{"id":561,"date":"2020-06-01T15:20:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T15:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/?p=561"},"modified":"2023-03-15T11:33:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:33:28","slug":"musicality-in-simon-stephens-plays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/21\/musicality-in-simon-stephens-plays\/","title":{"rendered":"Musicality in Simon Stephens\u2019 Plays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brigitte Bogar<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This article deals with Simon Stephens\u2019 use of music in his plays to enhance the narrative structure and as an underscoring emotive musical subtext, highlighting the playwrights\u2019 musical skills in addition to his already acknowledged talent as a writer. The main focus will be on Carmen Disruption<\/font>, a play inspired by Bizet\u2019s opera Carmen<\/font>, which twists the opera into a fragmented text about urban breakdown and globalization while incorporating and reimagining the music and elements of the original story.
Keywords: <\/strong>Simon Stephens,Carmen Disruption, Bizet, Country Music, Punk Rock, Pornography, Rinat Shaham, Habanera, Hank Williams, Johny Cash<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few would challenge the proposition that the soundscape (including music) heard in the background of a television commercial is vitally important in conveying the message and creating the kind of both emotional and behavioral responses an advertiser seeks. The same holds true on a much larger and economically significant basis for motion pictures. A playwright such as Simon Stephens does not enjoy the luxury of such technology. In contrast, his artistry is \u201cre-created\u201d each and every time it is performed. Critically, the detailed guidance for each production soundscape is recorded on paper only once\u2014directly from the author. To the extent details and directions originally mandated by the playwright are later altered or omitted in reproduction or translation, the authenticity of the original soundscape cannot help but become blurred and weakened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inexplicably, the acute consideration necessary to craft the huge array of audible components contributing to some plays is underappreciated. More specifically, the extent and depth of the musical expertise necessary to articulate specific musical selections and performance directions appears to have been mostly ignored. The deletion of musical performance directions is, therefore, especially problematic. Reviewers with little or no musical training themselves naturally cannot appreciate the importance or subtlety of musical references in written form. Since drama has often been studied and dealt with within literature, this has often been the case. Furthermore, to the extent that the musicality of a playwright is completely unknown to later researchers, by removing musical references, an important and vital aspect of later interpretation is lost. If music was an important (if unknown or underappreciated) part of a playwright\u2019s life, to which they have devoted years of effort and study, does it seem reasonable that musical references in their works should be assumed to be casual or unimportant? The importance of music in many plays becomes patent, even blatant, when considered in this light.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Simon Stephens and The Country Teasers live and intimate at the Buffalo Bar, London, 12th Feb 2005. Photo: \u201cGin Palace, Youtube\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Simon Stephens works mainly with The National Theatre in the U.K., and he is all about music. If, this statement seems a bit extreme, it is, however, one Stephens himself agrees with. In an article from The Guardian<\/em> on April 21, 2014, Stephens identifies one song as the inspiration for each play, listing almost all of his plays. The focus in this article is to examine the manner in which music (songs, instrumental underscoring and sound cues) support, reflect and advance dramatic action in the plays by Simon Stephens,[1]<\/sup><\/a> with Carmen Disruption<\/em> as a prime example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is very little written on Simon Stephens\u2019 plays and music. There are several interviews and blogs dealing with the matter, but Christopher Innes has conducted the only major scholarship in the area that digs deeper. In most of his articles, Dr. Innes\u2014not a musical scholar\u2014tended to focus on the textual elements as opposed to the musical ones, and only in one instance (Country Music<\/em>) did he look briefly at the musical structure (445\u201365). Most analyses of Simon Stephens\u2019 plays, to date, focus almost exclusively on the dialogue. I propose that, with very few exceptions, theorists and critics have mostly ignored the inclusion of music, sound effects, and the significance these aural elements offer the audience in terms of their reception of each particular play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of Stephens\u2019 more than 30 plays, Carmen Disruption<\/em> was chosen because it shows a good representation of his general use of music. The aural elements function as signaling devices denoting intertextual allusion, themes, structure and characterization. What I hope to have contributed with this article is a further layer of understanding as to this playwright\u2019s musical skills, in addition to their already-acknowledged talent as a writer of complex and entertaining dialogues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music serves as an essential device to enhance character definition. The importance of looking at authors, function, intended effects, production, context, message and transmission modes must be stressed, as well as how to code\/decode music, and how musical meanings are generated through effective stimulation or through semiotics. In dramatic musical productions, such as opera and theatre, the importance of the author\u2019s message[2]<\/sup><\/a> is even more critical. My argument maintains that text and music cannot be separated without causing serious damage to the author\u2019s creative vision, and that the total structure of a play exists as an expression of artistic unity similar to Wagner\u2019s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk<\/em>. Here, a distinction must be made between musical theatre and text-based theatre that is the focus of this article; music as support for plays rather than as a form in and of itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audio<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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