Howard Barker: Ecstasy and Death
Also by David Ian Rabey Criticism: BRITISH AND IRISH POLITICAL DRAMA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY HOWARD BARKER: POLITICS AND DESIRE: An Expository Study of his Drama and Poetry, 1969 1987 DAVID RUDKIN: Sacred Disobedience ENGLISH DRAMA SINCE 1940 THEATRE OF CATASTROPHE: New Essays on Howard Barker (co-edited with Karoline Gritzner) Drama: THE WYE PLAYS LOVEFURIES
Howard Barker: Ecstasy and Death An Expository Study of his Drama, Theory and Production Work, 1988 2008 David Ian Rabey
David Ian Rabey 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-1-4039-9473-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-54436-3 ISBN 978-0-230-58203-3 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230582033 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
To Karoline Gritzner
love s garment is pain / And impossible daring Gwyneth Lewis, Parables and Faxes XXI I have a sense all sorts of things Things we prefer At this juncture Not to contemplate Will be Oh, certainly will be UTILIZED Defilo
Contents Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations and References Part One: A Style and its Contexts 1 1 Gifts of Loss: An Introduction to Barker s Writing and Theatre 3 2 The ecstasy of vanishing meaning : Arguments for a Theatre; 18 Death, The One and The Art of Theatre Part Two: Plays and Productions 31 3 Intimacy with the Unforgivable: The Last Supper, The Early 33 Hours of a Reviled Man, Golgo, Judith, Rome, Ten Dilemmas 4 Cultural Re-Fashionings and Shakespearean Negotiations: 51 Brutopia, Seven Lears, (Uncle) Vanya, Minna 5 Separation, Sacrifice and Sainthood: A Hard Heart, Terrible 72 Mouth, Hated Nightfall, Ego in Arcadia, The Brilliance of the Servant, The Gaoler s Ache, Twelve Encounters with a Prodigy, Ursula 6 Facing the Wound: Wounds to the Face, Und, He Stumbled, 103 A House of Correction 7 Infinite Reversibility: All He Fears, The Swing at Night, Albertina, 119 Knowledge and a Girl, The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo, Animals in Paradise, The Ecstatic Bible, Found in the Ground 8 Wrestling with God: Defilo, All This Joseph, Five Names, N/A 161 (Sad Kissing), Gertrude The Cry, The Seduction of Almighty God, The Moving and the Still, Two Skulls, Acts (Chapter One) 9 Servitude and Servility: An Eloquence, The Blood of a Wife, A Rich 196 Woman s Poetry, Stalingrad, Thirteen Objects, The Dying of Today, Dead Hands, Christ s Dog 10 The Boundary and Beyond: The Fence, Heroica, Adorations 216 Chapter 1, Dead, Dead and Very Dead, The Road, The House, The Road, Let Me, A Wounded Knife, Lot and his God, The Forty (Few Words), I Saw Myself vii xi
viii Contents 11 Inconclusion: Consolations in Extremity: Howard Barker: 250 A Style and its Origins Appendices One: Testimonies by Barker Actors: Julia Tarnoky, 254 Justin Avoth, Edward Petherbridge, Melanie Jessop, Gerrard McArthur Two: Howard Barker: A Chronology 261 Notes 265 A Selection of Further Critical Reading on Barker 283 Index 285
Acknowledgments Quotations from Howard Barker s published plays are reprinted with kind permission of the publisher, Oberon Books (James Hogan); quotations from unpublished work are reprinted by kind permission of Judy Daish Associates Ltd. Some material from Chapter Seven appears in extended form in Theatre Research International Volume 30 number 2 (July 2005), pp. 175 189 and is reprinted by kind permission of Cambridge University Press. Epigraph from Gwyneth Lewis, Chaotic Angels: Poems in English (Bloodaxe Books, 2005) reprinted with kind permission of the publisher on behalf of the author. This study originally incorporated readings of Barker s three volumes of poetry published during the period under review: Lullabies for the Impatient (1988), The Ascent of Monte Grappa (1991) and The Tortmann Diaries (1996). I have excised