Commercial anxiety erodes quality
Published 04.30
Got home after two weeks at international theater festivals, I see that the so-called drama debate is still simmering in Sweden. When Jonas Gardell after a month finally answers in that debate he started himselfit turns out that he still hasn’t understood that the post-dramatic is not a new trend. Nothing wrong with wanting to see more traditional dramas on stage, but to judge all plays that lack conventional dramaturgy, action or clear turning points – plays such as Jon Fosse, Elfriede Jelinek, Lars Norén or Christina Ouzounidis written – as “not real drama” is both incorrect and ignorant. And also rude. Which I commented in mine newsletter already April 30 (it is republished here on my Substack).
In the same comment, I pointed to what I believe is Swedish theatre’s biggest problem. Because it is true that such exist, even if Gardell is not able to make any sensible analysis, but in his reply instead takes the opportunity to market his own dramatic business.
The commercial anxiety which plagues Swedish theatrical life and is exacerbated by constant cutbacks erodes the artistic quality, and this is to the highest degree a cultural political issue. I agree with Jonas Gardell (and others) that a stable client structure is needed for newly written plays in our theatres, just as competence and quality must be protected in all parts of the performing arts. Because as it is now, the cuts have begun to be clearly felt on our stages. On the one hand, in anxious, commercially used repertoires (where celebrities with no theater experience debut with varying success and overtures in adaptations of books and films are noticeable). On the other hand, in unfinished productions with a lack of acting, direction and dramaturgy. Carelessness is allowed through, while theater managers don’t really dare to take any artistic risks and don’t dare to fail. Because economics and measurable goals govern everything, including the performing arts.
So, yes, we need to talk more about the quality, as the director Erik Holmström wisely pointed out in his post. But many artists are terrified of criticizing the industry that feeds them, which easily leads to self-censorship.
As critics try Of course, I always discuss quality in my reviews, but even criticism is in the clutches of market forces, whereupon the critical space is reduced in the public eye. At the same time, this debate shows the need for more open – well-read – debates about the conditions of the performing arts.
Now the drama has the existence after all discussed and debated for several yearslikewise, the impact of post-dramatics after the last half century or so has contributed to many essay topics within the academy. There is thus every opportunity to read up before one, like Gardell, claims to have discovered a new trend. What was once avant-garde is now convention, stage works of art are more the rule than the exception and the genres have long since dissolved. At the same time, a lot of the more conventional kind of drama is actually still being written, not least in children’s and youth theatre.
Bets on raising the status of drama as a literary genre has also been done in Sweden. Such as at last year’s book fair in Gothenburg with its dramatic theme and in an innumerable number of panels during Swedish performing arts biennials. But political will and resources are also needed so that theaters and publishers dare to invest in artistic development and can build continuity within both drama and the other elements of performing arts. “Nothing will come of nothing”, to speak to King Lear.
This is known in other countries, where culture generally has a higher status. I just got home from the impressive International Shakespeare Festival in Craiova, Romania. It was started by zealots in 1994 and this year’s program contains close to 500 events. During the pompous opening, both the culture minister and the mayor spoke proudly, as did the Japanese ambassador, who obviously had a diplomatic hand in the many invited Japanese guest games. It signals that the theater is seen there as an important meeting place.
To Romania came me straight from Montenegro’s very first showcase for theatre. Their culture minister had also put his hand (with money) over the venture to showcase Montenegrin theater to international guests, such as critics and festival programmers, to stimulate exchange. Amongst the diversity of expressions and stories that reflect the small country’s history, present and theater life, I saw, among other things, a very fine production of Jon Fosse’s “Heat”, performed by three Russian exile actors under the direction of Philip Grinvald. Afterwards, the Serbian director told me how he discovered and fell in love with Fosse’s drama, whereupon I suggested that he should read Lars Norén, which it turned out he had no idea about.
How it is that Fosse’s drama finds its way to a basement theater in Budva via Serbia, but not Norén’s is hardly a question of quality. Rather, one can suspect that Norway was better at supporting and spreading its dramatic pride than Sweden. Oslo has two international festivals named after Norway’s most famous playwright – the Ibsen Festival and the Fosse Festival. In Sweden’s capital, there is no international theater festival at all (no, Bergmanfestival’s two guest performances per year do not count) and when an independent group like Konträr puts on international programs despite a failing economy, it is a matter of sheer stubbornness.
The theater always reflects its contemporaries, and when the world changes, it is entirely logical that the performing arts explore new expressions and new dramaturgical forms to portray current themes, such as chaos, division and uncertainty. But right now, Swedish theater most clearly reflects the cultural-political dismantling of the infrastructure of the performing arts. Imagine if we could have it a little more like in Craiova, where every two years, based on an over 400-year-old playwright, they create an international meeting place and also manage to engage a young, local audience with a wide program of high-quality guest performances, concerts, talks and clubs. This year under an aptly witty slogan: “Will matters”. The festival goodie bag also contained an anthology of contemporary Romanian drama translated into English.
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