The Entertainment Cycle

The entertainment cycle

The entertainment cycle main concern/research had to do with popular structures of entertainment. Each of the shows I staged manipulated preexisting forms to reveal their mode of operation, to expose the theatrical and dramatic devices on whose “invisibility” they traditionally rely. Through changing the context of the familiar experience, by exposing the forms (whether making ludicrous or strange, using defamiliarization or alienation), the familiar is placed in a new and dissonant context.

Using familiar formats, be it a cooking show, soap opera, operetta or sitcom, I first study their structures (timing, use of text, plot developments, etc) and then put what can be termed “experimental devices” on top of them. Some times it is the subject matters (classic as soap) that are being mixed, other times it is the performance style (political text acted in a sitcom technique). The mix main purpose is to bring back a certain level of theatricality to the all too brainy style of the current performance scene. I find the minimalist approach too dry and unexciting, and in a way too elitist as just another manifestation of power exercised by a certain social class, the exploitative class. The so-called “bad” or old styles have the potential in them to express important ideas that “good” styles cannot touch; ideas that exist, for instance, in the unconscious. But more important, to express them without sacrificing the joy of pure theatricality or the elements of game within the performance context. The same, by the way, can be said about the use of language in theatre; “good” text as oppose to “bad” text is a key in the evaluation of a theatre piece, but by using “bad” text or by changing and shifting the prominence of the text in a show hierarchy we can call attention to other important aspects of theatre making.

Each piece/show in this cycle deals with the style and topics mentioned above. The aim was to revive certain lost and forgotten styles, to re-find the basic magic of theatricality while in the same time putting into use all that the experimental theatre and performance taught us in the last fifty years.

Yosi Wanunu