His American period up to 1964 heads of theater called "theater of the issues", in Europe, they moved to the creation of themselves called "theater of answers." These "answers", but to a large extent already foreshadowed "issues": the theater has gone the way of their search for a radical anti-bourgeois and sharp rejection of all traditional cultures, reflecting the evolution of the rebellion.
"Theatre of responses" was created as a theater of collective improvisation, with almost no text and script, and the first experience of this kind was the play "The Mysteries and smaller pieces." It was mounted as a collage of improvisations of all members of the troupe, and was built as a series of pictures designed to induce an immediate reaction of the public, i.e. on happening. It was assumed - and this is passed from Artaud - that the conclusion of the play the audience will get some kind of metaphysical revelation, the whole being grasped the essence of control world power.
When the audience entered the hall, the stage has already stood motionless actor - in jeans, with long hair, intercepted colored bandage - silently and defiantly looked at them for some time. This device resembled a reception in the Cage "433": steps, laughter, rustling programs, the comments of the public - it's all reaction, a step to create an atmosphere of common experience. It was assumed that begins thus, "the hall", a play every time will be something new and unexpected kind of self-disclosure and the audience and actors. However, it was soon discovered that a set of these reactions is quite uniform and any ossified practices of traditional theater. Melayna herself on his return to America complained that in the six languages she heard the same thing: "Louder," "Start," "That is what is called the Living Theater?" And the like.
Perhaps the most unexpected Happening occurred in Sweden, where the audience was silent as hard as an actor on stage that is deeply disappointed by the company. But if the public reaction to the first picture of the performance puzzled the creators of their triviality and inexpressive, that final scene allows us to see across the auditorium and the possible results are very disturbing tactics of provocation. This last scene, "The Plague", was conceived as a living illustration of Artaud. The cries and convulsions falling in the aisles actors had to create a picture of the "evil" with a capital letter as applicable in today's world of the spiritual principle. And create so convincing that the audience felt like a victim or an accomplice. Well owning a technique of trance, the actors worked so believable, that portion of the public rushed to help the dying. However, the other for fear that her fool, she began to show cruelty: testing the sensitivity of the fallen, they twisted arms, sometimes even tried to set fire to her hair. In Amsterdam, spectators furious wanted to throw the actors into the channel. |