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Complex Theatre: Science and Myth in Three Contemporary Performances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Cara Gargano
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Abstract

Today, argues Cara Gargano, we are at the cusp of a scientific paradigm shift which is having a profound influence on the way we construct our art and our identity. Like the shift from an oral to a literary mode of communication, or from a geocentric to a heliocentric world view, the movement from a Newtonian to a quantum world view has altered not only the way we understand our universe but the way we write and perform it. In recent years, critics David R. George, Natalie Crohn Schmitt, David Porush, and William Demastes have used terminology and concepts from the ‘new science’ to theorize about theatre. In this article Cara Gargano explores three new works that premiered in the 1995–96 New York City season – Rent, Interfacing Joan, and The Universe (ie, How It Works) – and discusses the way these performances rely, consciously or unconsciously, on this paradigm shift. She proposes that all three plays, while different in style, venue, and narrative, have at their base an assumption of a quantum universe – that is, they create a holistic mythology that gestures toward the theatre's origins as a ritual interaction with our world, and moves from a postmodern to a pre-millennial stance. Cara Gargano is Chair of the Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance at the C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University. She has published in Modern Drama, L'Annuaire Théâtrale, New Theatre Quarterly, and Dance and Research. Her recent article in Reliologiques deals with the myth of Orpheus as a model for the quantum world.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 14 , Issue 54 , May 1998 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

Notes and References

1. In 1900, Max Planck discovered that matter does not move in a sedate, linear fashion but transports in violent bumps. He called the packets of energy quanta. The quantum is the basic unit of energy.

2. Hassan, Ihab, The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 215–16Google Scholar.

3. Prigogine's, Ilya work is accessible to the layperson in Order out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue With Nature, written with Stengers, Isabelle (New York: Bantam, 1984)Google Scholar.

4. See George, David R., ‘Quantum Theatre – Potential Theatre: a New Paradigm?’, New Theatre Quarterly, V, No. 18 (1989)Google Scholar.

5. See Michel Bitbol's introduction to Schroedinger's, IrwinPhysique quantique et représentation du monde (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1992)Google Scholar.

6. I have deliberately chosen three different kinds and styles of play and three different theatrical venues. It's worth noting that at each theatre the performance was sold out and there was a substantial waiting list at the box office.

7. The popular example of the ‘butterfly effect’ is that when a butterfly beats its wings in Peking it may cause a snowstorm in New York City a year later.

8. Quoted in Theatre Week, 29 April 1996, p. 34.

9. Larson's, JonathanSeasons of Love is quoted from American Theatre, XIII, No. 24 (07–08 1996), p. 12Google Scholar.

10. Brantley, Ben, New York Times, 5 01 1996Google Scholar.

11. See ‘Le Regard auto-reflexif du comédien: le doublement et dédoublement au one-man-show’, in L' Annuaire Théâtral, February 1996.

12. Louise Smith currently teaches theatre at Antioch College. At the time of this writing, she is still touring Interfacing Joan and is also available for workshops.

13. See Shlain, Leonard, Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light (New York: William Morrow, 1991)Google Scholar.

14. Campbell, Joseph, Myths to Live By (New York: Bantam, 1972), p. 221Google Scholar.

15. See Campbell, Joseph, Creative Mythology (New York: Arkana, 1968)Google Scholar.

16. See Stoppard, Tom, Arcadia (London: Faber, 1993), p. 74Google Scholar.

17. See Porush, David, ‘Making Chaos: Two Views of a New Science’, in New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly, Summer 1990Google Scholar.

18. I am indebted to Richard H. Malone for suggesting this term during a conversation on this topic.

19. I take this term from Gell-Mann, Murray, in The Quark and the Jaguar (New York: Freeman, 1994)Google Scholar.