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CriticalActs Fantasy on the Clock The Virtual Cruelty of Collected Works’ The Balcony Rebecca Chaleff The first time I saw Collected Works’ produc- both the raw and restored spaces to stage the tion of Jean Genet’s The Balcony (1956) was the polarities of wealth, power, poverty, and despair first time I set foot in San Francisco’s iconic enacted by the characters of The Balcony. Before Old Mint. It was 14 February 2015; wander- the production begins, the audience is allowed ing the halls, I saw traces of history in cubes to roam the smaller rooms of the basement. of glass, maps of memories I did not know, As we wander, we are surrounded by stone and and pictures of a city so demolished by the concrete, ensconced in the secretive chambers 1906 earthquake that I could not recognize it. of Madame Irma’s brothel. In the basement, I discovered deeper remnants Amidst this history, glimpses of the set are of that history in the marks that millions of visible to the audience: white fabric hanging pieces of gold had imprinted against the stone from the ceiling of one room; cords of yarn walls. There, where the stone gave way to the gradual and persistent pressures of coins, I began to imag- ine how Collected Works’ immer- sive production of The Balcony might begin. Today, the Old Mint stands as a massive, stone emblem of history in San Francisco’s Civic Center dis- trict. Although the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society originally planned to convert the landmark into a museum, their plan was terminated before full resto- rations were complete. Now, the building is used for special events, only some of which are open to the public. Although not all rooms Figure 1. Penny and the Beggar perform a ritualistic encounter in the are accessible, some still exhibit Old Mint ’s basement halls. Nathalie Brilliant and Florentina Mocanu in remnants of the original damage. The Balcony, directed by Jamie Lyons and Michael Hunter. The Old Mint, Collected Works’ production uses San Francisco, 4 February 2015. (Photo © 2015 Jamie Lyons) Rebecca Chaleff is a PhD candidate in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, minoring in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her scholarship explores how choreographic legacies shape artistic afterlives within our contemporary neoliberal climate. Critical Acts She has published several performance reviews in Performance Research and has received support for her research from the Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship and the Marilyn Yalom Research Fund. [email protected] 139 strung from the wall to the floor in another; a Genet’s depiction of the relationship between wooden cross, candles, ladders, and other mys- power and illusion by emphasizing the entan- teries for the audience to explore. Surrounded glement of capital. The Old Mint’s stature by these objects, my attention turned from the within Bay Area history implicitly underscores history of the Old Mint towards a temporally this aspect of the production. Immersed within amorphous space rich with the memories and this complex spatiotemporal field, the audi- everyday practices of characters I had yet to ence’s imagination becomes irretrievably inter- meet. In this setting, past, present, and future twined with their perceptions of the multiple were poised to unfold simultaneously. The set histories present — histories that bind past and design of this production reference mul- and future within the momentary experience tiple centuries at once and no location in par- of performance. ticular; temporalities comingle to complicate Attention to capital is further pronounced the relationship between truth and illusion, the through the diegetic elements of the set, real and the virtual. In the dialogue are indica- designed by Angrette McCloskey. In a smaller tions of Revolutionary France; in the costumes, room at the end of a long hall, with brick influences from 19th-century to contemporary walls and a tile floor, a giant, magnified dol- styles; in the set, objects you could find either lar bill is framed above a fireplace. Aside from in your living room or in a museum. The base- a green velvet couch, it is the only adornment. ment became a curiosity cabinet full of memo- There, currency literally hangs over the char- ries yet to unfold. acters’ conversations. In other scenes, they This creative staging of The Balcony is typ- count heaps of cash while they carry out their ical of a performance by Collected Works, a dialogue. All the while, they slip in and out young company based in San Francisco with a of fantasies in which they mobilize financial knack for site-specific works staged in unusual power to disrupt their dependency on corrupt locations. The Balcony takes place on two and a political networks. Confined by the walls of the Old Mint, the characters remain cap- tured within a powerful economy, which, given the temporal