Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Ing. Aneta Běhounková

The End of the Twentieth Century and Its Reflection in Interpersonal Communication Based on Closer by Patric Marber Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D.

2017

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Author’s signature

Table of Contents Introduction ...... 1 1. Cultural Environment of the Late Twentieth Century ...... 3

1. 1. History and the British Theatre ...... 3 1. 2. Definition of In-Yer-Face Theatre ...... 5 1. 3. The new generation of writers ...... 7 2. Closer – A Picture of Contemporary Society...... 9

2. 1. Plot summary ...... 10 2. 2. Characters in Closer ...... 12 2. 2. 1. The meaning of professions ...... 12 2. 2. 2. Identities of characters ...... 15

2. 3. Egoism and Truth-telling in Closer ...... 17 2. 3. 1. Consequences of knowledge ...... 18 2. 3. 2. Circumstances and telling the truth ...... 19

2. 4. Feeling of isolation ...... 21 3. Form of Closer ...... 24

3. 1. Defining Genre ...... 24 3. 2. Influences ...... 26 3. 3. Structure of Closer...... 27 3. 3. 1. Mirroring and Binary Oppositions ...... 28 3. 3. 2. Repetition of Symbols in Closer ...... 30

3. 4. Language and Utterances of Characters ...... 32 4. Closer in the New Millennium ...... 35

4. 1. Firs Impressions in London and New York ...... 36 4. 2. Making a Film ...... 38 4. 3. Donmar Warehouse production and timelessness of Closer ...... 39 Conclusion ...... 42 Works Cited ...... 45 Summary ...... 50 Resumé ...... 51 Appendix ...... 52 Introduction

The end of the twentieth century brought changes into many aspects of human life. The liberalization of market created materialistic society where moral values became only empty words, especially in big cities. There is no wonder that literature reflected and criticised the trend. Drama is a specific segment of literature. The theatre can react quite briskly to what happens in real life. In the last decade of the twentieth century the new method of drawing audiences’ attention to the important problems of the society developed; it was the tactics of shock. Many controversial plays that were breaking taboos emerged. Viewers were forced to feel and later think about what they have seen.

Patrick Marber’s Closer (1997) belongs to this new drama. Although, it is the milder form of the new theatre. Closer is one of the most discussed plays of late nineties not only in Great Britain but around the world. The popularity of the play was such that it was moved to Broadway and even filmed in 2004. Almost twenty years after its’ opening it is still very popular and it was staged again at Donmar Warehouse in 2015.

Although the plot of Closer takes place in London and heroes are Londoners, it can be easily transferred to a different city.

The aim of the work in hand is to show Closer as a political play in terms of social critique of metropolitan generation and to show how Marber uses dialogues and other artistic expressions to evoke the authentic feeling of isolation in the drama. There are many questions that watching or reading of the play raises. Is the way of communication effective in terms of building and maintaining relationships? Is it possible to find the truth when constantly lying? And with all this communication technology and networks we already had on the verge of the millennium why does the meaning of sentences we speak or write evaporate? The words people use and things they do define them. In Closer there

1 is no explicit violence on stage so typical for the decade, however it is replaced by verbal aggression.

The thesis is divided into three main sections. In the first one there will be described historical context of the play. It will be concentrated on aspects that influenced playwrights and on typical issues that drama raised. The middle section will be devoted to Closer itself. It will describe the zeitgeist of 1990s shown by Marber and how does he evoke emotions. In this section I will analyse the text of the play and compare with works of British theatre critic Aleks Sierz and Canadian historian of British Arts Christopher

Innes. In the last part the thesis will concentrate on the impact of Closer in 1990s and its relevancy in the twentieth-first century.

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1. Cultural Environment of the Late Twentieth Century

Hand in hand with technological progress of the twentieth century working and middle classes had more time for entertainment. For example, the number of households owning a television rose from 5.7 million in 1956 to 24.1 million in 2000 (www.barb.co.uk).

However, watching television is only one form of leisure activities. With new millennium approaching new media such as Internet became more and more popular.

Nevertheless, theatre still occupies an exceptional place in British tradition. Only in London the average yearly amount of theatre attendances was about 11 million during the 1990s and more than 14 million attendances in last four years (see appendix figure 1).

The theatre is a special place where art blends with real life. It is also a platform for passing messages to the audience, including social critiques.

In the nineties, the dominant style of many British playwrights became in-yer-face theatre, term introduced by theatre critic Aleks Sierz. Many new features of the wave were innovative, even shocking. The following sections will describe the main aspects of this new emerging generation of writers, provide brief characteristic of the style and outline most influential plays of the decade.

1. 1. History and the British Theatre

The censorship in Britain was abolished in 1968, up to this date showing onstage anything that could be offensive was forbidden. Such things included swearwords, sexual and homosexual content, representation of God or living members of Royal family.

Everything that was thought to be too much for general public was prohibited (Sierz 2000,

11). Sierz also offers the wider context of the definition of ‘uncensored’; in context of

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1990s it meant that on stage playwrights were allowed to present things that would be impossible to show in any different kind of media (2002, 19).

Nevertheless, the end of censorship happened twenty years before the new generation of writers emerged. Inevitably there were other aspects that contributed to the fresh style of writing. Changes in the world politics and British society itself played very important role in the process. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 brought the feeling of freedom even to capitalistic countries; the notion that borders, both geographical and artistic, can be shifted. According to Dominic Dromgoole – art director at the Bush from

1990 to 1996, young playwrights were given freedom; they were no longer bound by ideologies or rules (Sierz 2002: 21).

British inner policy was also consciously or unconsciously reflected in the theatre.

The generation of writers of 1990s was called by Innes ‘Thatcher’s Children’ (Innes 427).

Many writers who grow up in Thatcherism felt artistically deprived whereas at the time theatres, especially political ones, were not financially supported. Even the new avant- garde plays were written only occasionally. After electing of new government, the capital flow into culture, media and sport was restored (Kritzer 6). According to The National

Archives total funding from central and local authorities grew steadily up to 1996

(webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk). In the mid-1990s, approximately one fifth of the plays staged were newly written pieces. It was in great degree dependent on subsidies to theatres (Sierz 2002, 17). Nevertheless, subsidies were not the only political factor that led to a greater amount of new plays. Some British theatre critics like Michael Billington believe that “it is no coincidence that with the fall-out of the radical politics of Margaret

Thatcher came expression of art by means of shock” (Defraye 80). The new generation of writers was thus boosted by liberalization of home politics and financial flows to theatres.

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1. 2. Definition of In-Yer-Face Theatre

Aleks Sierz, British theatre critic that introduced the term, calls this way of writing also

“a theatre of sensation” (2000, 4). Basically, it means that plays are shocking. Authors are showing on stage things that used to be taboo like violence, nudity, sex, negative feelings or they use filthy language to evoke emotions in the audience. Oxford English

Dictionary (2017) describes the more formal language version ‘in-your-face’ as

“Blatantly aggressive or provocative; impossible to ignore or avoid”. Originally in the

1970s the expression was used as a derisive insult. Both aspects suggest presence of violence. According to Sierz (2000, 4) it also implies the closeness of actions onstage to the audience and invasion to their personal space. Furthermore, it indicates link between the drama and everyday life. “The term describes the relationship between the stage and the audience, between the writer and the society” (Aragay et. el 143).

However, in-yer-face was not the only term used to denote the way of writing in

1990s. It was sometimes called New Brutalism, which was a literature movement dated since 1980s. The term is taken from the architectonical form of mid 1960s (named by architecture critic Rayner Banham). In architecture it referred the use of raw, exposed materials that suggested aesthetic honesty and integrity. (McHale, Platt 2016). In literature almost twenty years later it was characterized by showing bare reality. The next term used was Blood and Sperm Generation which according to Sierz narrowed the concept only to sex and violence which excluded interaction with the audience (Aragay et. el 143). Which was very important feature of new drama while “situations that are essentially private, such as sex, seem embarrassingly intimate onstage” (Sierz 2000, 7).

Sierz (2000, 6) distinguishes two types of in-yer-face theatre: hot and cool. The hot one works with explicit violence, showing pure emotions usually to the smaller auditorium. Attacking viewers directly with shocking words and images. On the other

5 hand, the cool version shows more naturalistic scenes adapted to the traditional dramatic forms in which authors strongly influences feelings of the audience by showing painful things, sometimes even disguising them as comedy.

Plays of in-yer-face theatre can be characterized by dirty language. Which shown onstage have considerably more shocking effects than in private life. Indeed, the kind of language people use reflects their behaviour and beliefs; it reflects the zeitgeist.

According to Sierz (2000, 8) the “violent impact of sexual swearwords in British culture says much about what we feel about sex or women” and words become a verbal act of aggression.

Not only the language but also the style in which plays are written is different.

Sierz describes it as follows: “As opposed to the literary feel of much previous drama, with long wordy speeches, the dialogue in most nineties plays is much shorter, more telegraphic and direct, more filmic even – and much, much faster” (2002, 21). Dialogues alone thus have limited space to pass the message and staging together with visual processing become more important.

