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Friday, January 25, 2013

Theater Re: "American Buffalo" at Seattle Rep, the Greeks, and Conservative Playwrights

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 12:25 PM

Yesterday, in my Slog review of the wet-noodle American Buffalo at Seattle Rep, I said that David Mamet's strange (and strangely public) mission to become a successful conservative playwright was "a stupid move by its very premise—powerful drama is not built on the conservative impulse to defend conventions."

Slog reader Mack Sullivan takes exception with my quick and lazy generalization:

Dear Mr. Kiley,

Yesterday you wrote on the Slog that "powerful drama is not built on the conservative impulse to defend conventions." ... surely this can't be right: what about Aeschylus' Oresteia, which culminates in (among other things) a powerful defense of Athenian tradition? I'm not a conservative, so it wouldn't bother me if you turned out to be right (in fact, it'd tickle me), but surely any generalization which makes Aeschylus bad drama is a bad generalization.

Sincerely,
Mack Sullivan

Good point, Mack.

I wasn't thinking about the Greeks, who lived in a slightly different universe when it came to their relationship between theater and the rest of life. But you're right: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and other Greeks wrote cautionary tales to defend conventions, the state, etc.

However! Those dramas were really built on deep, detailed descriptions of taboos being violated—upheaval porn.

They had to end with finger-wagging morals (don't do X or Y will happen), but that's not why we remember them. Their disruptions, violations, and rebellions ("you said what?" "you killed him?" "you fucked her?") are the good stuff, just like in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and other canonical stories that end with some obligatory tut-tutting about the restoration of order and normalcy.

American war movies (at least the iconic ones of the '70s and '80s) are in a similarly self-contradicting situation. Supposedly, they're about how "war is hell" and all that—but they aren't real arguments for pacifism or Switzerland-style neutrality. People go to see the guts, and revel in explosions. They're upheaval-porn, too.

So I'm not sure Aeschylus actually counts as a conservative playwright. But you make an interesting point, Mr. Sullivan.

Sincerely,
Brendan Kiley

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The Oresteia is exactly about the overthrow of conservative tradition. It established for the first time the notion that society should be governed by justice tempered with mercy rather than the simplistic vengeance of the old eye for eye and tooth for tooth tradition. It also established that the sins of the fathers should not be visited on the children through the generations. It ended the curse on the House of Atreus. (Frank Herbert doesn't count.)
As I recall, Athena was making up the rules as they went along. Call that an Athenian tradition if you wish but the idea that a hung jury meant freedom for the accused was pretty radical stuff at the time.

Posted by ravenraven on January 25, 2013 at 7:36 PM

I sat through this play a couple of weeks ago. Many people did not, as the exodus at intermission demonstrated. The set was fine, but the audience can' t get by on props alone. This was not brilliant writing; Mamet was slumming in lower class bathos. A waste of time and talented actors. Left me wondering why so much energy was spent on it.

Posted by betsio on January 25, 2013 at 2:34 PM

Congratulations, truly. It is heartening to see a poster on SLOG refer to previous post as being a quick and lazy generalization. I will read your future posts with more care.

Fighting our era's tendency toward quick and lazy generalizations may be the only way out of positing everything as us against them, liberal vs. conservative, ignorant redneck vs. effete snob, 99 vs. 1% etc.

I am looking forward to more thoughtful and polished generalizations.

Posted by mt on January 25, 2013 at 1:36 PM

I think the way theater in this country is funded makes the idea of a politically conservative playwright seem a bit off. Most community theaters would have a hard time operating without the support of donors, grants, and local government.

Mostly though I think Mamet enjoys ruffling people's feathers.

I am looking forward to seeing American Buffalo on Sunday.

Posted by fletc3her on January 25, 2013 at 1:08 PM

Although nobody would say they're great cinema, '80s horror was frequently conservative. There is a whole lot of good drama that frequently positions the progressive vs the conservative and posits that the conservative wins out. I think saying that conservative positions do not make for good drama is biased and a little bitchy. But I figured you were going for bitchy.

Posted by TheMisanthrope on January 25, 2013 at 12:50 PM

I like your noting the War film dichotomy . I remember seeing Branaugh's Henry V, the one that was supposed to so decidedly repudiate war. I watched all that glorious slow-mo violence and was more than a little skeptical

Posted by katrat