It is perhaps ironic that the most direct questions about dramaturgy reveal a confusion about what the word means. When Tim Crouch is asked about the 'relevance' of dramaturgy in his work, he replies
It sounds like dramaturgy is integral to my work, although the word itself rarely appears in my process.
Ciaran Myers adds
I don’t like the word “dramaturgy” because I prefer to think of myself as more of an artist than an organizer.
While Angry Puffin are more elliptical.
Ask yourself why anyone writes a play. Ask yourself why people go to see plays, why Art is important, why the loss of Art is a disaster. Ask yourself why the heart beats.
And before going on to give a very thoughtful and detailed answer, Laura Ingram claims
In all honesty, I haven't ever given the concept of dramaturgy much thought.
Within this sample, then, dramaturgy is not a word that has particular currency. Although Ingram and Crouch go on to recognise how the definition given by Vile ('decisions that define and shape performance') does apply to their processes, the idea of dramaturgy as a category of thought is secondary to their actual making process.
Nevertheless, the artists often grapple with the question and identify strands within their process that appear to come under this broad definition. Somewhat reluctantly, Myers admits that
I can’t deny that dramaturgy is the alpha and omega of everything I do. This play in particular leans on the relationship between actor and performer.
connecting the choices made in the making with the eventual reception of Touch. Joan Cleville, meanwhile, is far more comfortable with dramaturgy and, like Crouch, sees it as a structuring approach to his choreography.
It helps me to define the parameters of each piece: what is possible or impossible inside the reality of each work. There is also a sense of dramatic journey in everything I create, and dramaturgy offers me inside clues about the overall structure of the work.
Cleville appears to be using 'dramaturgy' to mean a 'mode of thinking about the production': the emphasis on structure suggests an overview of Plan B. This is echoed in Mike Chao's answer, which describes his magic show's narrative.
For my show, its not about the technique of my hands , the "green objects" in my act, is just like a kind of magic power, they give me energy to do something incredible just like magic.
So, in the end of the routine, the greens change to white, just like I lost my power, and the show is done.
Tim Crouch elaborates on his appreciation of dramaturgy by noting that when he makes a piece, he considers it in a performance context from the start: the stage is part of his thinking even as he puts words on the page. Like Gary McNair, Crouch frequently performs his own scripts (An Oak Tree, which he bought back to the Fringe in 2015 features him alongside a different actor every evening), and the easy dividing line between playwright and performer is challenged. Within their dramaturgical process, then, the actual physical performance is considered alongside the text.
It is possibly these responses, which betray a suspicion of dramaturgy as a concept but provide a precise awareness of its use, that encouraged Vile's later subdivision of questions with more emphasis on the audience response in relation to the performers' intentions.
Yet within this limited sample, two ideas come across very clearly: dramaturgy is concerned with the structure of a performance, and that it concerns the response of an audience to a show. Only Cleville considers it as an engagement with characterisation and subtexts - both of which are concerned with the internal world of the performance, even though they are key to the communication with the audience.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
The Dramaturgy Database: Analysis Part 1, The Choices
Rather than attempt to grapple with wider themes, this essay takes ten entries to the database. They have been selected from various points in the process.
An Interview with Purple Penguin
One of the earliest entries, it is an interview with Kat Woods, writer and director of Belfast Boy. There are a selection of questions that relate directly to the production, which the company were bringing to Edinburgh Fringe 2015, and some that discuss dramaturgy within Wood's approach.
An Interview with Mike Chao
Chao is a magician, and this is an example of Vile's habit of engaging artists who would not usually consider dramaturgy: Chao's reply to the final question ('maybe?) hints at the confusion caused by Vile's line of questioning.
An Interview with Angry Puffin
A more recent piece, it lacks any individual name as an attribution for the answers, suggesting that the two actors mentioned in the introduction are working together on the replies. The company are based in Glasgow.
An Interview with Tim Crouch
Another piece from the Fringe, 2015: parts of this interview were later used in a preview article for The List.