Themes and motifs of in-yer-face theatre may differ but in general plays are political. Authors may not impeach authorities or government itself but what they do is criticizing society as a whole. Even though plays are about individuals they are highlighting problems like sexual abuse, violence and drug addictions. Nonetheless, all those issues are emphasising that one of the most dominant topics of the decade is a kind of crisis in social behaviour. Many authors are limiting men to violent and sexual creatures (Sierz 2002, 21-2).

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1. 3. The new generation of writers

In-yer-face theatre is innovative in both form and content. Sierz also called it experiential.

Playwrights wanted audience to feel the play and to be shaken. Apart from socio-political reasons and financial subventions to theatres the authors had to be brave enough to deal with taboo topics. No surprise that a great amount of them were in their twenties or early thirties. They usually cooperated with theatres in big towns like Royal Court, Bush, Soho

Theatre in London or Traverse in Edinburgh (www.inyerfacetheatre.com).

Among the most controversial playwrights of the decade can be indisputably placed Sarah Kane, Mark Ravenhill and Anthony Nielson. Their plays are not entirely homogenous in respect to questions they raised but definitely they contained great amount of shocking material and problems they address are also reflected in Patrick Marber’s

Closer.

Kane’s most well-known play Blasted (1995) concentrates on power imbalance at firs between opposite sexes and in the second half of the play the aggression is shown as male thing. Sierz concludes that a violent fallout of abuse in Blasted may indicate the crisis of masculinity (2000, 104). Another play from the decade presenting sexual insecurity of men is Anthony Nielson’s Penetrator (1993). Though, the theme is handled from a different point of view. Penetrator raises the question of homosexuality in purely heterosexual upbringing and that tabooing it may cause great damage and in some cases as Sierz points out it” can turn into violence” (2000, 78).

While the two authors mentioned above depict men as violent creatures, Mark

Ravenhill in his Shopping and Fucking (1996) shows his male characters as lost beings where women have to save them in critical situations (Sierz 2000, 130). Apart from crisis of masculinity, Ravenhill provides some other issues that were handled in Closer. He concentrates on feeling of isolation where young people in 1980s had no guidance in

7 religion nor spiritual framework in materialistic ‘decade of greed’ (Mark Ravenhill on

“Shopping and Fucking” 1998). Commercialism also sunk into intimate spheres of human life. And “sex which should have been private had become a public transaction” (Sierz

2000, 123).

In the beginning of decade was also written one of the iconic stories Trainspotting, originally a novel by Irvine Welsh (1993) that was later adapted into a play and movie.

Although it is primarily about drugs the story is also about lack of communication and real intimacy in terms of feelings rather than sexuality. Heroin is here merely a kind of substitute to them (Sierz 2000, 63).

Above mentioned plays do not represent all themes covered by authors in 1990s.

However, the most important issues related to crisis of masculinity, critique of contemporary commercialized society that creates feelings of solitude and disturbs relationships are typical for the period. Given social questions are also raised in Patrick

Marber’s Closer.

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2. Closer – A Picture of Contemporary Society

Closer is Patrick Marber’s second play. Before it he wrote Dealer’s Choice (1995) and directed After Miss Julie an adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie for BBC in 1996 (Sierz

2000, 192). His plays addressed specific social issues. In the first drama Marber focuses on ‘all-male society’ of poker games. According to Innes he shows “an image for the commercialism of the 1990s [as] a highly competitive but unproductive society” (430).

The plot of After Miss Julie takes place in post-war Britain and represents a critique of contemporary class wars that persist in England (Innes 431). Marber admits profound influence of After Miss Julie when writing Closer. Especially “powerful attraction of sexual desire, but also the pessimistic depiction of relationships between men and women” (Saunders 5).

Closer takes place in London. But apart from some geographical references

(Postman’s Park, Blackfriars Bridge and the Aquarium in the London ZOO) the plot is easily transferrable to another city. According to Rosenthal this transferability is one of the reasons why the play had been produced so many times all over the world (582).

Undoubtedly the play owes its’ popularity to contemporality of characters and their relationships. The zeitgeist is almost detectable in behaviour of what Innes called

“self-absorbed me generation of 1990s” (431). Very important feature is also

“preoccupation with the surface appearance” (Saunders 9). The self-presentation of characters and manipulation in Closer will be the main subjects analysed in this chapter.

Following pages will describe how Marber is taking a portrait of the generation at the end of the millennium. Firstly, a short sub-chapter with plot outline will be included for better understanding of further analysis. The second part of the chapter will be devoted to the study of four characters, their background and professions. Next few paragraphs

9 will concentrate on projections of their identities. And the last part of the chapter will demonstrate how Marber catches the main feelings in the society.

2. 1. Plot summary

The plot of Closer is not easy to follow due to permanent swapping of partners. This sub- chapter aims to point out some details that help understand the behaviour of protagonists and accentuate the breakpoints that will be dealt with in later analysis. As it was said above the play takes place in London and shows fates of four people – two men and two women. The whole story covers more than four years of their lives. In the initial scene

Dan brings Alice to the hospital after she was knocked down by a cab. She only came from New York the day before. She describes herself as a waif and expresses her want to be loved (Marber 9-10). In the hospital they also meet Larry, the dermatologist, who is very interested in Alice’s scar.

After year and a half Dan wrote a novel based on Alice’s life as a stripper. He is being photographed by Anna and she suggests changing the title of the book to Aquarium

– a place that implies fishbowl existence (Innes 433). Dan and Anna are attracted to each other which is noticed by Alice who comes to meet him. When Dan leaves Anna takes photo of distressed Alice.

Six months later Dan takes advantage of the anonymity of internet chat room and pretends to be Anna. The victim of his game is Larry, an inexperienced user. Their conversation is very straightforward in terms of sex. Eventually Dan proposes a meeting at the Aquarium, London Zoo. The next day Larry approaches real Anna there. Larry soon realizes that he was a victim of someone’s prank. However, the misunderstanding initiates their relationship.

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At Anna’s exhibition opening night. Alice and Larry meet again and discuss art.

Larry asks her once more about the scar on her leg. This time Alice provides different explanation. Meanwhile Dan declares his feelings to Anna and insists that she should spend a weekend with him. He also persuades her that Larry will bore her.

After a year both couples Alice and Dan and Anna and Larry split up. The stage is divided in two. On each side one of the couples is breaking up. Dan and Anna confess their affair. Both conversations are very intense and emotional. Whereas Alice is hurt and leaves the flat, Larry is interrogating Anna about details of her infidelity.

Three months later Larry meets Alice in a lap dancing club where she works as a stripper. In a subsequent scene the audience watches Larry signing of divorce papers in exchange for ‘sympathy fuck’ and his advice to be honest with Dan. However, Dan fails bearing the truth and ends the relationship with Anna.

Few weeks later Alice meets Anna and persuades her to go back to her husband.

During the conversation the audience learns that for Alice there is no such a thing as falling in love, it is a matter of choice. On the other hand, Anna defines men as dream- lovers.

Scene Ten represents a mirror scene to the previous one. This time it is a male conversation. Both men use their knowledge as a weapon to hurt and humiliate the other.

Again, they discuss Alice’s scar. In the end Larry tells Dan where to find her.

A month later Dan and Alice are together again and leaving for vacation. Dan asks her about the scar once more. He also demands details of her relationship with Larry. She refuses to tell, in the most intense part of their argument Dan slaps Alice and she leaves him. In the last scene the audience learns that Alice was killed in a traffic accident back in the United States. The audience also learns that her real name was Jane Jones.

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2. 2. Characters in Closer

Closer is unquestionably a character-driven drama. There are just four protagonists who even do not appear on stage together in the same situation. Marber describes them only briefly at the beginning of the play as following: “Alice, a girl from the town; Dan, a man from the suburbs; Larry, a man from the city and Anna, a woman from the country”

(Marber). According to Innes “their backgrounds cover the whole of English society”

(431). This interpretation expresses the idea that behaviour of men and women in the play is applicable to every human being. However, it should be mentioned that this generalization is relevant only to metropolitan society, whereas the anonymity of the environment is a very important element of the play.

Closer is a play about relationships. Characters split up with their partners, have affairs and then unsuccessfully try to re-establish relationships with the original mates.

But before they meet and fall in love for the first time in the play, all the protagonists have some history in terms of relationships. Alice is apparently running from her past at the beginning of the story. After meeting with Dan, he leaves his girlfriend Ruth to live with Alice. Larry has sexual fantasies about his ex-girlfriends and Anna is separated from her husband. She is divorcing because, as she later admits, she was hit before (Marber

52). However, it seems that the protagonists tend to go over similar situations. Reasons for such decisions are hidden in the psychological portraits of individual characters.

