Interculturism in Contemporary Theatre: Cultural Respect vs. the Aesthetic

This article presented me with something of a dilemma. I’ve always been an ‘art first’ kind of guy. But I found myself on the fence with this one. Fischer begins the article referring to Goethe’s development of intercultural Shakespearean productions in the Weimer Republic. Goethe brought in everything Shakespeare, Racine, Calderon, Corneille, Gozzi, and Goldoni. I will admit was a little perturbed by the alteration of the original texts of Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. He didn’t do this for the sake of aesthetics however and I think that’s why it bugs me. Goethe edited the plays for the sake of moral standards and the aesthetics of the Weimar Republic. I think this was my biggest problem with it. This is not the only time that the works of Shakespeare have been altered to suit their audience. I’ve heard of production in the 1700’s which altered the ending of Romeo and Juliet so that Juliet wakes up before Romeo drinks the poison. They basically gave it a happy ending.

Then I find myself on the other side of the aisle when I read about the work of Peter Brook and Robert Wilson. Somehow it seemed to me that the incorporation of the local traditions of the area in which you are performing was very respectful. I can understand how someone would find it offensive if they gave no frame of reference to the ideas and traditions in their works. But I would like to make to points of argument to this.

1) To offend is obviously not the artist’s intention. No artist seeks to alienate his audience (well maybe Brecht but he meant this in a much different way). To say that this is intentionally offensive is false. The fault with that conclusion lies with the audience. This brings me to my next point.

2) We as artists cannot worry about offending the audience. Theatre is a subjective art form. It is entirely in the hands of the audience whether a piece of art is offensive. If we were worried about that nothing would ever get done.