The end of the experiential and moral speculation in the art of theatre is knowledge. Because the aim of the art of theatre is not to educate, enlighten or entertain, it is worth examining for just a moment the nature of this knowledge — but not its utility; there is no utility inherent in knowledge itself. (The title of my play What She Knew, which opens on 1 December — tickets here — is quite specific on this point; what Jocasta did with the knowledge gained by her experience, as well as whatever the spectator does with the knowledge he acquires as he witnesses the play, is mysterious and irrelevant.)
The art of theatre permits and encourages the play of imagination; this play leads to both pain and pleasure, but more precisely it leads to a realization of alternative cognitions — cognitions of experience and the world. The experience and expression that are circumscribed by the culture industry render this knowledge, and especially the people who possess this knowledge, abject: it remains too great a threat to the security of the industry itself. It is uncertain what more we can reasonably expect from theatre; but isn’t this knowledge enough? Especially if it is gained through the stress that accompanies the alternation of rejection and compassion, the tension producing new conscious energies with and through which the characters and the spectators can remake themselves (for the industry will not permit itself to be remade). This is not a knowledge for those who insist that they already know themselves beyond any shadow of doubt, those who have a faith in themselves as the religious have a faith in an inerrant God, but only for those who remain open to the possibilities of experiential and moral speculation, who know that they are not God, and that there is no God anywhere else.
What She Knew, performed by Gabriele Schafer and written and directed by George Hunka, opens at manhattan theatre source, 177 Macdougal Street, on 1 December 2010, running Wednesday-Saturday at 8.00pm through 11 December. Information and tickets available here.
Image: Oedipus and Jocasta, Joel-Peter Witkin. Courtesy Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago / Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY.
Would the above apply to other artistic media, such as painting, music, poetry etc., or is there something about theater in particular that makes it better suited for “experiential and moral speculation”?
I suppose this depends on your conception of aesthetics. All media may be employed in a project of experiential and moral speculation, but because theatre as a bodied medium that uses language, this, and especially tragic theatre, provides the broadest disciplinary palette.