2. 2. 1. The meaning of professions

In developing personality every detail matters and what characters do for living is no exception. Their professions are carefully chosen to highlight that they “stand for exposure” (Innes 432). Marber himself develops that “Anna, Dan and Larry are ‘lookers’, while Alice is ‘looked at’” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 188). Indeed, Alice attracts considerably

12 more attention and not only because she is a stripper. Her occupation also illustrates that showing naked body is easier than showing naked soul. She can without difficulty sell sexual fantasies to complete strangers and in the same time protect her privacy. However, for a brief period, when living with Dan, she drops stripping to work as a waitress. Marber implemented here one of his puns – she is waiting for something to happen – for Dan to leave her. She expects him to do so because she does not feel his love (Marber 31). A year later, when Dan leaves her to be with Anna, she is working in a lap dancing club again as a stripper.

Anna and Dan are artists. They observe and portray life in their specific way, however, not always accurate. Anna is a photographer – an image-maker. She takes photos of strangers without knowing their story and subsequently sells their images as art. Alice remarked that her exhibition “is a lie […] and everyone loves a Big Fat Lie”

(Marber 34). This line implies that people like to be deceived.

On the other hand, Dan is at the beginning of the story an obituary writer. He uses euphemisms to compress someone’s life into one paragraph. Although he may be good at this kind of journalism, he apparently is not an excellent novelist. He exploits Alice’s life and shows somehow distracted reality. Even though Anna considers it accurate about love and sex (Marber 14) and Larry points out that it is “humane” (Marber 91), the novel is not a success. After the failure of his book he goes back to the former job of obituarist.

Unlike Anna, Dan did not leave in his book much space for imagery. And obviously it is again phantasy and chimera, not facts, what society wants.

As shown above two of the characters changed their professions. And both did it only temporarily. There are two possible interpretations of the phenomena – habitual and psychological. The first one basically means that they just got used to their jobs. When failed or get bored in the new one, they simply returned to previous career path. The

13 second explanation is related to the identities of characters. Alice and Dan cannot deny who they are. Alice is an ‘exceptional’ stripper because she knows what men want

(Marber 9) and uses the knowledge well to sell imagery. She is aware of her power to create illusions. On the other hand, Dan was taken as a good obituary writer by his colleagues. When critics denounced his novel a failure, he admitted that he “needed a praise. A real writer is… above such concerns” (Marber 37). For Dan others’ people opinion is essential element when defining himself.

The last character of the play, Larry, is a dermatologist. The three professions analysed above involve selling images and fantasies. The forth is however not related to selling but to treating. The treatment concerns both – patients and women. According to

Innes Larry’s profession is an allegory to skin trade (432). This is a metaphor not only for his medical specialization but also for primitive animal-like sexual instincts that dominate the character such as raw sex, jealousy and territorialism. Larry’s territorialism relates to women as he explains to Alice in the club: “You don’t understand the territory. / Because you are the territory” (Marber 67). The line implies “associations of hunting and prey”

(Saunders 44) and expresses cliché of male approach to the opposite sex.

Larry is an educated middle-aged man. His life experience and professional training allows him to call himself “a clinical observer of the human carnival” (Marber

41). According to Fisher it means that Larry is “a cold objective scientist” and allows him to see “more deeply into situations than the rest of the characters in the play” (14).

However even his analytical attitude does not mean that his behaviour is not dominated by emotions.

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2. 2. 2. Identities of characters

The play provides wide range of characters’ interpretation and their final features are always up to the director of given adaptation. Nevertheless, some characteristics may be deciphered from the text of the play itself. Significant portion is hidden in particular lines, but behaviour of the characters is of no less importance. However, in some cases there is a difference between what protagonists say and what they actually do. In case of Closer the contrast is certainly deliberate. Each of the characters of the play, weather intentionally or not, develops its’ identity.

Yet Krüger sees the characters as “constructed, partially fictional and unstable”

(144) she also adds that they do not have fixed identities. Unquestionably this opinion originates from the gap between their behaviour seen as illogical in some situations and carefully constructed image. Some aspects of personality surely can be consciously influenced but there is also a group of features with objective predispositions.

As it was said above, neither of the four characters came from the same background. Although the information provided by the author is very brief, it proofs to be helpful in understanding their conduct under peculiar circumstances. When they are exposed to unfamiliar environment or situation, they feel inappropriate. For example,

Larry, who is of working-class parentage, feels on Annas’ exhibition opening like

“Cinderella at the ball” (Marber 41). Similarly, Anna who comes from the country sticks to her guidebooks to understand the city. Krüger interprets it as feeling of insecurity and lostness in London (168). Analogically Dan relies on conventions and behavioural clichés when unsure of proper reaction. Such a conformist response occurs in the Scene One when he puts up Alice’s hurt leg because “That’s what people do in these situations”

(Marber 2) and Scene Eleven when he hits Alice. Krüger again ascribes the way he responses to narrow horizon due to his suburban origin (167).

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The origin of characters is not the only difference between them. Both male characters are introduced by Marber as men and Anna is described as a woman. The fact implicates their maturity in contrast to Alice who is labelled as a girl. It can be also assumed, that decisions of the three are based on facts and life experience. However, it turns out that only Alice can control her emotions and resist temptation. The irony that a girl in her early twenties may behave in a more mature way that three people over thirty may form the ground for Krügers’ doubts about authenticity of characters.

Another demonstration of the difference between self-presentation and behaviour of characters expresses male reactions to the revelation of adultery. Although Larry says that he is a caveman and Dan represents himself as ‘reserved’ intellectual, it is Dan who slaps Alice when they quarrel over her relationship with Larry. Larry is able to fight the temptation and Annas’ provocation when he learns about a year-long affair between her and Dan.

Krüger also discusses that it is not the reality that other fall in love but their idealised image and false assumptions that result from coincidence (157). She exemplifies

Alice’s decision to give all her love to a man who cuts off his crust. It was an accident not a habit that charmed her. In the same way Dan prefers Anna over Alice because she is an independent woman who does not need him (Marber 46). Nevertheless, it is only an impression. In the same scene Anna admits to Larry that she is leaving him to be with

Dan because she does need him (Marber 52).

All four characters are thus seduced by their imagination and in the same time they unconsciously mystify others. Although deliberate delusion shall not be excluded.

As Sierz reminds the play illustrates that “we can manipulate surface reality, that we can be who we want to be. (…) but the play also argues that, however fluid our identities, we’re still at the mercy of our emotions” (2000, 188).

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2. 3. Egoism and Truth-telling in Closer

Marber points out that he wanted to write “a play that was true to love as I and others felt it” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 191). Each meaningful relationship shall be based on trust. The fidelity and the truth are crucial factors of it. Furthermore, author enhances that Closer is about “people who tell the truth” and its consequences (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 193). But those four people despite “demanding absolute emotional truth, all they can do is lie, since the language of love has become a cliché” (Innes 431). There is again a visible gap between what characters expect from the others and what they actually do.

The most explicit lies in Closer maybe surprisingly are not verbal but the way the protagonists behave. It is their conscious decision to cheat on their partners. Dan and

Anna have an affair for more than a year and Larry slept with a prostitute when he was on a business trip. However, it does not mean that only those who are unfaithful are lying.

On the contrary, the whole Alice’s identity is based on fiction.

Alice Ayers, it is the name she told Dan in the Scene One. She ‘borrowed’ the name from a memorial plaque in Postman’s Park. The girl died when saving three children from a burning house. According to Fisher this heroic act of the past may be an allegory to attempt of saving three adults from their unfulfilled lives (8). On the other hand, name and her past are the only lies she expresses. Furthermore, she seems to be the most honest character in the play. She does not want to lie but she is not naïve, and she knows that sometimes telling the truth may be harmful. She told both men about Postman’s Park and in Scene Seven she even revealed her real name to Larry. But the truth in misleading context is at least confusing and many times taken as a lie. It is no wonder that Larry does not believe her and takes it only as a ‘stage name’ so she did not feel ashamed when stripping. Because hiding one’s identity is what people in such situations do (Marber 63).

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Hiding the truth has a logical explanation – it is a protection. However, in the play there are moments when characters do not want to be deceived. They want to hear an honest answer.

2. 3. 1. Consequences of knowledge

Demanding even the terrible truth is an essential question of the play. Sierz describes this phenomenon as “self-destructive passion for knowledge” which can be spotted in both male characters (2000, 193). Larry and Dan subsequently request details about infidelity of their partners. Dan states that he wants to know the truth as he says “because I’m addicted to it. Because without it we’re animals” (Marber 100). On the other hand, Larry wants to know details about Anna’s adultery “Because I am a fucking caveman” (Marber

55). It seems that despite those contradictory responses, the need for devastating truth is what both male characters have in common. However, there is a reasonable explanation for such a request. When the protagonists know the awful things their partners did, it is easier to work out the negative emotions they feel.

In the play there are also moments when the truth is unwelcome. Both examples given below involve admitting infidelity. Ironically, the most hurt by one-night stand are those who lied their partner for an entire year. The first occurrence of undesirable confession takes place in a split-up scene when Larry gets back from business trip

(Marber 50-1):

LARRY: I slept with someone in New York.

A whore

I’m sorry.

