The Fool in European Theatre: Stages of Folly

236 Pages·2012·1.295 MB·English

by  Tim Prentki (auth.)

The Fool in European Theatre
AlsobyTimPrentki
THEAPPLIEDTHEATREREADER(co-editedwithSheilaPreston)
POPULARTHEATREINPOLITICALCULTURE(co-authoredwithJanSelman)
ANINTERNATIONALCOMPANIONTOTHEPOETRYOFW.B.YEATS(co-authored
withColinSmythe)
FRANCISWARNER:POETANDDRAMATIST
The Fool in European
Theatre
Stages of Folly
Tim Prentki
Palgrave
macmillan
©TimPrentki2012
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
For Pauline, Sam and Tom
Contents
1 FoolingwithGodsandMen 1
2 FoolingwithCarnivalandLent 22
3 FoolingwithFalstaff 50
4 FoolingwithLove 69
5 FoolingwithKings 96
6 FoolingwithReason 120
7 FoolingwithContradiction 141
8 FoolingwithRevolution 163
9 FoolingwithExistence 184
10 FoolingwithApplications 201
Bibliography 221
Index 226
vii
1
Fooling with Gods and Men
If trickster stirs to life on the open road, if he embodies ambi-
guity,ifhe“stealsfire”toinventnewtechnologies,ifheplays
withallboundariesbothinnerandouter,andsoon–thenhe
muststillbeamongus,fornoneofthesehasdisappearedfrom
the world. His functions, like the bones of Osiris, may have
beenscattred,buttheyhavenotbeendestroyed.Theproblem
istofindwherehisgatheredbodymight come backtolife,or
whereitmightalreadyhavedoneso.
(Hyde,1999,p.11)
Playful, irreverent and frequently irrational, folly at its most serious
detonates confrontation with both society and the self. It constantly
seeks out a persona or mask through which it can disclaim what it
articulates. Beyond the easy, external targets of satire, the poetics of
follyoperateattheheartofthebodypolitic,questioningthecherished
orthodoxies of correctness and peering around the edges of our most
deep-rooted myths. The earliest records of the cultural life of human
societies reveal the presence of figures whose role is to provoke laugh-
ter by depicting the absurdity of the human condition; not just the
more obvious and excessive vanities and pretensions of the rich and
thepowerfulbutthatveryabsurditywhichconfrontsanever-changing,
time-boundspecies.Thesefiguresandtheopinionstypicallyassociated
with them are constantly placed in opposition to the dominant dis-
coursesofthehistoricalmomentsinwhichtheyoccurandyetexpress
this opposition through devices that enable them to escape from the
trap of a counter-discourse. In Foucauldian terms they are not seeking
anauthorityfortheirpositionandthereforearenotconcernedwiththe
discourses of power through which all human life is conducted. These
1
2 TheFoolinEuropeanTheatre
figures, real or more usually fictional, are inevitably outsiders who can
only articulate their views by being detached from the societies upon
whichtheycomment.Frequently,theyexistinakindoftwilightofthe
semi-detached, uncompromised by allegiances to families, careers, ide-
ologies, material gain and all those other considerations that contrive
to cloud judgement. They are described as foolish by those who live
by worldly criteria for denying themselves opportunities for prosperity
and advancement. This quality of folly can be a mask worn for both
disguise and protection or an essential element of personality such as
naiveté or simplicity which gives to the possessor a capacity to see dif-
ferently; typically to transcend the ego. Due to their limited interest in
the material world such characters are often felt to be in closer com-
munionwiththespiritworldthantheirfellowmortals.Somefoolsare
professionals,earningtheirliving(suchasitis)bytheirwits.Someare
‘naturals’,foolishwithoutartificeandunabletobeanythingelse.Many
inhabitanintermediatespacebetweenthesepositions,slippingbetween
premeditated and spontaneous folly; at times worldly fools; at other
times holy fools. This shape-changing, intangible quality of the trick-
sterhasmadethemespeciallysuitableforthemediumoftheatrewhere
rapidchangesofrole,disguiseandthetricksofillusionarethestockin
trade.
Whether in life or art, and in many circumstances the demarcation
between the two is difficult to maintain with any confidence, figures
going under a variety of names but manifesting congruent character-
istics have been identified across the whole range of world cultures
whichhaveevolvedwithoutcontactwitheachother.FromtheVidusaka
described in The Kama Sutra (Burton, 1994) to the Trickster of the
Winnebago people of North America, from the Ananse spider trickster
of West Africa to Loki, the Norse Fool and Hermes, Greek trickster of
godsandmen,‘[m]anifestlywearehereinthepresenceofafigureand
athemeorthemeswhichhavehadaspecialandpermanentappealand
anunusualattractionformankindfromtheverybeginningsofciviliza-
tion’(Radin,1956,xxiii).Somevitalpartofwhatconstituteshumanity
isboundupinthenotionofbeingabletolaughatourselves.Soprecious
is this capacity that its operation is often not left to chance but for-
malisedinbothsocialstructuresandartisticforms.Asignificantaspect
of this operation is the placing of laughter and those who cause it at
the very centre of the body politic. In former times the fool, clown
or idiot has occupied a privileged position as the intimate of the most
powerful person in the nation, the tribe or the village. If laughter is a
necessary function for any human being, it appears even more impor-
tant that those who control the lives of others should be exposed to it
FoolingwithGodsandMen 3
on a regular basis. Through laughter such guardians of our economic,
social,moralandculturallifecanbewarnedofthedangersintowhich
they may run if they take themselves too seriously and believe in the
infallibility of their own judgements. Laughter asserts another way of
seeing the picture; often the view from the grassroots which can offer
a different perspective from the seat of government, the boardroom or
thetelevisionstudio.
InhisstudyofWinnebagotrickstercyclesPaulRadindiscoveredthat
thefigureofthetricksterwasimplicatedalikeintheaffairsofgodsand
ofmen,oftencommutingbetweenthetwo.Inthisregardheresembles
hisequivalentsinmanyotherculturesacrosstheworldandgivesriseto
speculationsonthedivinityofhisorigins:
The impression one gets in perusing these various trickster cycles is
that one must distinguish carefully between his consciously willed
creative activities and the benefactions that come to mankind inci-
dentally and accidently through the Trickster’s activities. This, of
course, raises an old question, namely, whether Trickster was origi-
nallyadeity.Arewedealingherewithadisintegrationofhiscreative
activities or with a merging of two entirely distinct figures, one a
deity,theotherahero,representedeitherashumanoranimal?Hasa
heroherebeenelevatedtotherankofagodorwasTricksteroriginally
adeitywithtwosidestohisnature,oneconstructive,onedestructive,
one spiritual, the other material? Or, again, does Trickster antedate
thedivine,theanimalandthehuman?
(Radin,1956,p.125)
The ambiguity lies at the core of the fool’s representation: at once
holy, heroic and idiotic; both more and less than the rest of mankind.
Attemptstocategorisearedoomedsinceitisafundamentalpartofthe
make-upofafooltodefycategories.He∗luresustowardsdefinitiononly
tovanishatthemomentwhentheanalystbelievessheisapproaching
an understanding. Lewis Hyde describes this characteristic in terms of
bordercrossing:
In short, trickster is a boundary-crosser. Every group has its edge,
its sense of in and out, and trickster is always there, at the gates
of the city and the gates of life, making sure there is commerce.
He also attends the internal boundaries by which groups articulate
theirsociallife.Weconstantlydistinguish–rightandwrong,sacred
and profane, clean and dirty, male and female, young and old, liv-
ing and dead – and in every case trickster will cross the line and