captain body dead the confronting are they speaking; of ner man- face, a to in face alien an forces. meet spaceship inhuman finally the by Argos of crew The question,in the posed to solution dystopian a offers parable.futuristic the onto ending happy melancholic baroque the of tion (81).it reinforcing of instead present the on view critical a casts that future different radically a imagine to possible it makes order temporal conventional of abolition the when moments rare mately,(79). those conservatism in However,its precisely sci-fi of value the acknowledges he and, homogeneity ulti- of production its recognizes Eizykman that sci-fi of feature this in cisely way,around. pre- that future.way is In the other It forecloses and present the reduplicates sci-fi gestures,the future not these to reality gives that context the stories.dramas,is crime tic It or movies, cowboy domes- from gestures codified present,also the but from gestures quotidian situations.unfamiliar only into not gestures recognize familiar we Thus,transplanting sci-fi in by bridged routinely is body human the of uses future unforeseeable and unimaginable the of situation. other some and abyss time The other some from borrowed always is gesture the sci-fi behaviors,future in of examples of unavailability obvious the around.of way Because other the props, to scenery, reality time. gives of It flow the joins performance language, even not and that gesture through precisely present.is the It of index the gestures.is theatre,in gesture In a performance,of theatre.revealed aspect of other temporality any linear in is,than This more the to fiction science of temporality narrative nonlinear the of transposition the from comes CAPTAIN MARK: We willneversubmit toabreedofparasites. SALAS: No, theymustbe willingonlytosubmit. Losetheirbodiesaswelllose theirwill. WESS: And Isupposeyou needourdeadbodies? to actuallyrespond... centuries. Justasoursunhasnomoreenergy, youheardourmessage, weneverexpectedyou that meanstheendofourspeciesaswell. We havebeenattempting tosummonyouherefor Perhaps oursurvivalispossiblesomewhereelse. Oursun hasbeendying, asyoucansee, and our technology...we cannotbuildanything, spaceships likethis. We needshipstogetaway. that existsatavibratoryplanedifferentthanyours. Our limitationsareentirelydifferent... We cannotbewipedout. We’ll stopatnothing. We mustfight, nomatterhow. We arearace humans have fought down through the centuries. Do you really expect us to be any different? SALAS: Ifyouwereinourplace, youwouldunderstand. OnmanyoftheplanetsIknowyou MARK: At ourexpense? our racetocontinueexist. each other, sothatwecantakeoveryourbodies. You areourlastchance. Itisimperativefor trouble manyyearsnow, andwearetryingtosurvive. We arrangedforseveralofyoutokill am justoneofmanybeingsonthisplanet, manybeingswhoaredesperate. We havebeenin SALAS: No, it’s notSalas, itis justhisbody. Iinhabitthebodyofyourlatecaptain, andI of case the In , this kind of critique of the present comes from the superimposi - the from comes present the of critique of Didone,kind La this , of the ghosting of the human body human the of ghosting Hamlet,the of Planet of the of VampiresPlanet Wooster Baroque 119 - complexity. ­complexity. Terrore nello Terrore (Screenshot by Matić) Ljubiša (Screenshot the 1965 sci-fi horror flick by the Italian Figures 13–15. Argos reaches the shores of the New from the Stills final scene of World. spazio, . Mario Bava director nuke the ship infested with aliens/vampires and 48 landscape. These brownish images of urban skyscrapers landscape. have Invasion of the , Invasion better Body were than Snatchers others. By now, this kind of plot has migrated to comic By now, books and cartoons 49 is It hardly has original. been told in countless short sto- Planet Vampires of the

Played, respectively, by Ari Fliakos, Kate Valk, and Scott Shepherd. by Ari Valk, Kate Fliakos, Played, respectively, Some of which, such as the 1956 SALAS: Our relationship will be symbiotic. In effect, we would be one body. It would be in would be one body. we In effect, will be symbiotic. SALAS: Our relationship go back together or nobody will get Either all of us got no choice. You no sense parasitical. (Bava 1965) there. Argos approaches “young a primi- planet says a that It Captain seems is, Mark, inhabitable. As I watch this Warehouse, scene on plasma televisions Ann’s placed center stage at St. The plot of can’t but wonder can’t if Sanya is going to be waiting another for Dido, her hero at the shores The sole survivors, Mark, Sanya, and Wess, and Sanya, The Mark, sole survivors, 48. 49. been shot in the past and projected into the future This that uncanny they came to resemble. resemblance of future and past comes from the absence of the two buildings that towered over that landscape from a time just after the film was made until the moment the staging of the baroque triptych had begun. malization of dividualism. but They he look “long- is “it through optimistic will a that be for all them. right” tive world,” The range and continents telescopic see and lens” the bodies blue of planet. water merge into the image of a cityscape thickly dotted with skyscrapers. I Street where we sit as at we not Water the far watch waterfront, from of World, the New but the I story have continues. beenThe transportedfilm outside is- with over, La Didone. The and out spaceship the leaving lands, world my gains theatre its seat. wonderful Everything changes She and is everything remains Sanya/Dido the sits same. at the harbor. in the familiar across the river, intended for very young audiences. Dido, clutching her plush toy, is as childish as the intended clutching space- for her very Dido, plush young toy, audiences. After surviving the traumaticship events, crew that brandishes “fieldtheir rayplastic guns.” that all is appearances, what To they acquire but not a wisdom, certain naïveté of a higher order. our culture is asking and us In to order we death, do. to have survive, to betrayal, ignore pain, discovers that both Wess Argos glides As through space, and become used to inhumanity. fear, Sanya panics, Wess bodies and Captain have Sanya’s When Mark’s been invaded by the aliens. All must you become have one to of do us. is Just want let it. one of us calms “You him down: it The join will schizophrenic you, give situation you this (Bava wonderful 1965). complexity” of the dividual does not end in the restoration of but the in individual, normativization and nor ries, novels, and films. novels, ries, escape. The “meteor rejecter,” the key gadget on has and their been they ship, destroyed, can’t “meteor rejecter,” The escape. make it back to their own planet. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26 September 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00006 by guest on 26September 2021

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