The play XX takes place entirely within a two-story house of twenty rooms. These rooms—ten on each floor—have been constructed around a large hall with stairs. They are connected to each other by doors, which lead into corridors and also from room-to-room. On the second floor, the rooms have windows and through these, as well as through the corridors, the spectator can see theatre seats, in this case those of the Odéon in Paris, dimly outlined in the shadows. Looking upward, one can see the decorative ceiling of the famous Paris theatre. Even before the performance begins, it is simply and clearly established that the spectator [for the purpose of this article, the author] is at the theatre, within theatrical space/time.

The play, however, does not begin at the same time for everyone. The relationship between actor and spectator is established on new ground.

Within the last 10 years, many directors of “gestural theatre” have attempted to dispense with the author. As a result, the theatre is used as a vehicle for conveying a “message.” That is the job of newspapers, theses, political speeches, and this very text. But art finds its essence only in the ambivalence of all things and their signs, in their unfathomable ambiguity.

Some directors rely on classical culture. We expect from a true creator an exploration of the unknown that opens up into the infinite, not a rehashing of mummified mythologies.

Directors appear unwilling to accept their dependence upon the author, who is bound by everything written before his time, by the state of the language in his time.

The reel in Real Reel refers to a type of industrial spool used for electrical cables. The play is without a story, but rather a succession of scenic moments of no logical sequence. Thus, the spectator is transported from one unknown to another without progression.

An account of Apocalypsis cum figuris has long been overdue. It is total theatre, collectively created, no sooner thought through than orchestrated for the proper instruments, for the specific members of the company. It is the most mature fruit so far produced by the ascetic labors of the Wroclaw Theatre Laboratory. In any case, it is an event, one of more than local interest, and we don't get those every day of the week. It needs, therefore, to be recorded as accurately as possible before it slips out of focus. Fair enough, only how? Seldom does something so straightforward prove so baffling.

Ordinarily in describing a play we can always fall back on the script, on the lines and the plot. In Apocalypsis there are only the bare bones of a scenario. In the reading, the text is a haphazard jumble of quotations from the Bible, liturgical chants, Dostoevski, T. S. Eliot, Simone Weil.

When The People Show began in 1966, there was no experimental theatre in Britain, not any. There were no groups. The only theatre in London was the West End, and that was it. There was only one theatre-in-the-round in Britain, the Victoria at Stoke-on-Trent, run by a guy called Stephen Joseph, who was a beautiful guy, but who later died. He was the only one really. So when we started, it was very exciting.

I had studied theatre at a teachers’ training college called Trent Park. We didn't study much acting technique, but we studied a lot of improvisation technique, because that is what you need with children. It was a very useful thing to have done. Trent Park was a music, art and drama college, and we found ourselves, while there, working all the time with music students and art students. From those days onward a lot of values, in a way, were knocked down for us.

The People Show 39 was presented for two weeks (from August 19 to September 4, 1971) at the Open Space Theatre on Tottingham Court Road in London, England.

The members of The People Show did not rehearse this particular show before the opening. They met together, however, and discussed what images and general dialogue each wanted to perform, as well as the over-all structure and timing of these images in relationship to each other. This resulted, of course, in a slightly different performance each night as the four young actors explored, changed and improvised the separate parts. The dialogues recorded below are unique for that one performance, but, nevertheless, give a good idea of all the performances.

The following description is of a performance on the 25th of August. The members performing were Laura Gilbert, Michael Figgis, Mark Long, and Jose Nava. There were less than fifty people in the audience.

1789, directed by Ariane Mnouchkine, is a production of the Théâtre du Soleil. It was created in Milan in 1970 at the invitation of the Piccolo Teatro and has been a tremendous popular success during 1970-1971 in Paris. The play is performed in a former cartridge factory and army barracks in the forest of Vincennes, on the eastern outskirts of Paris. Inside the large rectangular building the theatre company has divided the huge space into two parts, cleaned it up, and minimally painted it. One section has become a “lobby,” where tickets are picked up, some costume racks are stored and a photo display of former productions is mounted on panels.

Victory Over the Sun was a very important performance in the early history of the avant-garde. Produced in December, 1913, in St. Petersburg, Russia, it was primarily the work of the three men pictured above: the composer Mikhail Matyushin (seated left), the designer Kazimir Malevich (seated right) and the playwright Alexei (Alexander) Kruchenykh (lying down). (Note the setting, which appears to consist of unmatched drop and wings hung upside down. It is not known whether this arrangement was actually used in Victory Over the Sun, but in the sixth scene of the opera, there is the unusual stage direction: “[the Fat Man] peeps inside the watch: the tower the sky the streets are upside down—as in a mirror.”

One significant aspect of the production is that it was to this work that Malevich attributed the origin of Suprematism. Apparently he painted at least one extremely simplified non-objective backdrop for the performance: his sketch for the black and white square divided diagonally is reproduced at the right.