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Getting Physical: Total Theatre and the BritishDateline: 27th April, 2003It's been fascinating reading Jackie Fletcher's recent reviews, both from BITE:03 (La Syncope du 7) and the Circus Performance festival (Don't Break My Balls and Raw Beef), and her comments on how physical theatre of this type is so much bigger on the continent. British theatre, it is clear, is very text-based, in spite of the influence of writers/directors like Steven Berkoff and companies such as DV8. One wonders why this is. I'm tempted to suggest that, perhaps, Britain has a richer theatre tradition than most continental countries and so doesn't need to experiment with other forms of drama. But apart from it being jingoistic, I'm not even sure that it's true. Perhaps there is no one elsewhere to rival Shakespeare - not "perhaps", more "definitely" - but otherwise I wouldn't say that there is otherwise a huge difference. After all, we recognise the greatness of Ibsen, Chekhov, Molière, Racine, Goethe, Ionesco, and perform their plays regularly, and many theatre companies - the National and the RSC spring to mind, among many others - rescue quite a few continental playwrights from the obscurity they suffer in this country. And, of course, when we look at the Edinburgh International Festival, at some venues on the Edinburgh Fringe, at BITE, we realise that there is a rich theatre tradition on the continent, quite comparable to our native tradition. Jingoism aside (and I'm sure there's a strong element of that in our approach to theatre in the rest of Europe - and outside), there is an innate conservatism in the British which expesses itself in all sorts of ways. We are separated from the continent of Europe not just by 22 miles of English Channel but also by fifty years. It's an attitude reinforced by the tabloids: how can we have a sensible discussion about, for example, the Euro when tabloid newspapers spout such rubbish as the suggestion that Germany tried twice to conquer us militarily and failed: now they're trying to do it by stealth! This conservatism, coupled with a suspicion of anything foreign (particularly from a country which isn't English-speaking), is probably the reason we have kept physical theatre at arms' length for so long - and will, I suspect, continue to do so. Eventually we'll succumb and begin to accept non-text-based theatre. We've made a start: Matthew Bourne's Play without Words at the RNT did far better than, I suspect, either he or Trevor Nunn expected, but we've still a long way to go to catch up with the rest of Europe, and in the meanwhile we are missing out on some fabulous theatrical experiences! Articles Indices:
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