(…)

ANNA: Why did you tell me?

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LARRY: I couldn’t lie to you.

ANNA: Why not?

LARRY: Because I love you.

ANNA: It’s fine

It illustrates Larry’s obsession about honesty. He is aware of possible reaction and even prepared that Anna might leave him. However, the way she replies takes him by surprise and suggests that she has no clear conscience too.

The next case of unwelcome honest answer is when Anna admits Dan having

‘mercy sex’ with Larry (Marber 72):

DAN: Why didn’t you lie to me?

ANNA: We said we’d always tell each other the truth.

DAN: What’s so great about the truth? Try lying for a change – it’s the currency

of the world.

This dialogue differs from the previous one. Here Dan asks Anna weather she slept with Larry even though he is almost certain she did. However, he does not want her to confirm it. Sierz points out that it is “a male thing” (Sierz 2000, 193) to ask more than they wanted to hear.

Lying in Closer is shown as a kind of armour to protect souls of characters. On the other hand, too much of honesty – requested or not, always injures. Nonetheless, both, telling the truth and demanding answers, are in the play acts of egoism. Either protagonists want to have clear conscience, or they need to justify their feelings.

2. 3. 2. Circumstances and telling the truth

As it was discussed above the credibility of any utterance depends on circumstances.

When Alice was talking to Larry in the lap dancing club he did not believe she was honest.

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Even when talking face to face enables people to distinguish the truth from a lie easier, it is not always possible. Moreover, when the communication is not in person, the task is much trickier. Marber in his play predicted the great future of the Internet. Already in

1997, he saw the potential of the medium. He not only registered the dawn of chatting but also brought the phenomena on stage.

Although Marber stated that he was a technophobe (Patrick Marber on CLOSER), he was able to show pros and cons of internet chatrooms. Krüger accurately points out that in Closer “the anonymity of [the Internet] has interesting paradoxical consequences.

On the one hand it is a forum for deception (…) On the other its anonymity presents the opportunity for strangers to be unusually frank with each other” (158). Because the two people who meet in the cyberspace do not see each other they are free to write whatever they want. Their replies (either true or false) are not connected to their real identities, so they are not personally responsible for the consequences. The conclusion here is clear – the more anonymous the environment, the more opportunities to extreme behaviour.

Examples of both extremes are embodied in Dan and Larry in the internet scene.

Deception that Krüger has in mind takes the form of inventing false identity. Dan introduces himself as Anna, or at least some vision of her, to unsuspecting and inexperienced Larry. Dan’s image of Anna represents his sexual fantasies enriched by

Alice’s experience of what men desire. The second aspect Krüger mentioned relates to

Larry. He is very opened when describing his sexual fantasies and as Marber points out

“revealing the uncensored male libido” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 193). He also does not hide his real identity. His honesty in both aspects is possible only because of his inexperience with the Internet. However, his willingness to meet ‘Anna’ in person is fuelled by curiosity and craving.

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This anonymity of environment is applicable not only to the communication technologies. As it was mentioned above, Alice’s identity is not real. She took an advantage of the city where no one knows her and could easily hide herself under the cover of false name. This aspect seems to be even more relevant now than twenty years ago.

Physical environment plays thus a significant role when characters evaluate whether to say the truth or not. But there is one more factor that the protagonists have to assess. In what situation they can afford to be honest. Usually they do so when they feel strong enough to deal with consequences. However, the way their confessions are taken by counterparts are not always the same as expected. Even when one is able to logically justify their behaviour, someone else may feel it differently. This situation occurred in already mentioned scene when Anna told Dan about the ‘mercy sex’ with Larry. In self- defence she emphasises that she “didn’t give him anything” (Marber 72) but for Dan it is body that matters. Krüger states that Anna “separate[s] the bodily from the emotional”

(149). The first one has for her nothing to do with real feelings; it “can be commodified and given away in act of kindness” (Krüger 149). Perception influences the evaluation of situation. It is one of few details that refers to individual personalities and makes them more humane.

2. 4. Feeling of isolation

Although love is considered to be a beautiful feeling, Marber makes his audience to experience all the negative emotions of insecurity, jealousy and anger that are related to it. Alice, Anna, Dan and Larry simply want to satisfy their needs for intimacy. But instead of emotional involvement they create relationships based on desires. Sierz points out that desires are irrational and “Every time the characters swap partners, no reasons are given”

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(2000, 194). However, sexual motifs are not enough to be the only ground for steady relationship that characters try to achieve. Innes enhances saying that “In modern society, home life is an illusion undermined by guilt and betrayal” (433). Behaviour of the protagonists goes hand in hand with trends of individualism in contemporary culture – all characters end up without life partner. Innes also points out that “Closer depicts sterile and atomized society” (435). And because the characters are not able to create meaningful and strong relationships the play presents prospects of “childless society” (Innes 432).

And as Elyse Sommer in her review of Closer points out “the title sums up the inability of these people to be close even during their most physically intimate moments” (1999).

Communication technologies that shocked the audience with “up to date immediacy” (Innes 435) do not prove to be helpful with connecting people either. The famous Internet scene when Dan pretends to be Anna in sex-oriented chatroom shows the two men in separate places. Dan is at home sitting at a table with a computer while Larry is sitting at his hospital desk. Both men are alone with their devices, furthermore the scene is silent. It only accentuates their solitude. Marber describes the atmosphere in Dan’s words: “We liv as we dream,ALONE” (Marber 25).

Communication via the Internet is deprived of its non-verbal qualities like voice pitch or facial expressions. The elements that enable to unveil emotions. Settings to alternative Scene Three, when there is no possibility of chat projection states that words are uttered “word by word, almost robotically” (Marber 110). Which makes the dialogue for contemporary viewer even more impersonal than in typed version.

Innes states that “characters are depicted as almost hermetically sealed off from the world” (431). Even though there is about a dozen of off-stage characters, they do not influence the plot or decisions of the four protagonists. Their importance is however in showing that social bonds in metropolitan culture are weaken. Stephen Boykewich

22 enhances that “characters seem to exist in a vacuum, neither driven by nor conscious or social constrains, familial responsibility, political or financial concerns” (2000). On the other hand, Marber focused on the most intimate situations of couples’ lives. Although he sometimes localized them in public places many of the conversations supposed to happen behind closed door.

Closer is definitely not an optimistic play. The feeling of loneliness and isolation is almost detectable. It is manifested not only in the Internet scene but also by almost unrealistic detachment of the characters from the outside world. In various theatre productions the impression of isolation was reinforced by light design “which isolate the characters against neutral backgrounds” (Abarbanel). Different aspects of staging Closer will be further analysed in Chapter 5.

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3. Form of Closer

In case of Closer form and content serve the same purpose – to wake the audience up from their apathy. Marber admits that “It was always part of the conception of the play that I would write about big ugly emotions contained within some formally beautiful structure: which makes it crueller” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 191).

This chapter will provide an overview of artistic tools used in the play. The question that it will try to answer is how the play operates within in in-yer-face theatre and what influences were crucial to writing of Closer. The first sub-chapter will concentrate on debate over the genre of the play and most important sources of inspiration. The next section will be devoted to structure of the play and its’ elements like use of binary opposition and mirror scenes. Afterwards the language of the play will be discussed. And finally, the length and placing of emphasis in individual utterances will be taken into consideration.

3. 1. Defining Genre

Patrick Marber started his career doing comedy, especially for television when he worked on satirical shows The Day Today and Knowing Me, Knowing You. It made the ground for implementing tragical content into a comedy (Sierz 2000, 190-1). Innes even classifies

Marber’s Closer as a “comic voice of Thatcher’s Children” (Innes, 427). Closer won the

Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy in 1997 and Marber himself defined the play as a “romantic comedy that goes terribly wrong” (Patrick Marber on CLOSER) but the plot consistently with authors’ intention “work[s] within the comic form and still [can] be incredibly beautiful and moving” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 191). Because of a bleak theme of the play Saunders is not convinced about the genre however he admits that “it shares

24 certain features with the sub-genre Comedy of Manners, where aspects of modern life shape human behaviour and conduct” (29).

As it was said above, it always depends on the director of given adaptation to which side of tragi-comic scale the play is shifted. Indeed, there are comic elements in

Closer, but they do not represent situational humour. Instead they are visible in characters’ witty responses. Furthermore, Marber implements puns in initial phases of individual dialogues, before serious questions are raised. In case such a response occurs in the middle of an argument, the line sounds rather sarcastic. As it is in case of Annas’ conversation with Dan about faking orgasms in Scene Eight:

DAN: You fake it with me?

ANNA: Yes, yes, I do. I fake one in three, all right?

DAN: Tell me the truth.

Pause.

ANNA: Occasionally … I have faked it.

It’s not important, you don’t make me come. I come … you’re … ‘in the area’ …

providing valiant assistance.

DAN: You make me come.

ANNA: You’re a man, you’d come if the tooth fairy winked at you.

