When researching venues for my imaginary Antigone production, I came across an article in the NY times Arts Beat blog about dangerous political theatre. Ben Brantley had written an article in January about a production he saw at the Under the Radar Festival in NYC by the Belarus Free Theater. They did a production of Being Harold Pinter, and Brantley was commenting on how similarly the events of the play seemed to the lives of the actors in a highly censored, dangerous political environment such as Belarus. The members of the Belarus Free Theater Company were using the events of Pinter’s play to comment on the current political turmoil in their home country. I quote, “The idea of theater as an act (and an instrument) of political defiance is a strange one these days to most Americans, for whom plays are largely thought of (if they are at all) as an occasional diversion” (Brantley). He asked his readers “when was the last time you saw a truly dangerous piece of political theatre”?
What interested me was not so much the article, but rather the first comment made on it by American playwright Bernard Pomerance, who I’d never heard of before then. He clearly offered that perhaps Mr. Brantley was asking the wrong question. He went on to say that dangerous political theater seen from the comfort of NY is easy to applaud, whereas the same production in Belarus would not be applauded, but censored, condemned even. Mr. Pomerance said that perhaps the question to ask is “when was the last time dangerous political theatre was promoted and supported in the concerned political environment?” He went on to make the point that theatre critics and artists can easily look back on theatrical events such as Waiting for Lefty and productions by The Living Theatre in the sixties, with praise and admiration for the bravery of the theatre artists in their own time. But when was the last time an effort like such was applauded and promoted in its own time?
“I am never optimistic about political theater itself in a comfortable setting, and a lot of it seems to be more anger-energy than skill to me…But I would seriously encourage you and any other interested critic to do the obvious: when you are confronted with a play about political issues, springboard off it to deal with the reality itself. Look into it and encourage others to. Stop being fearful of being a citizen as well as an employee of a publication.” – Bernard Pomerance.
Ben Brantley’s applause of Being Harold Pinter educated me about the courage of the Belarus Free Theatre, but Mr. Pomerance’s words left me thinking what I could do about it as a theatre artist.
