Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: the Martyrs of Erik Ehn
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: the Martyrs of Erik Ehn A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Rachel E. Linn May 2015 © 2015 Rachel E. Linn. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: The Martyrs of Erik Ehn by RACHEL E. LINN has been approved for Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by William F. Condee Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts Margaret Kennedy-Dygas Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT LINN, RACHEL E., Ph.D., May 2015, Interdisciplinary Arts Pieces of the Body, Shards of the Soul: Erik Ehn's Martyrs Director of Dissertation: William F. Condee This dissertation demonstrates that theatre has had a longstanding interest in the possibility of one object changing into another through miraculous means. Transubstantiation through art has occupied Western theatre from its roots in the medieval period. Contemporary theatre holds on to many deep-rooted assumptions about the performing body derived from medieval religious influence, both consciously and unconsciously. This influence is more pronounced in certain writers and artists, but it manifests itself as a lingering belief that the body (living and dead) is a source of power. This dissertation finds religious influence and an interest in the performing body’s power in the martyr plays of Erik Ehn. According to theologians like Andrew Greeley and art scholars like Eleanor Heartney, artists associated with the Catholic Church show an especially keen fascination with the body as a sacred object. This is one aspect of the trend they call the Catholic Imagination or the Analogical Imagination. The Analogical Imagination, according to Greeley, “tends to emphasize the metaphorical nature of creation… everything in creation… discloses something about God and, in doing so, brings God among us” (Greeley 6). From an Analogical perspective, the body not only suggests the possibility of miraculous transformation, it is both “material” and “sacred” in the same moment. It is continuously and miraculously transforming. The first two chapters of the dissertation 4 address the continuing influence of medieval ideas on contemporary theatre practice and criticism. It then turns to a more specific case study, focusing on the work of Erik Ehn to further illuminate the influence of these ideas in contemporary practice. Playwright Erik Ehn’s The Saint Plays offer fertile ground for an exploration of transubstantiation. The Saint Plays is a published collection of short plays that manifest many qualities of the Analogical Imagination in its exploration of Catholic saints. This dissertation addresses six of those plays: Wholly Joan’s (Joan of Arc), Locus (John the Baptist), 16670 (Maximilian Mary Kolbe), The Freak (George), Radio Elephant (Barbara), and Pain (Eulalia). The last four chapters explore the power of desire, the permeability of “material” and “spiritual” realities, the concept of liminality and the fractured body as factors in transubstantiation as these six plays depict it. Ehn’s medieval-influenced paradigms in The Saint Plays make use of contemporary ideas and tactics seamlessly. His ease in integrating contemporary ideas in his Analogical work exposes the relationship between the Analogical Imagination and current theatre concepts like “ghosting” and “doubling.” This fusion calls into question the assumed distance between contemporary and medieval ideas. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to acknowledge the time, insights, and encouragement my committee generously gave over the years, especially Dr. William Condee. At every crossroads Dr. Condee met me where I was and pushed me toward a clearer path. Thank you for your tireless work. I am also grateful for the time Professor Erik Ehn spent discussing his plays with me. With the collaborative spirit of theatre, all colleagues and mentors I called upon gave of themselves in abundance. Thank you. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: The Possibility of Transubstantiation in Theology and Theatre ..................... 27 Chapter 2: Sacred Flesh in Theology and Theatre ............................................................ 44 Chapter 3: The Obfuscation of Time and Place by Dismemberment ............................... 71 Chapter 4: The Saint as an Active Subject...................................................................... 109 Chapter 5: The Saint as the Liminal ............................................................................... 150 Chapter 6: The Saint as a Cipher .................................................................................... 175 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 193 References ....................................................................................................................... 199 7 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Saint Munditia’s relics in Saint Peter’s Church of Munich (photo by Author) ............................................................................................................................30 Figure 2: A flyer from a Tenderloin Opera Company event (Tenderloin Opera) ..........36 Figure 3: Rowena Johnson plays Joan of Arc in Cal Rep at the Armory’s production of Wholly Joan’s (Joan of Arc) in 2008. The Angel is played by Beth Forehlich, Anne Popozilio, and Deborah Lazor (“Onstage : The Saint Plays”). .......................................73 Figure 4: Zehra Fazal as Joan in Factory 449’s 2010 production of Wholly Joan’s (Joan of Arc)(“Factory 449 : The Saint Plays ”) .......................................................................93 Figure 5: Belen Oyola-Rebaza and Sun King Davis as Salome and John the Baptist in Factory 449’s 2010 production of The Saint Plays (“Factory 449 : The Saint Plays ”). 97 Figure 6: Betsy Rosen and Allyson Harkey in Factory 449’s 2010 production of The Saint Plays (“Factory 449: The Saint Plays”). .......................................................................114 Figure 7: Goshen College’s 2008 production of Pain (Eulalia) (“The Saint Plays”). .191 8 INTRODUCTION “The” relationship between mysticism and the modern and postmodern theatre is conflicted. Twentieth-century theatre adopted the language of psychology and the social sciences to describe performance. While this adoption led to changes in discussing performance, much of theatre's critical engagement retains echoes of spirituality and mysticism. Some playwrights and scholars underplay or subvert these residual echoes, but others choose to utilize the traces of mysticism threaded throughout theatre history in their work. The specific mystical act that concerns this dissertation is transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the moment in Catholic practice where wine and bread are miraculously transformed into the body of Christ. This dissertation appropriates the term and expands it to include all miraculous transformation. It argues that theatre’s interest in the possibility of one object changing into another is an important part of its fascination. Transubstantiation through art has occupied Western theatre from its roots in the medieval period. Contemporary theatre holds on to many deep-rooted assumptions about the performing body derived from medieval religious influence, both consciously and unconsciously. This influence is more pronounced in certain writers and artists, but it manifests itself as a lingering belief that the body (living and dead) is a source of power. This dissertation focuses on Erik Ehn, a playwright who acknowledges the influence of his religious leanings in his plays. Erik Ehn is a living playwright with a large body of work produced in theatres across the United States. He has organized much of that work into two continuing play cycles: Soulographie and the Saint Cycle. He has worked with theatres such as 7 Stages 9 (Atlanta), Force/Collision (Washington D.C.), and LaMaMa (New York) in his career (Ehn and Gener). He has written a number of independent works outside his play cycles including Beginner, Wolf at the Door, Book of Tink, and an adaptation of William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. He earned his MFA from Yale in 1983 and became Berkley Rep’s literary manager in 1990. In addition to his playwriting practice, Ehn is a professor and has taught at many institutions, including the University of Iowa and the University of San Francisco. He has served as CalArts’ School of Theater dean beginning in 2005, and then replaced Paula Vogel as Brown University’s Head of Playwriting in 2009 (Goodman). The fifty-seven-year-old playwright credits his experiences while growing up near Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for his aesthetic development. He stated in an interview, “Being raised Catholic, there’s something traumatizing in the best sense in the stories of the saint… you’re invited at the right time in your life to