flexibil- ity of the staging, also comments on neoliberal capitalism as the West (and, more specifically in this con- text, the Bay Area) experiences it today. If, as David Harvey explains, neoliberalism is the “financializa- tion of everything” (2007:33), then this setting underscores the finan- cialization at work within the play, opening its political commentary to critiques of neoliberal as well as liberal capitalism. This staging ref- erences the history of Western Figure 2. In a basement room, the Bishop ceremoniously dons his robes capitalism through its temporal while Rosine looks on impatiently. Todd Pivetti and Jeff Schwartz in valences. The revolutionary char- The Balcony, directed by Jamie Lyons and Michael Hunter. The Old Mint, acters of the play seem at times to San Francisco, 4 February 2015. (Photo © 2015 Jamie Lyons) have stepped out of a Victor Hugo novel; the urgent plans, rallying half floors (including an additional staircase and cries, and spirited songs they share in their a balcony) of the Old Mint, and even stretches decrepit headquarters call up the history of into its courtyard. But the building provides resistance to the burgeoning bourgeois capital- more than a flexible space; it also complicates ism of 19th-century Europe. Critical Acts 140 The Old Mint itself pivots the play at the their side. The day the Palestinians become a crux of a historical moment when the build- nation like other nations, I won’t be there any- ing transformed into a signifier of the strength more’” (in Bharucha 2014:41). For Bharucha, and resilience of capital amidst a natural disas- Genet’s allegiance to revolutionary strug- ter that reduced San Francisco to rubble and gle sets his plays within “revolutionary time,” embers. The costuming, props, and set pieces which is “neither yoked to the Past that needs that reference a more contemporary timeframe to be reclaimed, nor suspended in the endless echo the Bay Area’s recent source of vast eco- deferral of the Future, in which much contem- nomic growth via an emphasis on technology porary politics find refuge” (41–42). The open that connects the play to the audience’s con- and flexible timeframe ofThe Balcony therefore temporary milieu. Time crosses over itself to underscores Genet’s critique of power through cross-reference the history of liberal capitalism the multiplicity of its temporal valences. and the revolutions it extinguished in its wake. Present actions, past memories, and virtual Genet originally wrote The Balcony in 1955 becomings are all oppressed by structures of in France. Although it is not his most popular political and economic power. play, it has circulated widely on global stages. Codirectors Michael Hunter and Jamie It has been produced on the European conti- Lyons take a creative launch from the play’s nent and off Broadway in the US, perhaps most ambiguous timeframe and catapult the events famously by Peter Brook in Paris (1960). With into a temporal space that effectively lacks a plot so complex it ultimately becomes sec- specificity. Although the play’s dialogue reflects ondary, The Balcony attends best to the signi- the social politics of another century, the pro- fications of its characters. In the midst of the duction’s design situates the contemporary political turmoil the rebels have stirred while and the historic side by side, refusing tempo- rallying to the defense of the oppressed. Irma, ral consistency: Madame Irma uses an iPad-like the Madame of an upscale brothel, covets the tablet to keep track of her house; photog- power of the Queen while the Chief of Police raphers take snapshots of the General, the rushes to her aid with plans to suppress the rev- Bishop, and the Judge on their cell phones. olution and solidify his control over the city. Latifa Medjdoub’s costumes reference no sty- The Court Envoy protects the Queen’s power listic era in particular, but clothe the characters by manipulating Irma into believing she might in rich, anachronistic details. Each charac- inherit that power. The Bishop, the Judge, ter has the vague look of a different time, but and the General alternately assert their reli- the cast, overall, appears tied to no time at all; gious, legal, and military power while cowering while the Court Envoy wears a regal red dress beneath the weight of their inherent austerity. and Irma a tight corset, the Chief of Police The first production ofThe Balcony, directed sports a trench coat and Roger wears jeans. In by Peter Zadek, premiered in 1957 at the a similar manner, the Old Mint also plays an Arts Theatre Club in London. Disappointed important role in the play’s temporal ambi- in the production, Genet tried to physically guity. Although much of its interior has been obstruct the continuation of the play’s perfor- restored, certain rooms remain untouched, mance but was prevented from doing so by the accented by a decay that marks the rupture of police.

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