An Interview with Ciaran Myers
Myers was the playwright for Touch, a production at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015. Again, this features questions about the production and more general discussion of the role of dramaturgy.
An Interview with Laura Ingram
Another playwright from the 2015 Fringe. This particular piece is one of the most read articles on The Vile Blog, and the first of the Dramaturgy Database articles to reach 300 views within a month.
An Interview with James Beagon
A recent post with the director of an updating of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This company are based in Edinburgh.
An Interview with Joan Cleville
A relatively rare example of a choreographer within the database, the choreographer of Plan B spoke about his piece ahead of the 2015 Fringe.
An Interview with Gary McNair
From the pantomime season, Vile talks to writer and performer McNair about his script for the 'adult pantomime' at Glasgow's Oran Mor.
Although these choices do not represent the database in any sense - none of the interviews could be seen as typical, they do give a vague sense of the range of artists who have given their time to answer questions. All of these interviews were conducted via email.
An Interview with Purple Penguin
One of the earliest entries, it is an interview with Kat Woods, writer and director of Belfast Boy. There are a selection of questions that relate directly to the production, which the company were bringing to Edinburgh Fringe 2015, and some that discuss dramaturgy within Wood's approach.
An Interview with Mike Chao
Chao is a magician, and this is an example of Vile's habit of engaging artists who would not usually consider dramaturgy: Chao's reply to the final question ('maybe?) hints at the confusion caused by Vile's line of questioning.
An Interview with Angry Puffin
A more recent piece, it lacks any individual name as an attribution for the answers, suggesting that the two actors mentioned in the introduction are working together on the replies. The company are based in Glasgow.
An Interview with Tim Crouch
Another piece from the Fringe, 2015: parts of this interview were later used in a preview article for The List.
An Interview with Ciaran Myers
Myers was the playwright for Touch, a production at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015. Again, this features questions about the production and more general discussion of the role of dramaturgy.
An Interview with Laura Ingram
Another playwright from the 2015 Fringe. This particular piece is one of the most read articles on The Vile Blog, and the first of the Dramaturgy Database articles to reach 300 views within a month.
An Interview with James Beagon
A recent post with the director of an updating of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This company are based in Edinburgh.
An Interview with Joan Cleville
A relatively rare example of a choreographer within the database, the choreographer of Plan B spoke about his piece ahead of the 2015 Fringe.
An Interview with Gary McNair
From the pantomime season, Vile talks to writer and performer McNair about his script for the 'adult pantomime' at Glasgow's Oran Mor.
Although these choices do not represent the database in any sense - none of the interviews could be seen as typical, they do give a vague sense of the range of artists who have given their time to answer questions. All of these interviews were conducted via email.
The Dramaturgy Database: Introduction to some Analysis
Published from June 2015 to date, the dramaturgy database is a strand within The Vile Blog, an archive of work from The List's Theatre Editor and Glasgow University PhD student, Gareth K Vile. Consisting of over six hundred entries, and ranging across a variety of performance forms, it offers the complete text of email interviews conducted by Vile with performers, directors, choreographers and, more occasionally, other members of the performance communities, such as PR agents.
A quick survey of the database reveals that many of the contributors were presenting work during the Edinburgh Fringe, 2015, although entries after October 2015 tend to feature artists who are presenting work within Scotland or London. The majority of entries come from the directors of theatre.
The database retains a focus on the discussion of 'dramaturgy'. Vile's own defintion of dramaturgy remains loose: at various times, he refers to it as 'the process of making performance', while recognising that this open-ended definition allows plenty of interpretation. Indeed, in a recent post on the blog (but not part of the database), he identifies, without much argument, a sense of dramaturgy in the self-portraits of Claude Cahun.
Each post within the database shares a structure: a press release (or other artist generated text) introduces the work and maker in question. There is a title that always includes the word dramaturgy, and makes a half-hearted attempt to work this into a commentary on the piece's title. The main body of the article is a series of questions - generic and general - which do evolve as the database grows.
