‘Deformities of the Frame’: The Theatre of Anthony Neilson
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10486800701605110
ISSN1477-2264
Autores Tópico(s)Theatre and Performance Studies
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 4. Ibid., pp. 9–10. 1. Anthony Neilson, Edward Gant's Amazing Feats of Loneliness, Typescript, 2002, p. 6. 2. The Wonderful World of Dissocia was first performed at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow and subsequently opened at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh as part of the 2004 Edinburgh International Festival and was a co-production between the Tron Theatre Glasgow, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Drum Theatre, Plymouth. In February 2007 the production was revived by the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) for an extensive UK tour, details of which are available on the NTS website: www.nationaltheatrescotland.com. 3. Anthony Neilson, The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism (London: Methuen, 2007), p. 6. 5. Ibid., p. 11. 6. Ibid. 7. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph (17 August 2006). 9. Anthony Neilson, in an interview with Tim Abrahams, Sunday Herald (4 August 2002). In an interview with Mark Ravenhill in August 2004, Neilson relishes theatre's potential to be ‘fast’ and ‘reactive’ adding, ‘You can add in new bits every night. There should be new stuff springing up all over the place.’Guardian (26 August 2004). Neilson reasserts his preference for ‘experiental theatre’ in the forward to The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism (London: Methuen, 2007), no page numbers given. 8. Toby Young in the Spectator, for instance, described Stitching as ‘a mesmerising two-hander about a dysfunctional sexual relationship’ (24 August 2002), while Lyn Gardner saw it as exploring ‘the gulf between what men and women want, and what happens when sexual fantasy becomes a substitute for intimacy’, Guardian (5 August 2002). Similarly, Neil Smith described The Censor as ‘a tautly written and consistently engrossing psychological drama’, What's On (11 June 1997) and Michael Coveney as a ‘gripping parable of the critic and artist as a healing, and finally tragic, love story’, Daily Mail (13 June 1997). 10. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph (2 December 2002). 11. Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, trans. Karen Jürs-Munby (London: Routledge, 1996), p. 78. 12. Maaike Bleeker, ‘Look who's Looking!: Perspective and the Paradox of Postdramatic Subjectivity’, Theatre Research International, 29:1 (March 2004), 29–41, p. 29. 13. Anthony Neilson, The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism, p. 74. 14. In recognition of this influence, for instance, Alex Sierz dedicates a chapter in In-Yer-Face Theatre to Neilson's work alongside that of Sarah Kane and Mark Ravenhill. Alex Sierz, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today (London: Faber and Faber, 2000), pp. 65–89. 15. Ibid., p. 68. 16. Patrick Marmion, the Guardian (13 May, 2002). 17. Neilson discusses the sometimes troubled progress of his career in his forward to the Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism and also in a number of recent interviews. See, for example, Jane Edwards, ‘Anthony Neilson Interview’, Time Out (10 April 2007) and Brian Logan ‘Damn, those critics adore me’, The Times (31 March 2007). 18. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard (2 December 2002). 19. See Peter Zenzinger, ‘The New Wave’, in Randall Stevenson and Gavin Wallace (eds), Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996), pp. 125–137. 20. Ian Brown, ‘Alternative Sensibilities: Devolutionary Comedy and Scottish Camp’, in Berthold Schoene (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), pp. 319–327 (p. 322). 21. See Theatre Record (4–17 June 1997), pp. 712–714 and Theatre Record (10–23 September 2002), pp. 1198–1200. 24. Joyce McMillan, Scotsman (11 August 2006). 22. Adrienne Scullion, ‘Devolution and Drama’ in The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature, pp. 68–77 (p. 74). In this recent essay Scullion identifies Neilson as one of a number of contemporary Scottish playwrights – alongside Ian F. MacLeod, David Greig and David Harrower – who are grappling with the possibilities and challenges in identity politics produced by the new political situation in Scotland. 23. Brown, ‘Alternative Sensibilities: Devolutionary Comedy and Scottish Camp’, p. 327. 