A Cheery Soul, the Ham Funeral and the Season at Sarsaparilla in Production
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1 USING DELEUZE AND GUATTARI'S LOGIC OF SENSATION TO ANALYSE PATRICK WHITE’S A CHEERY SOUL, THE HAM FUNERAL AND THE SEASON AT SARSAPARILLA IN PRODUCTION AUTHOR Andrew Robert Fuhrmann OCRID IDENTIFER 0000-0003-4272-6814 DEGREE Masters by Research SUBMISSION DATE August 2017 DEPARTMENT School of Culture and Communication STATEMENT Thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the degree. 2 ABSTRACT In this thesis I provide a sustained aesthetic analysis of three performances of plays by Patrick White at the Sydney Theatre Company. These three performances are based on productions that are now regarded as major landmarks in the development of Australian theatre. The focus of my analysis is the operation of these performances at the level of sensation. In this thesis I argue that in order to fully appreciate the impact of these performances, analysis must extend beyond processes of meaning-making, beyond the identification of ideological and cultural criticism, and embrace the strategic capture and mobilisation of affects and intensities. In order to carry out such an analysis, I propose a model of performance analysis based on the aesthetic philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari outlined in What Is Philosophy?. Using this methodology, live performance is reconceptualised as a 'bloc of sensations' that can be analysed in terms of three elements: figure, house and cosmos or universe. Chapter One focuses on the element of the figure in the context of the 1979 production of A Cheery Soul. This chapter highlights the radical approach to Patrick White's stage directions taken by the director Jim Sharman and designer Brian Thomson. I argue that by isolating the character of Miss Docker, the production's minimalist design enabled the performer Robyn Nevin to transform her into a powerful and ultimately revitalising aesthetic figure. Chapter Two focuses on director Neil Armfield's 1989 production of The Ham Funeral, and the change of the setting from a boarding house to an animal enclosure. This chapter examines the element of the house and argues that the final moment of the production, where the Young Man exits the theatre through the audience, is an example of the necessary mediation of the house between the figure and the cosmos. Finally, Chapter Three analyses the use of a single house to stand for the three houses of Mildred Street in the 2007 production of The Season at Sarsaparilla directed by Benedict Andrews and designed by Robert Cousins. With the aid of Deleuzian ideas of amputation and prosthesis, this chapter examines the multiple ways in which this production opened itself onto the aesthetic cosmos and allowed some necessary fragment of chaos to enter, transform and mobilise the drama at an affective level. 3 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis comprises only my original work towards the Masters by Research. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. The thesis does not exceed the maximum word limit, exclusive of bibliography. The thesis is 30,000 words. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my colleagues, family and friends for all their advice, patience and encouragement. I thank my supervisor Denise Varney for her unstinting support and enthusiasm. And I thank Jess and Iris for everything. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 2 DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Argument ........................................................................................................................................ 6 2. Performance Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 7 3. Patrick White's Theatre in Performance ....................................................................................... 10 4. Analytical Framework ................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER ONE: THE 1979 SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION OF A CHEERY SOUL ................ 24 1. Patrick White and Le Vieux Style ................................................................................................... 24 2. The Problem of Cliché ................................................................................................................... 29 3. The Figure and the Scream ........................................................................................................... 33 4. The Redemption of Cheeriness ..................................................................................................... 37 CHAPTER TWO: THE 1989 SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION OF THE HAM FUNERAL ......... 44 1. Mapping the House-Territory System ........................................................................................... 44 2. The Damp and Crumbling House .................................................................................................. 47 3. Two Becomings: Animal and Meat ............................................................................................... 51 a. Becoming Animal ...................................................................................................................... 52 b. Becoming Meat ......................................................................................................................... 54 4. Toward Deterritorialisation .......................................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER THREE: THE 2007 SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCTION OF THE SEASON AT SARSAPARILLA ....................................................................................................................................... 63 1. Problematising Mildred Street ...................................................................................................... 63 2. Three Houses into One ................................................................................................................. 67 3. The Revolve: An Amputation ........................................................................................................ 72 4. Surveilling Sarsaparilla: A Prosthesis............................................................................................. 76 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 82 BIBLIOGRAPHY – PRIMARY ................................................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY – PRESS ......................................................................................................................... 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY – SECONDARY ............................................................................................................... 86 6 INTRODUCTION 1. Argument In this thesis I will analyse the way in which sensations are generated, organised, assembled and presented in three landmark productions of plays by Patrick White. The productions analysed are the Sydney Theatre Company productions of A Cheery Soul (1979), The Ham Funeral (1989) and The Season at Sarsaparilla (2007). I aim to develop and then to apply a framework of analysis that maps and records the production of moments of potential dramatic intensity within individual performances. Accordingly, the focus of the research engaged in this thesis, its governing problematic, is that of diagramming in terms of a Deleuzian logic of sensation the creative encounters between playwright and director, between designer and performer, and between audience and theatre space. By focusing on the production of sensations in theatre performances I aim both to offer a deeper appreciation of the plays of one of Australia's most influential playwrights and to suggest a new theoretical perspective on the relationship between written text and performance in Australian theatre. This approach – with its focus on what a performance does, what it is, rather than what it means – necessarily involves a commitment to close and detailed description. Video recordings of the three productions considered in this thesis are held in the STC's extensive archive in Walsh Bay, Sydney, and constitute the central research focus – and in empirical terms the evidential basis – of the thesis. This resource is supplemented with detailed references to historical and archival documents: to letters, production notes and sketches, to theatre programmes, to publicity releases and educational resources, to statements of artistic intention and interviews which may distort or disclose. The archives I have consulted include Patrick White's own papers, those of the director Jim Sharman and the designer Desmond Digby which relate to White, all of which are held at the National Library of Australia in Canberra, and those of the actress Kerry Walker in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. All four archives, together with the STC's own archives, contain a multitude of 7 press clippings, production