Vile's own reasons for starting and continuing the database are not always clear. In the supporting documentation, he explains that it is 'part of his research' and that it hopes to show 'a working definition of dramaturgy'. But in the same post, he acknowledges that, by mixing it with his other, more eclectic posts and articles, he has made it difficult to access.
However, it is quite clearly not, at this stage, an expression of Vile's academic writing, belonging more closely to the populist preview mode of writing and, as he claims, more useful as a piece of media to insert into social media as an advertisement for upcoming performances or, he hopefully adds, as a resource for other researchers. In terms of scale, it is an impressive project, that lacks direction.
This huge number of entries make the database difficult to assess, although future studies, taking a statistical approach to the content, may yield an assessment of themes within the responses.
This essay aims to use ten of the entries - chosen without any particular intentions - to explore some of the themes around the discussion of dramaturgy between Vile and a selection of artists. By close reading of the answers, a tentative evaluation of dramaturgy's place within the artists' performances might be traced.
A quick survey of the database reveals that many of the contributors were presenting work during the Edinburgh Fringe, 2015, although entries after October 2015 tend to feature artists who are presenting work within Scotland or London. The majority of entries come from the directors of theatre.
The database retains a focus on the discussion of 'dramaturgy'. Vile's own defintion of dramaturgy remains loose: at various times, he refers to it as 'the process of making performance', while recognising that this open-ended definition allows plenty of interpretation. Indeed, in a recent post on the blog (but not part of the database), he identifies, without much argument, a sense of dramaturgy in the self-portraits of Claude Cahun.
Each post within the database shares a structure: a press release (or other artist generated text) introduces the work and maker in question. There is a title that always includes the word dramaturgy, and makes a half-hearted attempt to work this into a commentary on the piece's title. The main body of the article is a series of questions - generic and general - which do evolve as the database grows.
Vile's own reasons for starting and continuing the database are not always clear. In the supporting documentation, he explains that it is 'part of his research' and that it hopes to show 'a working definition of dramaturgy'. But in the same post, he acknowledges that, by mixing it with his other, more eclectic posts and articles, he has made it difficult to access.
However, it is quite clearly not, at this stage, an expression of Vile's academic writing, belonging more closely to the populist preview mode of writing and, as he claims, more useful as a piece of media to insert into social media as an advertisement for upcoming performances or, he hopefully adds, as a resource for other researchers. In terms of scale, it is an impressive project, that lacks direction.
This huge number of entries make the database difficult to assess, although future studies, taking a statistical approach to the content, may yield an assessment of themes within the responses.
This essay aims to use ten of the entries - chosen without any particular intentions - to explore some of the themes around the discussion of dramaturgy between Vile and a selection of artists. By close reading of the answers, a tentative evaluation of dramaturgy's place within the artists' performances might be traced.
A Top Ten
Finn Den Hertog asked about 'the best plays of the last thirty years'. I am going for a top ten - with comments. Not in order, except as they dribble out of my noggin.
Blackbird
David Harrower's forensic analysis of the aftermath of child abuse doesn't just play with the audience's values: it provides two profound character analyses. It nails the emotional trauma of abuse, tracing how it goes on to define and destroy lives.
Iphigenia in Splott
Politically, I have issues. But the script is so exacting, so passionate, it hides the problems while allowing the solo performer to find new depths of expression.
Bloody Mess
Oh, do Forced Entertainment make plays? This one explains why they are regulars on academic studies, a full-blown reflection of life in its alienated complexity. Totally tripped me out.
Aalst
I saw the English translation, but it is another bold take on child abuse. Minimal, economical and disturbing, it refuses piety about social exclusion and strips back staging to an irreducible core of horror.
Prudencia Hart
It's fun and smart. It has music, it has Kylie songs, it has a sly sense of irony and a love of traditional ballads.
The Author
Oh hell, another one about child abuse. It's clever and does that complicity thing with the audience... Tim Crouch acts like he's your mate, then gets heavy...
