Exposed Theatre - Castorf’s spectacle "Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen"
Much of Toronto theatre has a desire to conceal the technical workings of a show. Set pieces fly in as if by magic, furniture appears and disappears behind a curtain or in darkness, stage hands are supposed to stay in the shadows. Imagine my surprise, then, when there appeared to be no backstage area to conceal said secretive acts in Frank Castorf’s spectacle, Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen, Das Leben des Herrn de Molière, produced by the Volksbuehne Berlin, presented at Festival d’Avignon this year.Indeed, no such attempt was made as crew members not only ran around the circus-like open playing space with cameras and microphones to create a live feed video of the actors,, but the set changed frequently and blatantly during the action.
“The production is a meeting point in one place between a spectator, who is constructed and constituted, and objects located in a spatial context. That meaning is experienced as a face-to-face encounter and as shared participation” (Pavis, 210). This idea seems to be at the core of European theatre, as shows highlight this interaction of artist and audience by allowing the audience to orient themselves with a “spatial context.” We do not look through a proscenium arch and force ourselves to believe the living room belongs to a real house, rather the playing space is just that, a playing space. This Brechitan idea of encouraged audience self-recognition creates “an awareness of the fabric of performance [which] does not hinder, indeed it implies a criticism of coherence or incoherence” (Pavis, 210).
This exposing of the theatrical “wiring” not only reminds the audience of their role, but can also work to strengthen the believability of the story, despite simultaneously highlighting its fiction. It seems that European theatre, at least from what I have seen, does not try to hide what it is. There is an imbued theatricality in the shows; the fourth wall is frequently broken, the action is non-linear, and stage hands walk the space as unabashedly as actors. This divergence from the naturalistic theatre that is often seen in Toronto ensures the audience remembers the performance aspect of what they are watching. By not trying to conceal aspects of a show, the production opens itself up — quite literally — to the audience, allowing the viewers a trust and empathetic connection to the performance. By becoming “transparent” a show presents itself as honest (Wilderson, 183), ensuring the connection and trust with its viewers that might otherwise be lost in the wings.
Sources
Die Kabale der Scheinheiligen. Das Leben des Herrn de Molière. By Frank Castorf et al. Dir. Frank Castorf, Volksbühne, 13 Jul. 2017, Exhibition Centre, Avignon.
Féral, Josette, and Ron Bermingham. “Alienation Theory in Multi-Media Performance.” Theatre Journal, vol. 39, no. 4, 1987, pp. 461–472. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3208248.
Patrice, Pavis. “Theatre Analysis: Some Questions and a Questionnaire.” New Theatre Quarterly, vol 1.2, 1985, pp. 208-212.
Wilderson, Frank. “Raw Life and the Ruse of Empathy.” Performance, Politics and Activism, edited by Peter Lichtenfels and John Rouse, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp 181-206.