However, Sierz noticed that in uncomfortable situations like the one mentioned above those members of the audience who felt affected, in this case women, seemed to laugh more (2000, 189). This kind of reactions may represent hints of recognition in real life.

Sierz also discusses the influence of critics on the perception of wittiness of particular scenes. He states that the internet scene “got fewer laughs in the play’s previews; after the reviews hailed it as comic masterpiece, audiences reacted differently”

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(2000, 193). Even Marber was surprised how the scene was taken by the audience. In his opinion it got more laughs than he expected, and his aim was to make that scene more disturbing than comic (Saunders 39).

The definition of genre is thus not a clear-cut. The mix of its tragical content, comic dialogues and critique of contemporary commercialism makes it confusing.

However, it can be placed somewhere between tragi-comedy and alternation of Saunders’ analysis – a bleak comedy of (bad) manners.

3. 2. Influences

Marber admits that when writing Closer he was influenced by Pinter, Mamet and

Stoppard as well as Stephen Soderbergh’s movie Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989) (Sierz

2000, 190). The main common features with mentioned authors will be explained in the chapter below.

Harold Pinter’s Betreyal written in 1978, is according to Krüger comparable to

Closer in respect to subject, setting in middle-class London, rhythm of the dialogue and exposure of guilt. Although, Marber uses more explicit language than Pinter twenty years earlier (144-5). Sierz mentions appearance of parallel scenes (2000, 192) like confessions of adultery or meetings of ex-lovers. Moreover, Saunders points out that both plays are similar in terms of structure and perception of “shared, yet different memories of the past”

(32). Marber used incidental details of characters’ encounters to create illusions and dreams which they later fell in love with.

Closer also resonates the main theme of desire addressed in Sexual Perversity in

Chicago (1974) by David Mamet. The amount and initial description of characters are corresponding. Though Marber’s play is not limited to one summer because as he states the story “needed to unfold over time” (Motskin, 34). One of the most powerful lines of

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Mamet’s play seems to occur in an all-night argument scene when one of characters says:

“Everything's fine. Sex, talk, life, everything. Until you want to get ‘closer,’ to get

‘better’” (Mamet). However, Marber admits that the title was not borrowed from

Mamet’s play but from Joy Division second album published in 1980 (Sierz, 2000, 190).

The influence of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing (1982) is notable in the main topic of both plays –infidelity, honesty and apprehension of the difference between lies and the truth. Krüger points out the similarity of theme concerning “handling of jealousy and sexual betrayal” (144). In Closer it is one’s reaction to the event that is more important and can hurt more than the event itself.

The issue of technology with connection to sexual life was also raised in Steven

Soderbergh’s film Sex, lies and Videotape (Krüger 144). The plot of the movie again revolves around four main characters that are bound together by forces of desire and betrayal. In Soderbergh’s conception depersonalization of interviews led to faithful confessions of women regarding sexual issues. Marber went one step further and whereas contemporary technology in the movie recorded honest monologue, the dialogue in

Closer is a tool for both – the truth and deception.

Although the list of influences found by reviewers is considerably longer, the handful mentioned above depicts the most significant ones regarding motifs and in the case of Mamet’s play even use of explicit language.

3. 3. Structure of Closer

Closer is often denounced to be a” well-made” (Saunders 50) and “elegantly structured”

(Sierz 2000, 187) play. The elegance of the structure mentioned by Sierz is noticeable in symmetrical apportionment of twelve scenes to individual acts. Where the climax break- up scene is performed right before the interval. Saunders enhances that in the play formal

27 structure is in equilibrium with moments of intense emotion (49). The two most emotive moments of the play happen at the end of each act.

The audience is not shown the whole duration of relationships, only the initial and final phases. Marber states that these are “truly significant events” (qtd. in Saunders 54) the rest is mundane. Although everyday encounters either strengthen or weaken the relationship, they are of no importance to the main plot. Saunders argues that

“employment of a dramatic form based on compression and concentration (…) forces the audience to redirect their responses to the play back on themselves” (55). Too much details or psychological characterization of the protagonists would easily break the bond between what happens on the stage and in minds of audience members.

Even though the play is of normal length of two hours, the plot happens in course of four and half years. The time lapses between individual scenes are only informative to performers but are not mentioned during the play. However, Marber incorporates to

Closer some details that indicate longer gaps between individual scenes. There are three ways he accomplishes it. Time lapses are indexes by direct stating like in restaurant scene when Anna points out: “[Larry has] been begging me to see him for months” (Marber

69); indirect hints such as writing a novel by Dan or by incidental details like Alice’s hair colour in Scenes One and Two.

3. 3. 1. Mirroring and Binary Oppositions

To achieve balanced structure Marber implemented mirror scenes and repetition of small details. There is almost mathematical symmetry when it comes to both relationships. The audience watches birth of love and forming of initial couples; their major argument, break up and swapping partners; reconciliation of original relationships and their final

28 separation. Some critics1 even saw in this sequence of actions a choreographic pattern of square dance.

In respect to mirroring the most interesting is the Scene Six, where simultaneous break up happens. The stage is divided in two distinct locations in which the initial couples splits up. In both cases it starts with confession of more than a year-long affair between Dan and Anna and continues as subsequent argument and final parting.

Dialogues on each side of the stage take turn but basically, they happen at the same time.

Although the argument between Dan and Alice is considerably shorter and less vulgar, the similarity of action is maintained.

However, similarity of scenes does not involve only episodes of respective couples. Scenes Nine and Ten provide male and female confrontations. In the first one

Alice arranges meeting with Anna in order to persuade her to return to Larry and let go

Dan. Which Anna eventually does. In the subsequent scene it is Dan who tries to convince

Larry to break up with Anna. Instead Larry gives him an advice to go back to Alice and tells him where to find her. Both scenes comprise accusation of selfishness as well as providing some deeper thoughts. While in female conversation it is simplification of men’s desires: “They love the way we make them feel but not ‘us’. They love dreams”

(Marber 85); male dialogue is more about particular women – Anna as ‘depressive’

(Marber 86) and Alice as ‘disturbed’ (Marber 89). Both examples show generalization of the sexes in respect to beliefs and feelings with stress on the contrast between men and women.

The same effect as parallel actions has emphasising the differences. The one most accentuated is between the sexes. Sierz points out that “in almost every skirmish, men

1 Albasani (1997) and Spencer (1997) mentioned in Sierz (2000)

29 come off slightly worse than women” (2000, 192). The statement is based on observation of manipulative behaviour of men, although usually ascribed to women. Furthermore, the admission of male sexual fantasies preserves the status quo opinion that sex is the primal incentive of male behaviour. As Larry says: “If women could see one minute of our Home

Movies – the shit that slops through our minds every day – you’d string us up our balls, you really would” (Marber 67). Although, Marber asserts that the play does not depicts an explicit sex war, he does not think that men are as nice as women in general (Sierz

2000, 190).

Two cases of binary opposition represented in Closer were already discussed above in relation to Anna’s image-making and justification of ‘mercy sex’. Marber shows the difference in perception of life and art and body and soul, respectively. Whereas distinction between love and sex is generally made by men, here it is a woman. The author thus breaks another cliché concerning behaviour. Distinctions between the true nature of situation and how it is later perceived by characters resonates during the play. Difference between perception of reality and reality itself and between lies and the truth are vital.

3. 3. 2. Repetition of Symbols in Closer

As it was mentioned above, there are some small details that occur in the play more than once. They may represent connection with the past events, as well as “building up (…) social picture” (Innes 433). Some of those symbols used by Marber will be investigated below. And it is no coincidence that almost all are associated with Alice. As Sierz remarks, she is the “most symbolic character” (2000, 193).

In the opening scene Alice bites an apple taken from Dan’s bag. It is green which may be a suggestion of Alice’s immaturity in this phase of the story. In the split-up scene the motif of apple is echoed, though modified. This time it is half eaten and red resembling

30 maturity and consumption of the relationship. Innes provides different interpretation of the fruits’ appearance. He compares it to the primal sin in the Garden of Eden and elaborates that “Paradise is only a commercialized delusion (…) while New York (the

Big Apple) is ‘a twenty-four-hour pageant called “Whatever You Want” They celebrate the sell-out’” (2002, 433). Paradise in his understanding relates to the strip club and hypocrisy of marketable feelings.

While apple is something Alice takes, to maintain the balance there is also something she gives. Newton’s Cradle – a gift to both men. It was also used in some productions2 as a main motif on programme. The National Theatre programme also quoted Newton’s Third law: ‘To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction’

(Sierz 2000, 194). The item reminds that characters should be responsible for emotions and bear the consequences of their decisions. When Dan (with Newton’s Cradle on the table) pretends to be Anna on the Internet to come one step closer to her, she happens to meet her future husband and paradoxically becomes inaccessible.

Saunders remarks that Newton’s Cradle symbolizes the fact that “polar forces of attraction and repulsion play out constantly between the characters during the course of the play” (53). Thus, when Alice gives Larry one for his birthday and as a second part of the present she organises meeting with Anna it foreshadows future change of their relationship.