Wonderland
Took a while for me to get it, but since I had to write three reviews to sort out my feelings... it's hardcore, and not just the subject matter.
Interlude: I have just noticed how many of these are about the abuse of women or children. A topic for another time...
Paul Bright's Confessions...
No list of Scottish theatre is complete without this... and they published my response in their script. Playful and serious, it's a play beyond a play within a play...
Long Live The Little Knife
I love me some David Leddy. It's the blend of really intelligent ideas and vaudeville humour. It's a heist, it's a shaggy dog tale, it messes with live performance. It has some abuse in it. Oh hell.
The Encounter
Solo show and a prime example of post-visual theatre.
As a bonus, my nomination for worst script that still gets respect (for context)
The Crucible
Can you guess which white male is the hero? Tedious and too full of its own virtue to have any dramatic tension.
Blackbird
David Harrower's forensic analysis of the aftermath of child abuse doesn't just play with the audience's values: it provides two profound character analyses. It nails the emotional trauma of abuse, tracing how it goes on to define and destroy lives.
Iphigenia in Splott
Politically, I have issues. But the script is so exacting, so passionate, it hides the problems while allowing the solo performer to find new depths of expression.
Bloody Mess
Oh, do Forced Entertainment make plays? This one explains why they are regulars on academic studies, a full-blown reflection of life in its alienated complexity. Totally tripped me out.
Aalst
I saw the English translation, but it is another bold take on child abuse. Minimal, economical and disturbing, it refuses piety about social exclusion and strips back staging to an irreducible core of horror.
Prudencia Hart
It's fun and smart. It has music, it has Kylie songs, it has a sly sense of irony and a love of traditional ballads.
The Author
Oh hell, another one about child abuse. It's clever and does that complicity thing with the audience... Tim Crouch acts like he's your mate, then gets heavy...
Wonderland
Took a while for me to get it, but since I had to write three reviews to sort out my feelings... it's hardcore, and not just the subject matter.
Interlude: I have just noticed how many of these are about the abuse of women or children. A topic for another time...
Paul Bright's Confessions...
No list of Scottish theatre is complete without this... and they published my response in their script. Playful and serious, it's a play beyond a play within a play...
Long Live The Little Knife
I love me some David Leddy. It's the blend of really intelligent ideas and vaudeville humour. It's a heist, it's a shaggy dog tale, it messes with live performance. It has some abuse in it. Oh hell.
The Encounter
Solo show and a prime example of post-visual theatre.
As a bonus, my nomination for worst script that still gets respect (for context)
The Crucible
Can you guess which white male is the hero? Tedious and too full of its own virtue to have any dramatic tension.
I saw a play and you'll never guess what happened next...
I'll tell you what the real crime is...
Many people suspect the truth: I became a critic because there is a gnawing void in my soul - what Sartre called 'the god-shaped hole'. I am alienated beyond measure, so full of my first world problems and as religion is rejected as a viable model for the discussion of ideas, I turned to performance. I hope for a peak experience, like that time when I saw Les Ballets C de la B, during which my existential anxiety is displaced by ecstasy.
By ecstasy, I mean that moment when my aesthetic, emotional and intellectual capacities are filled to overflowing, and my soul dances like one of Blake's libidinal angels.
This brings me to the matter of Iphigenia in Splott.
It's a dynamic example of theatre's potential to engage the emotions. Despite being set in a bit of Wales I have never visited - for Glasgow fans, it's a bit like Govan, I reckon - it draws me into a story about a young women stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. And despite never having been knocked up by a faithless soldier, I felt earnest empathy with this woman, and left outraged by this bloody society that gives me all this privilege.
The script is amazing: combining an attention to local detail and a passionate plea for compassion, it roves across urban dystopia, state oppression and emotional alienation. And the central - solo - performance is note perfect. For those of us jaded by emotion, it's a rare chance to feel something in our shriveled consumerism souls.