my analysis of these in deference to concerns expressed to me about the overall length of this manuscript; but will endeavour to present this in some future context. Everything impedes your mission if you have a mission. But there were some honourable exceptions, whom I thank: Ioan Williams for his approval of study leave, from my teaching at Aberystwyth University, to permit me to write this; Howard Gooding at Judy Daish Associates for his prompt and thorough provision of unpublished works; Roger Owen, Andy Cornforth, Antoinette Walsh and John O Brien for their developments of opportunities for, and articulate company on, our adventures in productions of Barker plays; Beth Hoffman (convenor), Daniel A. Sack, Mary Karen Dahl (chair): the Barker panel at ATHE New Orleans, July 2007; David Kilpatrick for sending me his fine essay; George Hunka for support and discussion via his website, Superfluities Redux ; Kelly V. Jones for permission to quote from her as yet unpublished thesis; Susan Russell, Thomas J. Barnes and Sarah Rose Evans for permission to quote their observations; Jane Bertish, Edward Petherbridge, Julia Tarnoky, Gerrard McArthur, Justin Avoth, Séan O Callaghan and Melanie Jessop for contributing their testimonies; Victoria Wicks in appreciation of her important stage performances for The Wrestling School; the companies of my Aberystwyth productions of Ursula (particularly Vicki-Jane Fergus as Ursula, Kate Davies as Placida, Dan Price as Lucas, Heather Stevenson as Leonora) and Gertrude The Cry (particularly Henry Pickett as Claudius, Gemma Crabtree as Cascan, Hannah Jones as Ragusa, Adam Stevens as Albert, Graeme Westgate as Hamlet, Jennifer Woodhouse as Isola, and, again, Sarah Rose Evans as Gertrude, without whom); Sarah Goldingay, bright and indefatigable in her initiatives; my editor at Palgrave, Paula Kennedy, for her support of this project; Glenys Hartnell and Catrin Davies for secretarial assistance; Ken Rabey (who read and commented on the ix
x Acknowledgements manuscript), Charmian Savill, Isabel Rabey and Ryan Jack Rabey, for enthusiastic company in attending Barker productions and good discussions afterwards; HB for, in many ways, giving me a sense of direction. DIR, Machynlleth, May 2008
Abbreviations and References (All places of publication: London except where noted) AT Arguments for a Theatre (Manchester: Manchester University Press, third edition, 1997) CP2 Collected Plays Volume 2 (Calder Publications, 1993) CP3 Collected Plays Volume 3 (Calder Publications, 1996) CP4 Collected Plays Volume 4 (Calder Publications, 1998) CP5 Collected Plays Volume 5 (Calder Publications, 2001) DH Dead Hands (Oberon Books, 2004) DTOAT Death, The One and the Art of Theatre (Abingdon: Routledge, 2005) EB The Ecstatic Bible (Oberon Books, 2004) FTY The Fence in its Thousandth Year (Oberon Books, 2005) GTC Gertrude The Cry and Knowledge and a Girl (Calder Publications, 2002) GTGU Gary the Thief/Gary Upright (John Calder, 1987) HH A Hard Heart and The Early Hours of a Reviled Man (Calder Publications, 1992) HN Hated Nightfall and Wounds to the Face (Calder Publications, 1994) LS The Last Supper (John Calder, 1988) OP1 Plays One (Oberon Books, 2006) OP2 Plays Two (Oberon Books, 2006) SAG The Seduction of Almighty God (Oberon Books, 2006) SAO A Style and its Origins (Oberon Books, 2007) SL Seven Lears and Golgo (John Calder, 1990) SN The Swing at Night (Calder Publications, 2001) Editions of Barker s plays, formerly published by John Calder and Calder Publications, are no longer available for order and purchase from this source (but may be available for consultation though library holdings). The plays formerly published by John Calder and Calder Publications are being republished by Oberon books as part of their ongoing programme of making Barker s complete dramatic oeuvre available in book form. xi