THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL The Theatre of Affect being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Deborah Kathleen Middleton, BA Hons. (Hudds, Poly. 1987) March 1993 ii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CHAPTER ONE Introduction 1 Notes to Chapter One 20 CHAPTER TWO Antonin Artaud 1896-1948 23 Notes to Chapter Two 83 CHAPTER THREE Grotowski 91 Notes to Chapter Three 172 CHAPTER FOUR The Living Theatre, The Open Theatre, The Performance Group 182 Notes to Chapter Four 287 CHAPTER FIVE Peter Brook arid the Season of Cruelty 298 Notes to Chapter Five 336 CHAPTER SIX Eugenio Barba 340 Notes to Chapter Six 361 CHAPTER SEVEN Conclusion: The Death of Affect 364 Notes to Chapter Seven 379 APPENDIX Chronological Table of Events 381 BIBLIOGRAPHY 385 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Education f or Northern Ireland who funded this research through the award of a three-year Major State Studentship. There are also several individuals to whom I would like to record my thanks. I am very grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Keith Peacock, for his advice and encouragement, and for the ways in which he has guided the formulation of my ideas. I am also grateful to Chris Meredith, David Mann, and Jason Worcester for the invaluable part they played in shaping my ideas on the theatre during my undergraduate years at Hudddersfield Polytechnic, and for encouraging me to pursue these studies. For conferences, contacts, and the use of their archives, I would like to thank the Centre for Performance Research In Cardiff. I would especially like to thank my family for their unwavering support, and for the love arid encouragement which has allowed me to undertake this project: my love and thanks go to my Mum, Kathleen Hutton; my brother, Martin Hutton; and my husband, Philip Middleton. 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION There is an extensive body of work in the fields of philosophy, psychology, and sociology which identifies a specific world view based on the following criticism of modern society: that people live inonocerebral existences divided from their physical, emotional, and intuitive abilities. In this state, the capacity for affect - emotional response - is believed to be atrophied, and experience nullified. Such a condition - which may be loosely termed 'mind/body split' - results in a diminished ability to relate to other people, a sense of alienation from the world, and a pathological loss of human capacities. Many psychologists believe that this state prefigures neuroses, destructiveness, and schizophrenia. 1 This thesis is concerned with the concept of 'mind/body split' and its relation to affective communication in the theatre. The subjects of my enquiry are theatre practitioners or companies whose work has directly addressed these issues: Aritonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski, The Living Theatre, The Performance Group, The Open Theatre, Peter Brook, and Eugeriio Barba. My aim has been to re-examine the work of these seven in order to produce evidence of their concern for affect, heightened experience, arid the healing of mind-body schism, I propose that an understanding of these concerns provides a major critical key to the appraisal of the practitioners in question. It is necessary, before detailing my evidence, to provide the reader with certain keys to the material under scrutiny. In 2 particular, I shall provide contexts, both societal and theatrical, within which the material should be viewed. I shall also outline the scope of my enquiry, and the criteria involved in identifying parameters. The seven theatre practitioners studied in this thesis are not known collectively by any one term. For this reason, I make use of my own terminology, and refer collectively to the group as 'The Theatre of Affect', or 'affective theatre'. I accept that this moniker currently has meaning only within the context of my own debate, but I hope that the evidence provided here will satisfy readers that the classification is a useful one. Critical commentators have analysed the work of all of these practitioners to some degree in the past, and for various, connected, reasons they have often been considered as a group. Christopher Innes uses the category 'Holy Theatre' to include Artaud, Grotowski, Brook, and the Living Theatre; 2 Margaret Croyden points out the resemblance of the American groups to nineteenth century romanticism; 3 Christopher Bigsby uses the term 'performance theatre' to comment upon the increased significance of performance elements, as opposed to textual elements, In the work of the three American companies, and names Artaud, Brook, and Grotowski as important non-American influences.4 There are further links within categories such as 'encounter theatre' and 'environmental theatre'. 