A Living Tradition of Classics

A LIVING TRADITION OF CLASSICS
© David Meadows 2002.

A Perth playwright, sitting in front of his PC, is trying to write a play about fractured familial relationships, and how destiny can shape our lives. In struggling to rise above autobiographical dramatisation, he finds himself at a loss. He wants dialogue with a poetic quality, and characters that are archetypal but also compellingly individual. But he doesnÂ’t know how to go about this. He cannot get past contemporary banalities.

Another playwright is trying to write about political corruption and intrigue. He wants to see back-stabbing, manipulation, abuse of power, and board-room machinations on a grand scale, but he can find no model for his ambitious undertaking.

Across town, a director is reading a new play that’s set in an insane asylum, with characters engaged in grotesque, debasing, yet somehow quite beautiful acts of violence and sexual depravity. The director tries and tries and tries to imagine staging this oddly compelling play, yet cannot imagine a way to do so. He simply get a “handle” on it.

Meanwhile, a few suburbs across, another director is reading the same script, and has figured out exactly how to stage it. The trouble is, he doesnÂ’t know of any actors who possess (or at least understand) the unique and specific performance style required.

Such is the conundrum of our “new work” obsessed theatrical culture. Two new plays, and two productions of a new play by two different up-and-coming directors, will not be realised. Certainly not to their highest potential.

And why?

Because we have no living tradition of classics in Perth.

If the plays that have shaped the global theatrical landscape for the past thousand or so years were treated with the respect they so richly deserve, playwright one could have been exposed to regular productions of Oedipus, King Lear, and Uncle Vanya. Playwright two could look to a production of Henry VI Part Two, or A Man For All Seasons. Director one might have become familiar with the revenge tragedies of Webster, and early Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus), as well as a few productions in the tradition of Artaud, and maybe even (you never know) something in the tradition of the Théâtre du Grand Guignol. Director two could cast actors who had seen (or worked on) those productions.

I would like to see a new category in arts funding: Classical Education & Appreciation. This category would exclusively fund professional standard productions of extant classics. This would provide practitioners with regular opportunities to see -- and work on -- the plays that constitute the very foundation-stones of our theatre. Audiences would benefit from being better able to understand those new plays (as well as production, performance and design styles) that are influenced by the classics.

Before we deride the likes of Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Corneille, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, OÂ’Neill, Williams, Miller, etc., letÂ’s at least acknowledge the enormous contribution they have made to our global theatrical culture, by keeping their seminal works on our performance roster, alongside the new works that will unquestionably benefit from their authors having been exposed to a truly vital part of their cultural heritage.



David Meadows,
Artistic Director -
The Naked Emotion Ensemble (inc.)
Opera West (inc.)