Back in The Thatcher Years, there was loads of explicitly angry political theatre. Then Tony Blair came along, and integrated the arts into society - remember Cool Britannia? Sure, the artists turned on him, but the emphasis on art as socially useful and important - an instrument for pacifying the population - was established.
That's a rant for another time, but Iphigenia doesn't pull any punches. Her tragedy is caused by the state. The cuts in the NHS, and the marginalisation of the proletariat, loiter around the drama like the ghost of a pissed up Eton Toff. And it transmits the rage, the anguish. It's a polemic, and its not ashamed.
Here's what you get. A script. One actor. A suggestive yet minimal set. Some lighting. And then - boom... it is like an object lesson in how the basics can bring home the theatrical bacon.
Fond memories of Big Male Actors aside, Iphigenia has a solo turn that is a reminder of why 'acting' is a cool profession. Diderot said the actor performs an emotion, and the audience experiences it. I needed a very stiff drink after seeing this at the Fringe - and the character ends up with a drink problem.
The lighting does just enough to shift atmospheres (similar to the way Blackbird at The Citz works it).
Okay, here's my problem. The rage is so clear, it feels as if going to see the show is activism. It isn't. Unless the audience does something about the issues raised, they are just consuming, like watching We Will Rock You. My rage got even more intense when I heard audience members acting like they deserve a man badge for listening.
As it goes, the political logic is flawed, and ends up being defeatist. I'll blather on about how theatre is fundamentally middle-class (the way it is watched is all to do with the work of the romantics... another time, I promise). And here's a prime example: come see the lady rant, go home with leftist prejudices confirmed, and do nothing.
This is where we get into my subjectivity, and this ought not bother you. If you don't go and see it, you lose. If you do, expect your conscience to be troubled by my anxiety.
Many people suspect the truth: I became a critic because there is a gnawing void in my soul - what Sartre called 'the god-shaped hole'. I am alienated beyond measure, so full of my first world problems and as religion is rejected as a viable model for the discussion of ideas, I turned to performance. I hope for a peak experience, like that time when I saw Les Ballets C de la B, during which my existential anxiety is displaced by ecstasy.
By ecstasy, I mean that moment when my aesthetic, emotional and intellectual capacities are filled to overflowing, and my soul dances like one of Blake's libidinal angels.
This brings me to the matter of Iphigenia in Splott.
It's a dynamic example of theatre's potential to engage the emotions. Despite being set in a bit of Wales I have never visited - for Glasgow fans, it's a bit like Govan, I reckon - it draws me into a story about a young women stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. And despite never having been knocked up by a faithless soldier, I felt earnest empathy with this woman, and left outraged by this bloody society that gives me all this privilege.
The script is amazing: combining an attention to local detail and a passionate plea for compassion, it roves across urban dystopia, state oppression and emotional alienation. And the central - solo - performance is note perfect. For those of us jaded by emotion, it's a rare chance to feel something in our shriveled consumerism souls.
That's a rant for another time, but Iphigenia doesn't pull any punches. Her tragedy is caused by the state. The cuts in the NHS, and the marginalisation of the proletariat, loiter around the drama like the ghost of a pissed up Eton Toff. And it transmits the rage, the anguish. It's a polemic, and its not ashamed.
Fond memories of Big Male Actors aside, Iphigenia has a solo turn that is a reminder of why 'acting' is a cool profession. Diderot said the actor performs an emotion, and the audience experiences it. I needed a very stiff drink after seeing this at the Fringe - and the character ends up with a drink problem.
The lighting does just enough to shift atmospheres (similar to the way Blackbird at The Citz works it).
As it goes, the political logic is flawed, and ends up being defeatist. I'll blather on about how theatre is fundamentally middle-class (the way it is watched is all to do with the work of the romantics... another time, I promise). And here's a prime example: come see the lady rant, go home with leftist prejudices confirmed, and do nothing.
This is where we get into my subjectivity, and this ought not bother you. If you don't go and see it, you lose. If you do, expect your conscience to be troubled by my anxiety.
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