8 Above and beyond these headings, I would suggest that the group are united by their consistent referral to societal schism, and by the momentum towards providing a forum for 3 renewed and affective experience. In this respect, this thesis provides an all-embracing point of reference which accomodates other critical categorisations whilst going beyond them. Several critics directly refer to 'mlndfbody split' in their discussions of one or more of the practitioners, and a comprehensive reading of critical material within the field demonstrates a general awareness that this is an intimately involved issue. In Beyond Broadway, Christopher Bigsby writes, The central assumption behind performance theatre was that the division between art and life was as unreal as were those other dualisms under attack (mind and body, performer arid observer).7 This thesis takes the position that the concern of the practitioners discussed here was primarily with the division between mind and body. Thereby, it supplements existing authorities by providing an indepth account of an issue which is undoubtedly of interest, and which :Ls, demonstrably, the central key to appraisal. My material has been drawn entirely from a study of primary and secondary written documents: texts written by, and about, the practitioners. These have included details of actor-training arid research methodology; critical analyses of performance and training styles; commentary on aspects of ideology and aesthetic principles; and descriptions of productions. The work which I discuss is not contemporary, and I have had no opportunity to view performances first- hand. Therefore, all references to, arid descriptions of, performances have been derived from these written sources. The study of performance techniques from a historical perspective is problematic. Documents 4 written by the practitioners, or accounts of their work by other writers, cannot stand for the experience of spectatorship in analysing performance conventions. We cannot hope to evaluate performance on the basis of what was written or said about it (usually after the event). We can, however, hope to identify recurrent themes and attitudes from descriptions and critical accounts, and to consider points of theory as they have been expressed in written documents, It is notable that all of the theatre-makers in question have chosen to write about their work, whether in poetic, philosophical, or technical terms. Indeed, their writings include important theoretical texts, such as Artaud's The Theatre And Its Doubles Grotowski's Towards A Poor Theatre: and Brook's The Empt y Space. Alongside this primary material, there exists a substantial body of critical commentaries, including some major authorities, such as Kumiega, and Osinski on Grotoweki, or Christopher Bigsby on the American companies. My intention has been to isolate, from these sources, those aspects of performance theory and practice which were directly concerned with mind-body schism and affective communication. Where areas of inconsistency are apparent, I raise questions and where critical support and vindication have been given or withheld, I make inferences. I do not, however, presume to pass judgement on the efficacy or appropriateness of chosen methods. Nonetheless, the reputation of the practitioners in question, and their endorsement by numerous critics and scholars does, I believe, lend credence to the techniques and ideologies which they espoused. The combined force of their respective beliefs about theatre and society may be seen to represent a case for 5 defining theatre as a forum for affective experience. In this way, I believe that this study has an important part to play in wider discussions of the role of contemporary theatre. With regard to the chosen period for study, I have concentrated on work occuring between two quite definite dates - 1959 and 1980, Although strands of momentum, and lines of thought arid experiment, may be seen leading up to 1959, I would suggest that the body of work with which this thesis is concerned may be dated quite accurately from that year. 1959 was the year in which Grotowski's theatre was founded in Poland; and whilst the Living Theatre h8d already been operating for some years, the main period of their influence and popularity began with their production of The Connection in 1959. Artaud lived between 1896 and 1948, however his influence was felt most strongly in the 1960s due to the publication of The Theatre And Its Double in America in 1958,8 His theories were enthusiastically received by the artistic avant garde, and were readily absorbed by the experimental theatre. In this way he was at least partly responsible for the momentum in those years toward violent, physical theatre. Almost all of the practitioners in this study have recorded their debt to Artaud in one way or another. The Living Theatre arid Brook were amongst the earliest to experiment with his ideas, and both Chaikin and Schechner belonged to the generation which embraced the 'Theatre of Cruelty'. Grotoweki has asserted that his ideas on theatre were fully formed when he first encountered Artaud's work; nevertheless, f or many critics and observers the work of the Laboratory has served to 6 actualise Artaud's vision.