Babilonia
theatre at odds
when i was a child, whenever people would behave as if everything was fine when it wasn’t, my mom would say “estan en Babilonia,” which translates literally to “they are in Babylon,” whereas colloquially the expression means closer to “those people are mentally out to lunch.”
theatre (industry) has been in Babilonia for a while now.
chalk it up to a mixture of trauma-based denialism, willful ignorance, delusional naivete, and/or a commitment to burnout culture at all costs, but given the state of everything in the world right now - ongoing SARS2 pandemic, incoming potential Hantavirus pandemic, mass disablement (cognitive and otherwise) of most of the population (due to lack of disease control), the rise of measles, tuberculosis, RSV, tetanus, Mpox, and even polio, rampant air pollution, escalating fascism and techno feudalism, food and energy crises, ecocidal, genocidal wars, and climate emergency - you would think the theatre would be actively trying to figure out how to take action to adapt and change to rapidly evolving dangerous times. but instead it feels very much like much of the industry (writ large) is choosing to live like the chatty characters sitting in their chaise lounges in Caryl Churchill’s ESCAPED ALONE - gossiping about celebrities, indulging in the lifestyles of the rich and famous’ adjacency to oligarchy, and carrying on as if nothing whatsoever is happening that could possibly affect and is affecting artists, audiences and the people too that live in the neighborhoods where building-based theatres exist.
Babilonia is barely alive and unwell, but it is Babilonia! seems to be the message heard daily!
As theatres plan seasons five-seven years from now (as if they know what will happen then - is anyone listening to the climate scientists and evidence-based virologists and people working on the ground floor of food and energy resource allocation?), and announce their BIG plans to open new buildings and throw more galas and bring more shows to Broadway and the West End and on world tours, it’s surreal to even sustain a conversation about - uh - reality with anyone.
Listen. I want theatre to thrive. I have devoted my entire life to it. I have sacrificed nearly everything for it, and I mean everything. The song “What I Did for Love” from A CHORUS LINE is my entire art/life. Play after play, hundreds (yep!) of plays written, conferences organized, books published, adaptations and translations written, songs, essays, screenplays, blogs, national and global theatre actions, teaching, you name it, I have non-MacArthur Prize done it (while wishing, wishing…) living on credit cards (still) and a wing and a few prayers. I curated and edited TOWARD A FUTURE THEATRE at the start of this SARS2 pandemic for Methuen Drama. I am, if anything, forward thinking!
Because for much of my creative life, career-wise, despite what it may seem like on the surface, I have been told the work is too weird, not weird enough, too lyrical, too brutal, too sweet, too tender, too odd, too Latine, not Latine enough, too “European,” too nothing (literally, people telling me they threw my work in the trash can - quote from an actual reputable theatre) and/or “that I need to wait my turn… wait… wait some more… keep waiting… still waiting… wait some more…oops, you waited too long, stop waiting, why are you waiting.”
What’s the Sondheim song? “I’m Still here?” That’s what it feels like most of the time, and yet the HERE of the HERE is ever more precarious, uncertain, in doubt and assembled by crumbling building blocks of hope, because when post-truth is the new truth as sociologically engineered “reality,” based on nothing but vibes and force-fed ai, it is hard to believe in much of anything, let alone keep faith in humanity.
Coincidentally, online I happened across two old interviews recently - one with the late comedian George Carlin on The Charlie Rose Show, and another with playwright Wallace Shawn at the launch of his collection of essays SLEEPING AMONG SHEEP UNDER A STARRY SKY. Both said something similar about their relationship to faith in humanity. Carlin spoke of changing his point of view as a writer/comedian in his later career - from being someone inside culture to some degree to someone that was witnessing culture from a vantage point as a bemused, distanced observer. He spoke about losing faith in humanity as a whole, but keeping his faith in individual human beings. Shawn spoke about also changing his perspective mid-stream in his writing life - going from being inside the work, in the mess of it, to one day realizing everyone was playing a role, and that his job as a writer was to document the theatre of life and how people played the roles assigned to them or that they chose from the perspective of a someone wondering why and how people behaved the way they did. It was somehow comforting to come across these two interviews, because it gave me permission to think about how the stance of a bemused, if embattled observer of the MESS might be a healthier way to at least being in this life/world, even if for a while, even if you know that the only way to move any way forward is through.
Because for some time now, instead of going THROUGH _ which means acknowledging massive grief, loss, trauma, and a world that has normalized in less then five years a population suffering from new onset chronic illnesses and cognitive dysfunction brought on by mostly preventable SARS 2 infections in unmitigated work/learning/social/health spaces, and as a result, the premature and often sudden deaths of their friends, loved ones, neighbors, children, and fellow co-stewards of this planet, while Gaza and Lebanon are being destroyed by the rulers in Israel and their chief allies and investors, Iran is being invaded, Sudan and Congo are suffering mostly underreported genocides, and yes, Ukraine is still under attack, and, and… - instead of SITTING WITH, FACING, CONFRONTING, BEING WITH what the barbarians at many gates have told people to accept or else, the ruling class and their enablers and middle managers at all levels of so-called society have decided to sprint into an air-brushed irreality that refuses even the mention of harms done.
While some well-known figures in theatre say that what artists need to make now is “light entertainment” to allow people to “escape,” I would ask them what do we do in a society that is/has already committed to escaping from reality entirely?
We already live in Babilonia. We need to come back down to earth. Before it’s too late.