Theatre
‘THE ANTI- BOURGEOIS CINEMA ITSELF BECAME BOURGEOIS'
Dogma undera cold tin roof
Steve Cramer examines an acclaimed adaptation from film, and the value of DOGME movies as political commentary.
here was a point when the very word ‘dogma‘ set off negative connotations. To be dogmatic was to be inflexible. unthinking and blinded by some code of learning. That the original term meant simple learning. the idea that one needed dogma in order to make some sense of the world. that reading and knowledge might actually liberate us. was lost some time during the last century or so. It's interesting to realise that the term has most often been
used as a form of abuse against alternative ways of
seeing beyond the mainstream. The idea that if one saw things differently through
learning that one was automatically deprived of common sense and the idea of the natural way of
things was in fact perpetuated by a culture in desperate denial about both. Contemporary capitalist culture creates its own all-pervasive and rigorously policed doctrines. with little access to dissent. This
ideology creates an enslavement to principles of
gender. sexuality and class that has a deleterious effect on our identity. as folk wrestle with imposed ideas. most of all about financial aspiration. that destroy or entrap them in a life of misery. Still. at least they‘re not dogmatic.
The discovery that dogma could in fact be a creative experience. facilitating a situation in which the normative values of our culture could be re- examined from a different perspective. has become increasingly common over the last decade or so. In film. the group of directors who named themselves ‘dogme' (in Danish. Dogma) embraced the idea. Each of these directors. and they included such influential figures as Lars Van Trier. signed the ‘Vow of Chastity". as it was called. a stripping away
84 THE LIST 16—30 Mar 2006
of the paraphernalia of film. such devices as special effects. lighting and expensive camera equipment to produce a bare. Spartan and very effective form of drama. Their stated intention is summed up in their manifesto: ‘The anti-bourgeois cinema itself became bourgeois. because the foundation upon which its theories were based was the bourgeois perception of art. The auteur concept was bourgeois romanticism from the very start and thereby . . . falsel'
And it didn’t look dogmatic. in that pejorative sense we started with. The intimacy and quietly growing power of Fasten emerged from its doctrinaire perspective. Starting with the sentimental and supposedly contemporary issue of child abuse. the film examined an affluent Danish family whose patriarch is accused. during a family reunion to celebrate his birthday. of abusing his recently deceased daughter. But it went much further. interrogating the whole structure of family in relation to bourgeois culture.
That such a scenario. with its claustrophobic locale and built-in tensions. should lend itself to theatre seems obvious. yet it was not until recently that the Almeida supported such an idea. It provided them. through David Eldridge‘s adaptation. with one of the most powerful pieces of theatre of the year in London. as well as a successful transfer to the English National. Blackly comical and frighteningly real by turns. if the English press is to be believed. this looks like one of the theatre treats of the year. Be dogmatic. and see it.
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 27 Mar-Sat 1 Apr.
Hit
THE BEST THEATRE & DANCE
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* Faust Parts 1 & 2 John Clifford 's toweringly ambitious adaptation of Goethe is well realised under Mark Thomson’s direction at the Lyceum. Confrontational, deeply political and fiercely theatrical, this piece contains so much thought provoking material that many will wish to see it twice. Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in repertory until Sat 8 Apr.
:3 Boston The Almeida's production of this adaptation of the famous Dogma film confronts some uncomfortable truths about Western culture and its repressive moral structures. Questioning an affluent society quite as much as the sexual mores of an incestuous family patriarch, the uncomfortany claustrophobic atmosphere of the piece has had a strong effect on English audiences. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 27 Mar—Sat 1 Apr.
* Sweeney Todd Jason Donovan leads in this John Doyle treatment of the infamous melodrama. Employing all manner of Brechtian performance skills, this piece looks to constantly entertain with music, movement, performance and song. Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 20—Sat 25 Man
i The Talented Mr Blpley Dominic Hill's production of this Phyllis Nagy adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel is, by turns, creepy and humorous. Paul Thomas Hickey is outstanding in the lead, while Neil Warmington's set is worth the trip to Dundee alone. Dundee Rep, until Sat 25 Man * Melody Douglas Maxwell’s play. set in a melodramatic storm, features a woman who wishes to put her past behind her but receives an unwelcome house caller. With a strong cast featuring the wonderful Una McLean, expect humour and melancholic moments. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Apr.