Balls - Let There Be MORE Christmas Theatre!

Written by TJ Dawe

a stage production of A Christmas Carol This is a republication of a piece I wrote a year ago, refuting the desperately one-sided points I encountered in an article published around the same time. - TJ

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The arguments presented in Fuck Christmas Theatre are absolutist, naive and terribly flawed. I’m cracking my knuckles in anticipation of knocking them into oblivion.

To distrust anyone in the arts with commercial motives pretty much disqualifies everyone but pianist Glenn Gould, who believed the ideal relationship of artist to audience is one to zero (saying that the artist should "be permitted to operate in secret, as it were, unconcerned with - or better still, unaware of - the presumed demands of the marketplace")(Mr. Gould had Asperger's, by the way). Every artist needs to eat. Every theatre has operating costs. If they can get people in the door at Christmas by presenting seasonal fare, that can keep them afloat to present other stuff the rest of the year. Increased attendance in December can build an audience for other plays - plays of originality and daring and depth, which wouldn’t be possible without the reliable income of a sure-fire Christmas show. Kevin Spacey subsidizes his theatre work with the occasional crappy film. George Clooney alternates between puffy Hollywood fare and art house work. gene wilder and peter boyle in Young Frankenstein Steve Martin follows that pattern too. And Johnny Depp. One pays for the other. Art in a system with a high overhead works like that.

Also, something created with purely commercial motives can still hit the bullseye. Singin’ in the Rain - certainly one of the greatest films ever made - came about because a producer had the rights to a bunch of unrelated songs and wanted to stuff them all into the same musical. Young Frankenstein wound up with the inspired casting of Gene Wilder, Peter Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Awful Dreck Boyle and Marty Feldman because the same agent represented all three of them. Conversely, art created with only the highest personal ideals can turn out dreary, stiff and empty, no matter how experienced the creators, and how unfettered they might be in terms of creative control. Ever see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull?

As Fuck Christmas Theatre graciously admits the people involved in those Chicago Christmas productions have their own motives. You don't know them. And aren't those motives their business? Doesn’t any artist have the right to create whatever they’d like? If you don’t like plays about Christmas, don’t write one. Don’t act in one. Don’t attend one. To hector anyone for speaking on any subject is a step toward censorship. If Christmas plays are flimsy pieces of commercial cardboard, let the audience decide that. If they don’t like them, they’ll stop coming back year after year.

Scrooge But that’s the thing: they do come back year after year. The sheer abundance of productions of A Christmas Carol (and, by extension, any other play/movie/TV special that has the theme of someone discovering “the true spirit of Christmas”) says that it’s become one of our central myths as a culture. People are clearly interested in telling it again and again and hearing it again and again, just like the ancient Greeks never tired of seeing someone recite The Odyssey. If some of these productions are less heartfelt than you might like, that makes the case all the stronger: even poorly told, the story still speaks to something deep within in its A Klingon Christmas Carol audience.

And when a story attains the status of cultural myth, some adventurous souls inevitably start to take it apart, turn it upside down, and see what they can do to breathe new life into it. Here’s are a few other productions of A Christmas Carol playing in the windy city this month (which you neglected to list): A Christmas Carol: the Silent Bah-Humbug (performed without words), A Klingon Christmas Carol (performed entirely in the Klingon language, with translation titles projected above the stage), A Beer Carol (Scrooge is CEO of a brewery), and Charles Dickens Begrudgingly Performs 'A Christmas Carol' Again. And here are some other holiday themed plays: Rudolph the Red-hosed Reindeer ("Santa digs animals, Rudolph wears women's underwear and poor Hermey the elf isn't fabulous enough for his flaming friends"), Hannukatz, Santa Claus vs. the Easter Bunny, The Fifth Annual Hideout Christmas Egyptian/Cosmic Panto, Fal La La La La Fuck It, Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells and my favourite: Silent Night of the Living Dead "A family tries to prevent zombies from ruining Christmas dinner in this tribute to the George Romero movie." Far from stuffing all good theatre folk into a little red and green box, the Christmas season has inspired many artists to new heights of subversive and entertaining creativity.

And there are also plenty of plays in those listings that don’t touch on the holiday season at all, for any crusty old Scrooges who feel a hankering for some live drama in the month of December.

