On Directing and Dramaturgy
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ON DIRECTING AND DRAMATURGY ‘A theatre which is able to speak to each spectator in a different and penetrating language is not a fantastic idea, nor a utopia. This is the theatre for which many of us, directors and leaders of groups, trained for a long time.’ Eugenio Barba On Directing and Dramaturgy is Eugenio Barba’s unprecedented account of his own life and work. This is a major retrospective of Barba’s working methods, his practical techniques, and the life experiences which fed directly into his theatre-making. An inspirational resource, On Directing and Dramaturgy is a dramaturgy of dramaturgies, and a professional autobiography from one of the most significant and influential directors and theorists working today. It provides unique insights into a philosophy and practice of directing for the beginning student, the experienced practitioner and everyone in between. Eugenio Barba (1936, Italy), after working with Jerzy Grotowski for three years in Poland, created Odin Teatret in 1964 in Oslo and moved with it to Holstebro, Denmark, in 1966. He founded the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) in 1979. He has directed more than 70 productions with his theatre and the intercultural ensemble Theatrum Mundi. His previous books include The Paper Canoe: A Guide to Theatre Anthropology; Theatre: Solitude, Craft, Revolt; Land of Ashes and Diamonds: My Apprenticeship in Poland and, in collaboration with Nicola Savarese, A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology. ON DIRECTING AND DRAMATURGY Burning the house Eugenio Barba Translated by Judy Barba Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce copyright material before the book went to press. If any proper acknowledg- ment has not been made, we would invite copyright holders to inform us of the oversight. First published 2010 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Eugenio Barba All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-87029-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–54920–5 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–54921–3 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–87029–8 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–54920–2 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–54921–9 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–87029–7 (ebk) TO THE SECRET PEOPLE OF THE ODIN Learn to predict a fire with unerring precision Then burn the house down to fulfill the prediction. Czeslaw Milosz: Child of Europe CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Prologue xi Introduction: the field of poppies xvii 1 The empty ritual 1 Word bridges 1 Where do I come from? 4 A plurality of dramaturgies 8 FIRST INTERMEZZO The children of silence 15 2 Organic dramaturgy as a level of organisation 23 The actor’s dramaturgy 23 The ritual of Disorder 35 Sonorous dramaturgy 40 Dramaturgy of the space 45 Prepare for life and arms 50 The moment of truth 53 SECOND INTERMEZZO What the actors say and the director’s reflections 59 3 Narrative dramaturgy as a level of organisation 83 Creative thought 83 From glance to vision 88 Who made me what I am? 94 Knots 98 Simultaneity: narrating according to the laws of space 101 vii CONTENTS Exú: swimming in a lasting presence 106 The origin of the Odin Road 108 Not text, but narrative context 113 Centre of the book 122 Working for the text and working with the text 123 Kaosmos 130 Chained to an oar 146 THIRD INTERMEZZO Twenty years later 149 4 Evocative dramaturgy as a level of organisation 169 The Trans-Siberian 169 The torrid zone of memory 173 Winds that burn 177 The spectator’s dramaturgy 183 The elusive order 187 Shadows like roots 190 FOURTH INTERMEZZO What a notebook says 191 5 Theatre-in-liberty 201 Burning the house 202 A dramaturgy of dramaturgies 204 Letter from the director to his friend and adviser Nando Taviani 207 Incursions and irruptions 210 Epilogue 212 Envoi 213 Notes 217 viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ‘Advice to a Discarded Lover’ from Poems 1960–2000, by Fleur Adcock, published by Bloodaxe Books, 2000. Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books. ‘Requiem’ from You Will Hear Thunder, by Anna Akhmatova, translation by D M Thomas, published by Secker and Warburg. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. ‘For My Birthday’ from The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai, by Yehuda Amichai, translated by Chana Bloch and Stephen Mitchell and reprinted by permission of University of California Press. ‘Fall’ from The Hour of Sand by Ana Blandiana, published by Anvil Press. Reprinted by permission of Anvil Press Poetry Ltd. ‘Purity’ from Questions about Angels, by Billy Collins, © 1991. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press and Sterling Lord Literistic. ‘The Road Not Taken’ from The Poetry of Robert Frost, by Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem, published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. Vincente Huidobro, excerpt from ‘Altazor’ from Altazor © by Vincente Huidobro and reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. Klein, George., Pietà, pp. 39–40: ‘The Seventh’, poem by Attila József, trans- lated by George Klein, © 1992 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by permission by The MIT Press. ‘Child of Europe’ from New and Collected Poems 1931–2001 by Czeslaw Milosz (Allen Lane The Penguin Press) © Czeslaw Milosz Royalties Inc., 1988, 1991, 1995, 2001. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd and HarperCollins Publishers. Excerpt from A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz, published by ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Chatto & Windus. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. ‘The Canary Songbook’ from The Canary Songbook by Karen Press, published by Carcanet. Reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press Limited. Excerpt from ‘Returning Birds’ in View With a Grain of Sand, copyright © 1993 by Wislawa Szymborska, English translation by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, reprinted by permission of the publisher. ‘Scenes of a Floating World’ from Open World by Kenneth White, is reproduced by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd (www.birlinn.co.uk). x PROLOGUE The work of art in theatre is no longer the text of a playwright, But an act of life to be created, moment by moment, on the stage. Luigi Pirandello: Introduction to the History of Italian Theatre For years I have imagined a performance that ends with a fire. I knew by heart the succession of scenes; I modified them and changed their order in my head. I lingered over the details, retouching them and looking forward to the inevitable grand finale of flames. I have not put this idea into practice because I knew that the fire could not be a stage effect. Did I want to risk burning the theatre and all the people in it? But this image hammered itself into my mind. To exorcise it, I jotted down some notes. It ends with the red of the blaze. It begins in black and white. The performance starts at a gallop with a lynching. A poor black man, a ‘nigger’, is surrounded by the immaculate white cloaks and hoods of a small group of Ku Klux Klan executioners. They beat him up, prod him with their torches and hang him. They quickly disperse. The victim dangles from a branch. Silence and solitude. A black corpse, like so many others. A mere news story. From fact to legend: luckily the rope breaks and the body falls to the ground. Barely visible signs reveal that he is still alive. Slowly he recovers. A grotesque scene follows: he believes himself to be in the Next World. Is it Hell? Is it Heaven? Who will appear? The Guardian of the Celestial Door? Or Satan? How come the Next World resembles our world? The Poor Black Man recovers and explains rationally to himself what has happened. They hanged him, he died and has risen from the dead, like Jesus. It’s obvious: he is the poor Christ. Just like the white one, who was also resurrected. He thanks the Father, forgives the assassins and steps out into the world. xi PROLOGUE Voices of people chatting and playing cards. The first people the Poor Black Man meets are the inmates of a home for the elderly. Men and women, all white. He introduces himself: ‘I am Jesus, and have come for the second time. I am the black Christ and I love you all. Don’t be afraid. The white Christ had predicted my return. Here I am.’ Moved, he tells the story of the white Christ who freed the slaves and helped them to cross the Red Sea of blood unharmed. There, the enemy with the covered faces, frightening hoods and flowing cloaks perished together with their horses and rifles. When they get over their amazement, the inhabitants of the rest home make signs of complicity to one another: nobody laughs! He must be taken seriously, this crazy ex-slave.