Howard Barker
Encyclopedia
Howard E. Barker is a British
playwright
.
, sexuality
, the desire for power, and human motivation
.
Rejecting the widespread notion that an audience should share a single response to the events onstage, Barker works to fragment response, forcing each viewer to wrestle with the play alone. "We must overcome the urge to do things in unison" he writes. "To chant together, to hum banal tunes together, is not collectivity." Where other playwrights might clarify a scene, Barker seeks to render it more complex, ambiguous, and unstable.
Opposing the predominance of comedy in the contemporary culture, which unifies us through the banality of a shared response, he argues for the rebirth of a tragic theatre, which will force us to recognize our differences. Only through a tragic renaissance, Barker argues, will beauty and poetry return to the stage. "Tragedy liberates language from banality" he asserts. "It returns poetry to speech."
(1571) and a fictional female artist commissioned to create a commemorative painting of the Venetian
victory over the Ottoman
fleet. Scenes from an Execution, originally written for Radio 3
and starring Glenda Jackson
in 1986, was later adapted for the stage. The short play Judith revolves around the Biblical story of Judith, the legendary heroine who decapitated the invading general Holofernes
.
In other plays, Barker has fashioned responses to famous literary works. Brutopia is a challenge to Thomas More
's Utopia
. Minna is a sardonic work inspired by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
's Enlightenment
comedy, Minna von Barnhelm. In Uncle Vanya, he poses an alternative vision to Anton Chekhov
's drama of the same name
. For Barker, Chekhov is a playwright of bad faith
, a writer who encourages us to sentimentalize our own weaknesses and glamorize inertia. Beneath Chekhov's celebrated compassion, Barker argues, lies contempt. In his play, Barker has Chekhov walk into Vanya's world and express his disdain for him. "Vanya, I have such a withering knowledge of your soul," says the Russian playwright. "Its pitiful dimensions. It is smaller than an aspirin that fizzles in a glass. . ." But Chekhov dies, and Vanya finds the resoluteness to stride out of the confines of his creator's world.
Barker's protagonist
s are conflicted, often perverse, and their motivations appear enigmatic. In A Hard Heart, Riddler, described by the playwright as "A Woman of Originality" is called upon to use her considerable brilliance in fortifications and tactics to save her besieged city. But each choice she makes seems to render the city more vulnerable to attack, but that outcome seems to exhilarate rather than upset her. "My mind was engine-like in its perfection" she exults in the midst of destruction. Barker's heroes are drawn into the heart of the paradox
ical, fascinated by contradiction.
an mainland
where his plays get more lavish productions, and many of his plays have been translated into various languages.
In Britain, Howard Barker formed "The Wrestling School" Company in 1988 to produce the author's seldom-performed plays in his native country.
There has been a small flurry of productions of Barker's plays on the London Fringe since 2007, some non-Wrestling school productions which seems to fare better critically. Notably Victory and Scenes from An Execution received acclaimed productions at the Arcola and the Hackney Empire respectively.
), and three collections of writings on the theatre (Arguments for a Theatre, Death, The One and The Art of Theatre, A Style And Its Origins).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
.
The Theatre of Catastrophe
Barker has coined the term "Theatre of Catastrophe" to describe his work. His plays often explore violenceViolence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
, sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
, the desire for power, and human motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
.
Rejecting the widespread notion that an audience should share a single response to the events onstage, Barker works to fragment response, forcing each viewer to wrestle with the play alone. "We must overcome the urge to do things in unison" he writes. "To chant together, to hum banal tunes together, is not collectivity." Where other playwrights might clarify a scene, Barker seeks to render it more complex, ambiguous, and unstable.
Opposing the predominance of comedy in the contemporary culture, which unifies us through the banality of a shared response, he argues for the rebirth of a tragic theatre, which will force us to recognize our differences. Only through a tragic renaissance, Barker argues, will beauty and poetry return to the stage. "Tragedy liberates language from banality" he asserts. "It returns poetry to speech."
Themes
Barker frequently turns to historical events for inspiration. His play Scenes from an Execution, for example, centers on the aftermath of the Battle of LepantoBattle of Lepanto (1571)
The Battle of Lepanto took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic maritime states, decisively defeated the main fleet of the Ottoman Empire in five hours of fighting on the northern edge of the Gulf of Patras, off western Greece...