So keep doing Christmas plays, everyone! Do ‘em traditional, do ‘em all crazy and new! Or don’t. Do something else, if you prefer. Do what you want! Don’t ever let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t say with your art! Give the people their taste of mythology (if you so desire) and have a good time doing it! And may the gods of the theatre bless us, every one!

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4 comments

Comment Link Wednesday, 21 December 2011 07:50 posted by TJ Dawe
Well, you swing hard in the direction of damning and slamming all commercial culture in the first article (http://bit.ly/vOuGN2), and then swing just as hard in the opposite direction defending the right of free expression for all in this article. Fine.

But enough of this post-modern waffling (couched in an oh-so-clever (and self-consciously cute) form of arguing with yourself in successive posts)(and writing to yourself as if you’re talking to someone else)(which you’re still doing, right now)(as if all of this wasn’t carefully written and revised a dozen times). Enough! Will the real TJ Dawe please stand up and state his opinion?

Okay.

I’m absolutely in favour of unrestricted expression for any artist. Exploration unfettered by social rules, standards of morality and social accountability and can bring about startling discoveries and wild innovation. But it can also breed narcissism and postmodern levelling, where nothing means anything other than what we want it to, and who cares about the bigger picture as long as I’m doing what I want.

And commercial art can attain the highest heights, but it can also breed an attitude that art is merely a commodity, whose function is to soothe and distract, valuable only in its ability to bring in revenue.

But dammit, art DOES mean something. Even though our society might not endorse this belief, art contributes massively to who we are, how we experience the world, think of ourselves and how we interact. The artist’s role is important. What we put out there (and devote our considerable time, energy and abilities to putting out there) has consequences, and creates ripple effects whether we’re conscious of them or not.

I belive, (perhaps idealistically) that every artist has had at least one moment of transcendence in the creation or practice of their art. When time stood still. When it seemed you were channelling something bigger, something unknowable. When everything just felt right.

And I believe every artist has had at least one moment of transcendence in experiencing someone else’s art. When you were taken somewhere you hadn’t realized existed. When you saw things in a startlingly new light and had an intimation that there was a world beyond the one you knew.

That’s what any artist has to potential to give the world.

And if someone thinks they can do that with a completely traditional production of A Christmas Carol, then by all means, do it. And if someone feels they’ve got a better shot by presenting zombies eating people's brains around the Christmas tree, then do that. And if someone else’s light lies in an entirely different direction, go there. And if someone has to do (or chooses to do) any given job to make money to pay the bills, that’s fine (not that you needed my approval or gave the slightest damn at my disapproval)(or anyone else’s).

But never forget the potential of what you have to give the world as an artist. Any of us, through diligence, grace and luck, can birth that strange something that makes the perceiver feel their life change, just a bit, but irrevocably, forever. And every time one of us does that, we’re all richer for it.
Comment Link Wednesday, 21 December 2011 10:16 posted by Bonnitta Roy
too much attention on the milk, and the miracle of it's offering disappears; too much attention on the offering, and the milk goes sour.

~ famous zen trollz
Comment Link Wednesday, 21 December 2011 22:14 posted by Gabe
Um, isn't it all commercial? I mean, the whole form. Sure, some shows are more interesting, challenging, adventerous, etc... but it is all a commodity for sale (certainly all the shows you listed in both articles). Is artist the same as cultural product producer? The reason theatre as an art form has never advanced creatively is because it keeps trying to replicate a business model that doesn't work so it sticks with the most conservative of formats and shows.
I don't believe art has anything to do with the conversation. If you want art then leave the theatre and look at elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, I love the form but man, it sold out years ago.
Comment Link Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:07 posted by TJ Dawe
Gabe, I wouldn't mind hearing you expand a bit on a couple of the things you said:

"The reason theatre as an art form has never advanced creatively is because it keeps trying to replicate a business model that doesn't work so it sticks with the most conservative of formats and shows."

which business model? and this might sound like a dumbass question, but - do you believe theatre has never advanced as an art form?

and

"Don't get me wrong, I love the form but man, it sold out years ago."

when did it sell out? how? I'm not disagreeing, just looking to know more.