Another symbol connected with Alice is a scar in the shape of question mark on a young woman’s leg. Sierz analysed it in a following way: “The scar on her leg, which is explained in several different ways, suggests both the endless mutability of the stories we tell about ourselves and the emotional scars we always carry” (Sierz 2000, 193-4). He

2 For example Bench Theatre in Havant, UK or 7 Towers Theatre in Austin, Texas

31 interprets the occurrence of the scar in relation to past and present experience. However, there is another aspect of alternative explanations Alice provides. It may be the embarrassment for the causes of the injury, which makes her lie. One of the most believable clarification is involved in the play in the dialogue between Dan and Larry.

The dermatologist points out that “It’s a mental disorder manifested in the skin (…) It looks ‘real’ but its source is the deluded self” (Marber 89). Marber implies the shape of it may represent self-destructive craving for answers. Innes even suggests the generalization of girl’s scar to the whole generation when he states that “Alice is identified with her scar, as an existential question posed to this emotionally corrupt society, and represents hope (…) for a meaningful relationship” (432).

3. 4. Language and Utterances of Characters

Although Closer is considerably less violent in terms of physical acts and has almost classical structure, unlike many other plays of the decade, it is labelled as typical in-yer- face theatre. Partially it owes that categorization to timing of its’ staging. But unquestionably the classification of the play is due to explicit language used in it.

As Sierz points out “because humans are language animals, words often seem to cause more offence than the acts to which they refer (2000, 7). He continues that “the words tell us all we need to know about what a culture is embarrassed by” (2000, 8). In in-yer-face theatre language shock tactic is employed to draw attention of the audience and make the viewer think about the message of the play. However, according to Saunders the primal function of language used in Closer is not to shock but to connect and disconnect characters. He states that “throughout language all the relationships in Closer are initiated, brokered and finally disintegrate” (55).

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Rosenthal accentuates that “contrast between polished form and raw language” is particularly visible in the internet and split up scenes (580). Dirty words are especially used by Larry in emotionally intense moments. And according to Krüger these words cause a certain amount of discomfort which only proves their authenticity in given situations (152). Marber remarks on the vocabulary in Closer in the following way: “I never intended to shock with the language. It is simply the case that I felt the people in the play would speak as they do” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 190).

Closer is a play where swift dialogues are predominant. Most of utterances are no longer than five words. Sierz commented on the telegraphic style of in-yer-face theatre generally (Sierz 2002, 21) but Marber in the play brought it one step further as he admits that: “Some of my dialogue, reveals the paranoia of the stand-up – if you’re not quick and interesting, the audience will leave” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 195). Sierz concludes that this speed does not result in long lasting feeling of intimacy between the characters, although it frequently approaches it (Sierz 2000, 195).

Correspondingly, critic Kate Kallaway pointed out that “Marber ‘speeds dialogue up. The pace is incredible and his characters can say anything they like (including the almost unsayable) with velocity and precision” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 195). It is consistent with what states Sarah Kane from her own experience: “If each character can only say nine or ten words at a time, they become incredibly articulate and precise” (qtd. in Sierz

2000, 101). Although in some situations articulate responses seem almost unreal.

In the text of his play Marber initializes, underlines and cursives words and phrases with special meaning. They are to be emphasised, pronounced with hint of irony or as an honest statement. Saunders sees it as coaching of actors to play particular lines in emotionally affected way. He also enhances that “It highlights the pace and rhythms which govern its structure and are in turn in intrinsic to its meaning” (Saunders 57).

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In the chapter were discussed some characteristic features of the play. Closer is indeed a well-structured play, not only in terms of symmetry concerning distribution of individual scenes but also in their similarity in respect to breakpoints of individual couples. Each of the characters is given approximately the same amount of space and takes part in dialogues with different partners. Furthermore, by use of emphasis in the play Marber leaves smaller range for modification of aimed meaning by individual directors and actors. Although the theme is not entirely new, Marber provides some insights into modern society. The pace and rhythm of dialogues resemble omnipresent haste and estrangement.

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4. Closer in the New Millennium

When first staged in 1997 Closer shocked with language used and displaying up-to-date technology, it may seem that it had lost its power after almost twenty years. However, the revival in form of the Hollywood movie in 2004 and re-appearance of the play at Donmar

Warhouse in 2015 suggests otherwise. The audience may be no more shocked by elevated level of sexuality and the language violence. As one of the critics commented: “The words have become commonplace in today's lexicon”3. But there is certainly a relevant contemporality for the next generation.

In this chapter will be brief comments on main productions in Great Britain and in the United States provided, including impact of the movie. Nevertheless, comparison of distinct productions is not entirely possible, while each of them is read in distinct cultural environment. On the other hand, Marber himself was involved in all major productions which certainly enabled him to pass the intended message. In the second half of the chapter some aspects that make the play relevant to todays’ audience will be discussed. They also comprise important factors for making decision about staging Closer again.

Individual sub-chapters will describe how the play was seen by reviewers of given version. Not in all productions the same aspects of the play were stressed. For example, in Broadway and Hollywood versions the political dimension evaporated leaving only sexual context for consideration. Also, theatres were more successful in presenting loneliness and isolation of characters.

3 Richard Connema (1999) on San Fransisco production of the play

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4. 1. Firs Impressions in London and New York

Because Closer was not a first play written by Marber, it was often compared to Dealer’s

Choice. Based on this confrontation Michael Gill denounced Closer to be the poker game of love (1997) and according to Sierz it is male rivalry that both plays have in common

(2000, 191). Matt Wolf – a Variety reviewer, on the other hand does not see the similarity in relation to questions raised but in the interest in admirable form of both plays (1997).

After the opening in May 1997 Closer was a sensation that evoked strong, however mixed emotions. Lesley Garner – the Sunday Times journalist concluded “that

Closer offers lots of trauma but no catharsis” (qtd. in Sierz 2000, 189) providing audience with some topics to think about but not with answers. People thus did not leave the theatre unaffected. Liza Walker a debuting Cottesloe actress in role of Alice observed that

“couples either tended really huggy after the show or moved further from each other”

(qtd. in Sierz 2000, 190).

Indeed, the play provides insight into not pretty emotions such as jealousy and as

Matt Wolf points out it is disturbing “battle of the sexes” where the attitude of individual characters to major questions is more important than the plot. He also states that the play operates within a conception of moral rape (1997). In the play there is no explicit violence on stage – apart from one slap towards the end, however the truth does not serve uniting partnerships but lays grounds for parting. Beside that Closer illustrates how infidelity and lies are incorporated in contemporary society. Sabby Saggal in his article Sex, Lies and

Photography enhances that:

The play shows how society commodifies both sex and human beings in general.

This in turn creates pressures on all of us to behave dishonestly. Both men and

women practice dishonesty but, according to Marber, men are guiltier insofar as

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they induce women to be dishonest [to] elevate their self-esteem. For example,

Anna fakes orgasms in order to please both Dan and Larry. (1998)

The discussion about the play took place also on the other side of the Atlantic

Ocean when two years later Closer moved to New York's Music Box Theatre. There the play “was seen as a coarser beast because audiences were less used to provocative dialogue” (Sierz 2000, 190). John Simon – the New York Theatre reviewer, remarks in respect to the Broadway production as it is “sad, savvy and often funny play”. He also points out that in Closer “the unsaid talks as loudly as the said” (1999). To achieve this goal the acting has to be perfect, which is uneasy task with only four characters on stage.

In London’s production the choice of cast was praised by critics4 but it was only Ciaran

Hinds who starred on both continents as Larry.

Christopher Rawson – drama critic of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette stated that the play is a “dramatization of sexual insecurity” even though the play does not overtly mention homosexual relationships (2003). Although some reviewers5 suggested that there is a hidden homosexuality when Dan seduces Larry in virtual environment of the Internet.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean Closer also lost its political element. As

Rawson points out “Americans may miss the political dimension, such as how Larry's move from hospital to private practice betrays his class and ideals” (2003). The perception of class distinction is more British than American thing.

Although some components of the play were lost in transition to distinct cultural environment, the main critique of contemporary highly individualistic society was maintained. Correspondingly to London’s production the feeling of isolation on

Broadway was achieved by placing “characters in pools of light surrounded mostly by

4 For example Dalglish (1997) used the word superb 5 Patrick Sullivan (2001) on Actors Theatre

37 darkness” (Zoglin). And the play had similar impact as in Great Britain. Jonathan

Abarbanel observed that Closer is not pleasant despite it is technically a comedy and in the same time it “lacs catharsis of tragedy” (2000).

4. 2. Making a Film

Despite many offers, Patrick Marber wanted to sell the film rights to the right person. He chose Mike Nichols for the task, while he came from a theatre background and thus is

“experienced at taking a play and turning it into a film” (Hennigan). It was Marber himself who wrote the screenplay. He admits that he wanted to follow the structure of the play and the most challenging part was what to cut out. Evidently, he did well because he received a Golden Globe nomination for the script (IMDb).