(1571) and a fictional female artist commissioned to create a commemorative painting of the Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
victory over the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
fleet. Scenes from an Execution, originally written for Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
and starring Glenda Jackson
Glenda Jackson
Glenda May Jackson, CBE is a British Labour Party politician and former actress. She has been a Member of Parliament since 1992, and currently represents Hampstead and Kilburn. She previously served as MP for Hampstead and Highgate...
in 1986, was later adapted for the stage. The short play Judith revolves around the Biblical story of Judith, the legendary heroine who decapitated the invading general Holofernes
Holofernes
In the deuterocanonical Book of Judith Holofernes was an invading general of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar dispatched Holofernes to take vengeance on the nations of the west that had withheld their assistance to his reign...
.
In other plays, Barker has fashioned responses to famous literary works. Brutopia is a challenge to Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
. Minna is a sardonic work inspired by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
's Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
comedy, Minna von Barnhelm. In Uncle Vanya, he poses an alternative vision to Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's drama of the same name
Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
. For Barker, Chekhov is a playwright of bad faith
Bad faith
Bad faith is double mindedness or double heartedness in duplicity, fraud, or deception. It may involve intentional deceit of others, or self deception....
, a writer who encourages us to sentimentalize our own weaknesses and glamorize inertia. Beneath Chekhov's celebrated compassion, Barker argues, lies contempt. In his play, Barker has Chekhov walk into Vanya's world and express his disdain for him. "Vanya, I have such a withering knowledge of your soul," says the Russian playwright. "Its pitiful dimensions. It is smaller than an aspirin that fizzles in a glass. . ." But Chekhov dies, and Vanya finds the resoluteness to stride out of the confines of his creator's world.
Barker's protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s are conflicted, often perverse, and their motivations appear enigmatic. In A Hard Heart, Riddler, described by the playwright as "A Woman of Originality" is called upon to use her considerable brilliance in fortifications and tactics to save her besieged city. But each choice she makes seems to render the city more vulnerable to attack, but that outcome seems to exhilarate rather than upset her. "My mind was engine-like in its perfection" she exults in the midst of destruction. Barker's heroes are drawn into the heart of the paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
ical, fascinated by contradiction.
Productions
Though he is relatively unknown in his own country, Barker's works have earned him a sizable following on the EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an mainland
Mainland
Mainland is a name given to a large landmass in a region , or to the largest of a group of islands in an archipelago. Sometimes its residents are called "Mainlanders"...
where his plays get more lavish productions, and many of his plays have been translated into various languages.
In Britain, Howard Barker formed "The Wrestling School" Company in 1988 to produce the author's seldom-performed plays in his native country.
There has been a small flurry of productions of Barker's plays on the London Fringe since 2007, some non-Wrestling school productions which seems to fare better critically. Notably Victory and Scenes from An Execution received acclaimed productions at the Arcola and the Hackney Empire respectively.
Stage plays
- Cheek (1970)
- No One Was Saved (1970)
- Bang
- Edward - the Final Days (1972)
- Alpha Alpha (1972)
- Rule Britannia (1973)
- My Sister and I (1973)
- Claw (1975)
- Stripwell (1975)
- Wax (1976)
- Fair Slaughter (1977)
- That Good Between Us (1977)
- Birth on a Hard Shoulder (1977)
- Downchild (1977)
- The Hang of the Gaol (1978)
- The Love of a Good Man (1978)
- The Loud Boy's Life (1980)
- Crimes in Hot Countries (1980) (also performed as Twice Dead)
- No End of Blame (1981)
- The Poor Man's Friend (1981)
- The Power of the Dog (1981)
- Victory (1983)
- A Passion in Six Days (1983)
- The Castle (1985)
- Women Beware WomenWomen Beware WomenWomen Beware Women is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton, and first published in 1657.-Date:The date of authorship of the play is deeply uncertain. Scholars have estimated its origin anywhere from 1612 to 1627; 1623–24 has been plausibly suggested...
, adaptation of Thomas MiddletonThomas MiddletonThomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
(1986) - The Possibilities (1986)
- The Bite of the Night (1986)
- The Europeans (1987)
- The Last Supper (1988)
- Rome (1989)
- Seven Lears(1989)
- Golgo (1989)
- (Uncle) Vanya, adaptation of ChekhovAnton ChekhovAnton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's Uncle VanyaUncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
(1991) - Ten Dilemas in the Life of a God (1992)
- Judith: A Parting from the BodyJudith: A Parting from the BodyJudith: A Parting from the Body is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. It premiered in 1992, with British actress Melanie Jessop in the title role, in a production by The Wrestling School...
