{"id":160,"date":"2016-03-01T17:11:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/5\/?page_id=160"},"modified":"2016-03-05T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2016-03-05T17:36:08","slug":"editorial-comment","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/5\/editorial-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial Comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Helena Ser\u00f4dio<\/strong>[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

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This section assembles five different approaches to theatre in its manifold possibilities of addressing relevant themes in life and securing a specific way of creating a sense of belonging in a community, at the same time that it asserts aesthetic principles as important guidelines for life in general.<\/p>\n

Normunds Akots explains how theatre director Alvis Hermanis has conducted, since 2003 at the New Riga Theatre, stage-explorations focused on Latvians, thus involving his actors in studying and portraying daily life in their country. Beginning with Long Life<\/em>, he has created powerful performances that have circulated internationally and given a new way of practicing and evaluating Stanislavski\u2019s teachings.<\/p>\n

Patricia Keeney and Don Rubin look at the most recent editions of Shakespeare\u2019s and Shaw\u2019s festivals in Canada, thus elaborating on the interest and value of classics in a time, as they say, \u201cwhen a play only a decade or two old is already being termed a classic.\u201d No wonder that Tony Kushner or Suzan-Lori Parks have been invited to line up with Shaw, and that the Stratford Festival includes musicals asJesus Christ Superstar <\/em>or approaches the grim universe of Harold Pinter\u2019s Homecoming<\/em>. It is, therefore, most befitting that these Canadian critics ask \u201cHow can classically-mandated theatres around the world keep inventing new ways of seeing, being and becoming?\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrice Pavis reads through the play signed by KIM Kwang Lim not only the Kazakhe legend that was its source, but also the way this performance \u2013 with puppets \u2013 presents and examines important topics of our today\u2019s world as business travels, profit, wild capitalism, war, cell phones, etc. But above all it questions some aspects of today\u2019s Korean society, ponders whether there is an Asian type of humanity and what can be the importance of poetry in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

If art can be perceived as defending human values, how can someone that was convicted of a murder step onstage and perform? This is the question Louise Vigeant raises as regarding the participation of Bertrand Cantat in the trilogy by Sophocles directed by Wajdi Mouawad. Having been sentenced for the death of his wife in 2004, and having been in prison since then, can this invitation be seen as a sign of redemption offered to this renowned singer? The outcry that this invitation raised among women in several countries is especially intended to denounce Cantat\u2019s participation in a tragedy where women are victims of violence, and this is the main theme of Vigeant\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

Celebrated Portuguese theatre director and actor Lu\u00eds Miguel Cintra opens this section by postulating a sort of a political purpose for theatrical activity: practitioners can \u201cfind in it more life and a different life from that [they] are expected to live\u201d, and the public \u2013 especially the one he has been addressing for the past decades at Teatro da Cornuc\u00f3pia \u2013 can gain from his vindication of the poetic and the metaphorical. Hence his denial of a \u201ccopy-paste\u201d solution, vindicating that theatre \u201chas to stop being an imitation of the society that we know or the clich\u00e9s of human behaviour\u201d, representing instead \u201ca saint rather than a sensible man\u201d. Incidentally (or not…) he is doing so presently in Lisbon by staging \u2013 in a most extraordinary, intelligent and sensitive way – Jean Genet\u2019s Le balcon \/ The Balcony<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Maria Helena Ser\u00f4dio<\/strong> is Full Professor at the Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, where she directs the post-graduate Program on Theatre Studies. She has published widely on English and Portuguese Drama, Comparative Studies and Theatre Studies in various national and international journals, newspapers and collective books. She is the President of the Portuguese Association of Theatre Critics and directs two research projects at the Centre for Theatre Studies of the University of Lisbon. She has edited several books on theatre and is author of, among others,William Shakespeare: A sedu\u00e7\u00e3o dos sentidos (William Shakespeare: Seducing the senses)<\/em>. Lisboa: Cosmos, 1996, and Questionar apaixonadamente: O teatro na vida de Lu\u00eds Miguel Cintra (Passionately questioning: The Theatre in Lu\u00eds Miguel Cintra\u2019s Life)<\/em>. Lisboa: Cotovia, 2001.<\/p>\n

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What is Theatre about?<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div>\n
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Latvian anthropology \u00e0 la Alvis Hermanis<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div>\n
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A PROPOS DE LA PIECE DE KIM KWANG LIM ET SA MISE EN SC\u00c8NE PAR YOON JEONGSEOP<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div>\n
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Notes From Canada : What Is A Classic? And Why? And When?<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div>\n
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Sophocle, avec ou sans Bertrand Cantat<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div>\n
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Chroniques de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 japonaise : \u00ab Th\u00e9\u00e2tre dans\u00e9 \u00bb de Toshiki Okada<\/a><\/h4><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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