Marber states that the most important factor of the success was “the chemistry between the four actors” and the cast is a crucial component of the film itself (Hennigan).

The movie was released in British cinemas in January 2005 (in the United States the premiere was 3 December 2004) starring Natalie Portman (Alice), Julia Roberts (Anna),

Clive Owen (Larry) and Jude Law (Dan). From the four actors only Clive Owen was involved in previous theatre production but as a different character – Dan.

The movie is also considered to be successful in financial terms – it earned almost

USD 34 billion and was nominated for two Academy Awards for supporting roles of

Portman and Owen. Even though it won none of the Oscars, the film won twenty-one other awards including Golden Globes and appreciation of many film critic societies

(IMDb).

This movie like the play “examines what happens when men and women base their motives on that first moment of attraction” (Hood). The concentration on this primal desire illustrates cinema poster’s tagline: “If you believe in love at first sight you never

38 stop looking” (see appendix figure 4). The focus is thus slightly shifted from binary opposition of lies and the truth to desires and their consequences.

Hand in hand with technical development some scenes, like the internet one, were much easier to display on silver screen than in the theatres. Also in further productions for example the one in 2015 the conversation in chatroom was not such technical problem as earlier. Furthermore the ‘prophecy’ of digitalized communication between potential sexual partners seems now much more up-to-date than in late 1990s.

As it was mentioned before, the feeling of isolation in the play was emphasized by use of stage lights. However, in the movie such way was not suitable. The effect was attempted by concentrating on individual actors together with maintaining only four characters structure. Nonetheless, the detachment from the outside world is not as strong as in the theatre.

4. 3. Donmar Warehouse production and timelessness of Closer

According to Sierz it became a matter of fashion to stage 1990s plays in the second decade of the new millennium (2015). Thus, in February 2015 The Donmar Warehouse launched

Marber’s Closer directed by David Leveaux. Holly Williams, The Independent journalist, however ascribes the timing to availability of Leveaux and Donmar space at the same time. She also states that Marber “didn’t want to revive the play until he had written a new one” (2015).

Although some critics found Closer to be a political summary of the decade

(Clapp), Williams argues that “the paly was not presented as a period piece” (2015) back in 1990s. And indeed, there are some aspects that reflect contemporary zeitgeist and make the play perfectly suitable for staging to the new generation. Theatre critic Stephen

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Collins enhances that “In some ways, Marber’s writing is more relevant now than it was when it was first written and produced” (2015).

The Internet scene that shocked in 1990s is a fine example of development of society. Although it had to be modified for Donmar production and Marber “had to cut out the line that Internet is the future” (Williams). Susannah Clapp from The Guardian remarks that the “scene is more familiar than it was” twenty years earlier (2015). She describes it as a “a graphic demonstration of an idea about human exchanges. The more frank the proclamation, the bigger the lie” (Clapp). Deception is still present in lives of

(not only metropolitan) people and maybe in a greater quantity, while depersonalization of communication helps to disguise indicators of lies.

Collins argues that the play examines “masks and motivations of modern life” applicable to “Generation Disposable” – commercialized society that do not care for consequences of their choices; people who are more like big children who fancy games, lies, betrayals and secrets. He also accentuates hint of understanding for characters’ decisions where Marber used binary oppositions. In the performance those oppositions and grey zones are accentuated by lighting – “a palette of colours revolving around black, white and grey” (2015).

Commercial society is however not the only thing the play points at. Michael

Billington sees it as a “portrait of the failure (…) to achieve spiritual as well as sexual intimacy” (2015). The sexual insecurity seen in 1990s was pushed to the emotional level when Billington proclaimed men “as barely capable of making a total emotional commitment” (2015). It this respect the play represents not only crisis of relationship as such but accentuates the crisis of masculinity.

Leveaux commented on the play that it “reminds that we are stranger than we imagine and less knowing about ourselves” (qtd. in Williams). The alienation of

40 characters resembles the higher level of selfishness in society. Tim Auld paraphrased

Nancy Carroll (Anna) who said that “what used to shock in 1997 now represents honesty value” (2015).

This chapter aimed to analyse individual performances. Although all versions deal with the same core text, there are differences in the reading of play or movie. Marber acknowledges that “Closer can be played in different ways (…) the play is what the actors and directors do with it” (qtd. in Williams). But the human element is not the only source of the differences. They are also based on geographical and period specifics. While in

1997 it was shocking due to bad language, sexual content and bringing the Internet on stage, in time of Hollywood production the Internet was a common part of everyday lives.

And what seemed to be a kind of absurd prophecy about online sex was in 2015 description of what actual happens.

41

Conclusion

Patrick Marber’s Closer represents a new wave of theatre for which in the work in hand was used Aleks Sierz’s term in-yer-face. It is basically and experiential theatre – the audience should leave the building with strong emotions at heart and many questions in mind. This kind of plays use the tactics of shock. Plays are usually full of violence, explicit language, nudity and sex. Closer is however a moderate version where the violence is reduced to verbal aggression and sexual scenes are ‘only’ described in dialogues. Nonetheless, the play offers plenty suggestions to think.

Marber’s previous works predestined Closer to be perceived as a comedy. Indeed, there are many comic lines in the play, however, it takes much darker turn. This bleak comedy of bad manners deals with fates of four characters on their desperate quest for love. Marber deliberately left out the positive moments of relationships, apart from initial meetings, and focused on situations when the affection evaporates. This transition points reveal the nature of characters who embody representative sample of the metropolitan society.

The aim of the thesis was to present and analyse the way Marber criticises modern metropolitan culture. The study dealt with plot references to behaviour of contemporary

Londoners such as image-making, manipulation and deception as well as with artistic tools that emphasised feeling of isolation and haste embodied in language used in the play. In the last chapter of the thesis were main productions of the play compared. Due to distinct cultural readings each of them accentuated different feature of the play, although the author was involved in all mentioned productions.

Marber builds up the picture of contemporary society as group of individuals that are fuelled by selfishness of desires. To emphasise their individuality, he presents the characters in isolation. In the famous internet scene this feeling is almost detachable. Two

42 men sitting alone, only with their computers, having online sex. The most intimate thing between two people done remotely. Furthermore, in the theatre there is a platform for accentuating their loneliness by lightning. Actors are illuminated during the performance and the rest of the stage stays dark.

The metropolitan ‘generation disposable’ of the 1990s is based on self- presentation and evaluation of oneself according to perception of others. It creates opportunity for deception, no matter if it is conscious or not. Fantasies and imagination are more powerful than the reality. Characters fall in love with their dreams or because of coincidence they take as a habit. Idealized partner is however bare illusion and for protagonists of the play it is impossible to stay faithful. None of them is capable of true commitment while they mix up feelings and immediate wants. Love is by one of characters labelled as a big claim. Indeed, it requires self-discipline and long-term visions; a bit more than just sexual desire and amusement.

The play accentuates the role of the truth in relationships. Characters are constantly lying to each other – if not verbally, they are having affairs. Later, in order to clear their conscience, they confess to infidelity. Although hearing such revelation is not easy, both male characters demand details of adultery. In this masochistic request is visible longing for justification of sudden hate.

Closer also examines the binary opposition of lies and the truth from another point of view. While verbal lies are used as protection – for example Alice’s identity, the truth is considered a weapon like in case of Larry’s suggestion to Anna to admit ‘mercy sex’.

Thus both, lies and demanding the truth can be considered acts of egoism.

Marber definitely wanted to pass certain message and intended play to be understood in a specific way. The text of the play includes hints for interpretation like italics, underlined words or phrases and cursives that determine emphasis or irony.

43

Closer was and still is a popular play. It was staged all over the world and in recent years it reappears in the theatres. For some critics it has more relevancy now than it had twenty years ago. It seems that Marber made some accurate prophecies according to development of communication technologies that led to physical separation of people.

44

Works Cited

Marber, Patrick. Closer. Methuen Drama, 2002. Print.

Aragay, Mireia. British Theatre of the 1990s: Interviews with Directors, Playwrights,

Critics and Academics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.

BARB. Television ownership in private domestic households 1956-2017. 2017

www.barb.co.uk/resources/tv-ownership/. Accessed 13 Oct 2017

“Closer”. International Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc.

Accessed 19 Nov 2017

Defraeye, Piet: “In-Yer-Face Theatre? Reflections on Provocation and Provoked

Audiences in Contemporary Theatre.” Contemporary Drama in English. Vol. 11,

2016.

content/uploads/2016/05/cde11.pdf> Accessed 2 Oct 2017

Fisher, Geoffrey Colin. Closer: Breathing Life into Paper. University of Tennessee

Honors Thesis Projects. 2002. Web.

Accessed 20 Sep 2017

Hennigan, Adrian. “Patrick Marber: Closer”. BBC. Jan 2005. Web.

> Accessed 27 Jun 2017

Howe Kritzer, Amelia. Political Theatre in Post-Thatcher Britain: New Writing 1995-

2005. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Print.

Innes, Christopher. Modern British Drama: The Twentieth Century. Cambridge

University Press, 2002. Print.