(1992) - Ego in Arcadia (1992)
- A Hard Heart (1992)
- Minna, adaptation of Lessing'sGotthold Ephraim LessingGotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
Minna von BarnhelmMinna von BarnhelmMinna von Barnhelm or the Soldiers' Happiness is a lustspiel or comedy by the German author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing...
(1993) - All He Fears, for marionettes (1993)
- The Early Hours of a Reviled Man
- Stalingrad
- 12 Encounters with a Prodigy
- The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo
- Found in the Ground
- The Swing at Night
- Knowledge and a Girl
- Hated Nightfall and Wounds to the Face (1995)
- The Gaoler's Ache for the Nearly Dead (1997)
- Ursula; Fear of the Estuary (1998)
- Und (1999)
- The Ecstatic Bible (2000) Prizewinner Adelaide International Festival co-production Brink Theatre (SA) and Wrestling School
- He Stumbled (2000)
- A House of Correction (2001)
- Gertrude - The CryGertrude - The CryGertrude - The Cry is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. The play had its world premiere in 2002, directed by the author, in the great hall of Elsinore Castle, Denmark as part of the annual international Hamlet Festival...
(2002) - 13 Objects and Summer School (2003)
- Dead Hands (2004)
- The Fence In Its Thousandth Year (2005)
- The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539The Seduction of Almighty God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539 is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. It premiered at Riverside Studios in London in 2006, in a production directed by French theatre director Guillaume Dujardin....
(2006) - Christ's Dog (2006)
- I Saw Myself (2008)
- The Dying of TodayThe Dying of TodayThe Dying of Today is a play by British playwright Howard Barker. The play received its world premiere at London's Arcola Theatre in 2008, directed by Gerrard McArthur and performed by George Irving and Duncan Bell.- Synopsis :...
(2008) - A Wounded Knife (2009)
Radio plays
- One afternoon on the 63rd level of the north face of the pyramid of Cheops the Great (1970)
- Henry V in two parts (1971)
- Herman, with Mille and Mick (1972)
- Scenes from an Execution (1984)
- Albertina
- The Quick And The Dead, Radio 3BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
(2004) - The Road, The House, The Road (2006) broadcast on Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
to commemorate his sixtieth birthday. - Let Me (2006) broadcast to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Third Programme (Radio 3)
Television plays
- Cows (1972)
- Mutinies (1974)
- The Chauffeur and the Lady (1974)
- Prowling Offensive (1975) (not transmitted)
- Conrod
- Heroes of Labour (1976)
- All Bleeding (1976) (not produced)
- Credentials of a Sympathiser (1976)
- Russia (1977) (not produced)
- Heaven (1978) (not produced)
- Pity in History (1984)
- The Blow, film (1985)
- Brutopia (1989)
Other Writings
Barker has also authored several volumes of poetry (Don't Exaggerate, The Breath of the Crowd, Gary the Thief, Lullabies for the Impatient, The Ascent of Monte Grappa, and The Tortman Diaries), an opera (Terrible Mouth with music by Nigel OsborneNigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne MBE, FRCM is a British composer.He serves as Reid Professor of music at the University of Edinburgh and has been teaching at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.He studied composition with Kenneth Leighton ,...
), and three collections of writings on the theatre (Arguments for a Theatre, Death, The One and The Art of Theatre, A Style And Its Origins).
External links
- Official Site
- The Wrestling School's page on Barker
- http://www.nietzschecircle.com/Hyp_May_10.pdf Special section on Howard Barker in Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics, Vol. V, Issue 1, May 2010. This features "Cruelty, Beauty, and the Tragic Art of Howard Barker" by Rainer J. Hanshe, "Access to the Body: The Theatre of Revelation in Beckett, Foreman, and Barker" by George Hunka, excerpts from Barker's Death, The One, and The Art of Theatre, which is introduced by Karoline Gritzner, and "The Sunless Garden of the Unconsoled: Some Destinations Beyond Catastrophe", a new and previously unpublished essay by Howard Barker, which is introduced by David Kilpatrick. The section also features high-resolution color reproductions of numerous paintings of Barker's.