25. Neilson himself cites seeing his mother in Donald Campbell's The Widows of Clyth (1979) as a formative experience. ‘There's a moment when the women find out their husbands have died at sea, and my mother let out this horrendous scream’ recalls Neilson ‘I've always struggled with the idea that theatre should be like that, that it really has to have that very direct, very basic force’. Anthony Neilson quoted in Sierz, In-Yer-Face Theatre, p. 66. More recently Neilson identified Campbell's The Jesuit (1976) as an influence, stating that it was the experience of watching both his parents in rehearsal for this play that taught him ‘to think of the personal, political, emotional and theatrical as intricately entwined’. Ian Brown recalls Neilson making the connection between his work and older Scottish dramatists, particularly Campbell, at the 2005 Gathering of Playwrights at the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh, ‘Alternative Sensibilities: Devolutionary Comedy and Scottish Camp’, p. 323. 26. See, for example, Femi Folorunso, ‘Scottish Drama and the Popular Tradition’, in Randall Stevenson and Gavin Wallace (eds), Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies, pp. 175–185, or Donald Campbell, Playing for Scotland: A History of the Scottish Stage 1715–1965 (Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1996). More recently, in an interview for this journal, Adrienne Scullion locates Scotland's ‘theatrical heritage’ in ‘traditions of popular and political theatre’ while John Tiffany, the NTS's Associate Director for New Work, describes Scotland's culture in general as ‘demotic’. Dan Rebellato, ‘National Theatre of Scotland: The First Year’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 17:2 (May 2007), 213–218 (p. 216). 27. The production won five of the ten awards at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2004–05: Best Female Performance for Christine Entwisle; Best Direction and Best New Play for Anthony Neilson; Best Design for Miriam Buether; and Best Theatre Production for the company. 28. Dominic Cavendish, Daily Telegraph (6 April 2007); Susannah Clapp, Observer (8 April 2007). 29. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard (2 April 2007). 30. Lyn Gardner, Guardian (17 August 2006), Lynne Walker, Independent (18 August 2006). 31. Personal interview, Royal Court Theatre Bar, 21 April 2007. 32. Dominic Dromgoole, The Full Room: An A–Z of Contemporary Playwriting (London: Methuen, 2002), pp. 126–127. Dromgoole is attempting, at this point, to explain the muted reception that Scottish playwright Chris Hannan's work has received in England. 33. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard (2 April 2007). 34. Michael Billington, Guardian (2 April 2007). 35. Anthony Neilson in the forward to, The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Realism. Karen Jürs-Munby comments in her introduction on the impact of Lehmann's book in Europe since its original publication in German in 1999, pp. 1–15 (p. 1). This impact is evidenced, for example, by Theatre Research International, 29:1 (March 2004), an issue of the journal dedicated to discussions of the ‘postdramatic’. 36. Anthony Neilson, Realism, p. 120. 37. Ibid., p. 121. 38. Ibid. 42. Anthony Neilson, Normal, in Plays: 1, p. 52. 39. Normal premiered at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh on 7 August 1991, it transferred to the Finborough Theatre, London, in October of the same year. 40. Alex Sierz, In-Yer-Face Theatre, p. 69. 41. Anthony Neilson Plays: 1 (London: Methuen 1998), p. 5. 43. In Sierz's In-Yer-Face Theatre, Neilson is explicit about his decision to deliberately extend this sequence ‘as long as you could bear it – and then some’, p. 70. 44. Stanton B. Garner, Jr., Bodied Spaces: Phenomenology and Performance in Contemporary Drama (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), p. 180. 45. Ian Shuttleworth, City Limits (3 October 1991). 48. Quoted in Sierz, In-Yer-Face Theatre, p. 80. 46. Alex Sierz writes that, after seeing Penetrator at the Royal Court's tiny Theatre Upstairs, he ‘staggered out like a survivor, glad to be alive’. In-Yer-Face Theatre, p. 75. 47. Edward Bond, ‘From Rationalism to Rhapsody’, interview with Christopher Innes, Canadian Theatre Review, 23 (Summer 1979), pp. 108–113 (p. 113). 49. Neilson, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, p. 2. 50. Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, p. 91. 51. Ibid., p. 74. 52. Neilson, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, p. 74. 54. Neilson, Realism, p. 156. 53. Bleeker, ‘Look who's Looking!', p. 35. 55. Ibid., p. 118. 56. Personal interview, East Dulwich, 17 April 2007. 57. Ibid. 58. Realism, p. 93. 59. Ibid. 60. Hans-Thies Lehmann, Postdramatic Theatre, p. 82. 61. Personal interview, Royal Court Theatre Bar, 20 April 2007. 62. Personal interview, Royal Court Theatre Bar, 21 April, 2007. 63. Personal interview, East Dulwich, 17 April 2007. Matthew was involved in the making of Edward Gant (2002), The Lying Kind (2002), The Wonderful World of Dissocia (2004) and Realism (2006). 64. From the companies of Dissocia and Realism, I'd like to thank Christine Entwisle, Matthew Pidgeon and Barnaby Power for agreeing to be interviewed. Thanks also to Susan O'Neill at the National Theatre of Scotland for supplying the images for this article.
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