“in-yer-face”. OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, .

Accessed 27 Sep 2017.

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Krüger, Johanna Alida. The Actual versus the Fictional in Betrayal, The Real Thing and

Closer. University of South Africa. Pretoria. 2014. Web.

Accessed 20 Oct 2017

“Mark Ravenhill interview on "Shopping and Fucking" (1998)” YouTube, uploaded by

Manufacturing Intellect, 29 July 2016. Web.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQRaDzqBe9s Accessed 6 Oct 2017

McHale, Brian; Platt, Len. The Cambridge History of Postmodern Literature.

Cambridge University Press, 2016. Print.

Motskin, Yon. ‘Closer’. Creative Screenwriting, 2004. 11 (6), p. 34-5

“Patrick Marber on CLOSER plus Lea DeLaria & Julie Halston on THE MOST

FABULOUS STORY” YouTube, uploaded by theatertalk, 14 Sep 201,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4puFhktZZzY&t=880s Accessed 7 Nov 2017

Rosenthal, Daniel. The National Theatre Story. Oberon Books. 2013. Print.

Saunders, Graham. Patrick Marber’s Closer. London Continuum. 2008. Print.

Sierz, Aleks. In-Yer-Face Theatre: British drama today. Faber and Faber, 2000. Print.

---. Still In-Yer-Face? Towards a Critique and a Summation. New Theatre Quarterly.

vol. 18, no. 1, 2002

---. In-Yer-Face Theatre. 5 Oct 2010. Web. < http://www.inyerfacetheatre.com>

Accessed 20 Oct 2017.

Society of London Theatres. Society of London Theatre Reports Box Office Figures for

2016.

theatre-reports-box-office-figures-for-2016/>. Accessed 13 Oct 2017

The National Archives

ial-documents.co.uk/document/cm39/3901/tbl-3-7.htm > Accessed 5 Oct 2017

46

Reviews:

Abarbanel, Jonathan. “Closer and Pistols for Two”. Rev. of Closer. 21 Jul 2000.

TheaterMania.com.

2000/closer-and-pistols-for-two_914.html> 15 Nov 2017

Auld, Tim. “Closer and closer: Patrick Marber returns”. Rev. of Closer. 6 Feb 2015. The

Guardian.

donmar-warehouse> 15 Nov 2017

Billington, Michael. “Closer review – Patrick Marber's play is as powerful and pertinent

as ever”. Rev. of Closer. 24 Feb 2015. The Guardian.

london> 12 Aug 2017

Boykewich, Stephen. "Closer." Rev. of Closer. 27 Aug. 2000: ArtScope. Web.

1 Nov 2017.

Clapp, Susannah. “Closer review – Marber’s 90s passion play still stirs”. Rev. of

Closer. 1 Mar 2015. The Guardian.

observer-review> 12 Aug 2017

Collins, Stephen. „REVIEW: Closer, Donmar Warehouse”. Rev. of Closer. 13 Mar

2015. BritishTheatre.com.

warehouse-4stars/> 12 Aug 2017

Connema, Richard. “A Harsh Berkeley Repertory’s Theatre Production of Patrick

Marber’s Closer”. Rev. of Closer. July 1999. Talkin’ Broadway.

15 Nov 2017

Dalglish, Darren. “Closer Review 1997”. Rev. of Closer. 31 May 1997. London

Theatre. 15 Nov 2017

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Gill, Michael. “Ways of Seeing”. Rev. of Closer. July 1997: Socialist Standard. Web.

1997/theatre-review-closer> 16 Nov 2017

Hood, Jasmine A. “True love at second”. Rev. of Closer. 10 Dec 2004. The Tempe

News. 15 Nov 2017

Kraft, Jerry. “Closer”. Rev. of Closer. Aisle Say Seattle

CLOSER.html> 15 Nov 2017

Rawson, Christopher. “Dark 'Closer' cuts deep”. Rev. of Closer. 12 Nov 2003.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

gazette.com/ae/20031112closer1112p3.asp> 15 Nov 2017

Saggal, Sabby. “Sex, lies and photography”. Rev. of Closer. May 1998. Socialist

Review 15 Nov

2017

Sierz, Aleks. “Closer, Donmar Warehouse”. Rev. of Closer. 23 Feb 2015. The Arts

Desk. 12 Aug 2017

Simon, John. “Love Bites”. Rev. of Closer. 5 Apr 1999. New York Theatre.

15 Nov 2017

Sommer, Elyse. “Closer”. Rev. of Closer. 1 Apr 1999. CurtainUp.

15 Nov 2017

Sullivan, Patrick. “Secrets & Lies”. Rev. of Closer. 6 Dec. 2001. Metroactive.

15 Nov

2017

Williams, Holly. “Come Closer: playwright Patrick Marber on the revival of his shock

Nineties play”. Rev. of Closer. 14 Feb 2015. The Independent.

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playwright-patrick-marber-on-the-revival-of-his-shock-nineties-play-

10044457.html> 31 Jul 2017

Wolf, Matt. “Closer”. Rev. of Closer. 29 Jun 1997. Variety.

15 Nov 2017

Zoglin, Richard, “Sex in the Trauma Ward” Rev. of Closer. 28 Mar 1999. Time.

15 Nov 2017

49

Summary

The aim of the bachelor diploma thesis is to analyse Patrick Marber’s Closer as a political play that depicts a metropolitan population on the verge of the new millennium and to show how the author evokes the authentic feeling of isolation. The main question addressed in the thesis is the difference in perception of lies and the truth and their consequences.

Closer belongs to the new British drama of 1990s also called in-yer-face theatre.

The first chapter provides the definition of the term and outlines the main themes playwright of the decade dealt with. The second chapter of the thesis is devoted to taking picture of contemporary society based on sample of four Marber’s characters. The main significance is ascribed to identities of characters and meaning of their professions as well as perception of honesty that can cause collateral damage. Lastly the chapter deals with feeling of isolation further enhanced by communication technology. The next chapter focuses on formal aspects of Closer. It analyses the structure of the play with concentration on binary oppositions and symbolism. The chapter also emphasises language and specifics of dialogues in the play. The last chapter provides a brisk overview of main productions of the play and differences in handling of main motifs. It also indicates the relevance of the content in the twenty-first century.

The conclusion of the thesis is that Marber’s vision of contemporary society is not optimistic. In the play he criticises estrangement of people that are not able to build and maintain meaningful relationship. The main aspects that contribute to the view are anonymity of environment that makes ground for easier deception and construction of one’s identity to be perceived in certain way.

50

Resumé

Cílem této bakalářské diplomové práce je analýza divadelní hry Na dotek (Closer) od

Patricka Marbera z politického úhlu pohledu, jakožto sociální kritiky chování obyvatel metropolí na sklonku tisíciletí. Práce má rovněž za cíl poukázat, jakým způsobem autor vyvolává pocit izolace ve společnosti. Hlavní otázkou, na kterou se tato práce snaží odpovědět je vnímání pravdy a lži a dopady jejich vyslovení.

Hra Na dotek je zástupcem nové vlny dramatické tvorby ve Velké Británii, také nazývané divadlem „in-yer-face“. První kapitola poskytuje definici tohoto pojmu a také nástin hlavních témat britských dramatiků devadesátých let. Druhá kapitola se pak věnuje vyobrazení současné společnosti na základě vzorku čtyř postav z Marberova díla. Důraz je kladen především na identitu postav a skrytý význam jejich profesí. Kapitola se zaměřuje také na vnímání upřímnosti a dopadů jejího zneužití. Rozpracovává také pocity odloučení, které jsou dále zvýrazněné využitím komunikačních technologií. Třetí kapitola se pak soustřeďuje na formální stránku hry. Analyzuje její strukturu se zaměřením na protiklady a symboliku. Je zde také zkoumán vliv použitého jazyka a specifické rysy

Marberových dialogů. Poslední kapitola poskytuje přehled nejvýznamnějších zpracování hry Na dotek a zabývá se rozdílným uchopením jednotlivých myšlenek. Nakonec je zde analyzován obsah v kontextu jednadvacátého století.

Závěrem této práce je zjištění, že Marberovo vnímání současné společnosti není příliš optimistické. Ve hře kritizuje především narůstající pocit odcizení a neschopnost lidí vybudovat a udržet fungující vztahy. Hlavní aspekty, které přispívají k těmto negativním jevům jsou anonymita prostředí, která usnadňuje klam, a umělé vytváření identity jednotlivců s cílem lepší sebeprezentace.

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Appendix

Figure 1. London theatre attendances 1986-2016

London theatre attendances 1986–2016 16,00 15,00 14,00 13,00 12,00 11,00 10,00

Attendances (millions) Attendances 9,00

8,00

1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Year

Source: SOLT, own analysis

Figure 2: National Theatre Programme from 1997

Source: ebay

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Figure 3: National Theatre production of Closer

Source: National Theatre Archive

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Figure 4: Closer Cinema poster

Source: imdb.com

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