Offending the Audience
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''Offending the Audience'' is a
play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...
by Austrian writer
Peter Handke Peter Handke (; born 6 December 1942) is an Austrian novelist, playwright, translator, poet, film director, and screenwriter. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored t ...
. It is sometimes called an "anti-play" because of its renouncements of theatricality. It was originally published in German under the title ''Publikumsbeschimpfung'' (which better translates as "Insulting the Audience") in 1966. It premiered in June 1966 at the in Frankfurt as part of the "Experimental Theatre Week". The play was first produced in London in 1970 at the
Almost Free Theatre The Almost Free Theatre was an alternative and fringe theatre set up by American actor and social activist E. D. Berman in 1971 in Rupert Street, Soho, London. Audiences paid what they could afford, but at least one penny. It also pioneered the l ...
in Soho by the Interaction Arts Cooperative's TOC (The Other Company) directed by Israeli writer and theatre director Naftali Yavin; the cast included Andrew Norton, Judy Monahan, Jane Bond, Robert Walker and
Jan Chappell Janet Victoria Chappell (born 7 June 1945 in Brixton, London) is an English actress, known for her portrayal of Cally in the first three series of ''Blake's 7''. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1963–65) where she received an ...
.


Contextual information

In a 1970 interview Handke said that the idea behind his plays was "making people aware of the world of the theatre--not of the outside world." He goes on to say that specifically in the case of ''Offending the Audience'', his "point was to use words to encircle the audience so they'd want to free themselves by heckling; they might feel naked and get involved." He further goes on to explain his intentions:


Plot synopsis

In ''Offending the Audience'' there is no
plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...
. No story is being told at all. Instead, the audience is made aware that what they see is not a representation of anything else, but is in fact quite literal. The actors continuously repeat the point that this is not a play, and that nothing theatrical will happen. The first lines of the performance are "You are welcome. This piece is a prologue." A prologue, that is, to all future theatrical performances.


Analysis

Handke used this rejection of traditional play structure to reinforce his anti-theatre intention. His point was to get the audience to consider what exactly theatre does, in particular, the role of language in the theatre.


Character guide

The only cast the play calls for are 'Four Speakers'. However, this has been performed with a cast of upwards of twenty actors.Jason Zinoma
"What Were You Expecting, Mr. Milquetoast, a Plot?"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 5 February 2008
Rather than placing the focus on themselves, the actors instead turn the audience into the main point of interest by making them aware of how they are breathing, sitting, thinking, etc. They draw attention to what they are wearing and how they have gone through the motions of "going to the theatre."


Character analysis

Four Speakers, a mixed group of men and women. The four characters in this play do not assume a “role” in any traditional sense. The speakers remain merely anonymous actors who address the audience in the author's words. They are also largely indistinguishable from one another and even from the members of the audience. Their clothing is ordinary casual dress. It is expected that the men, in both the audience and on stage, will be wearing dark jackets and white shirts with plain ties. Women are expected to be dressed in subdued colors. During their time onstage, the four speakers address the audience directly without singling out any specific individuals. They speak in a bland litany, free of emotion, vocal inflection, or any significant gestures. Nor are any specific lines assigned to the individual speakers. The characters merely pick up and leave off the discourse in a random order, speaking for varying lengths of time. Frequently, and without explanation, they contradict themselves and one another. In doing so, however, they give no indication of their own feelings about what they are saying beyond a general statement to the audience that their opinions may (or may not) be the same as those of the author. At the end of the performance, the four speakers react to the audience in exactly the same manner regardless of whether the audience's response to their work has been favorable or unfavorable. Since there are no actual characters, the actors' job is merely to recite the lines to the audience. The more objective they are, the closer they are to Handke's intention of isolating the actors from the audience in order to emphasize the language. Handke listed some "Rules for the actors" at the beginning of the script including such things as watching "the behaviour of tramps and idlers as they amble on the street and play the machines in the penny arcades."


Genre

It is difficult to classify such a non-play play into a specific
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
. In some ways ''Offending the Audience'' could be considered a
dark comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
since it utilizes
irony Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...
so heavily. However, Handke's intention was for it to be unclassifiable as anti-genre and anti-form.


Style

''Offending the Audience'' falls under the style of
epic theater Epic theatre (german: episches Theater) is a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners who responded to the political climate of the time through the creati ...
as established by dramatist
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...
. A major characteristic of epic theater is alienation, which is used to prevent the audience from becoming emotionally involved and distracted from the underlying issue of the play. In this particular case, the fact that the actors are not pretending to be other characters and are instead speaking straightforwardly to the audience is an alienation effect. Some other aspects of epic theater are minimal staging, anti-illusionment, and telling what is to come—all of which are seen in ''Offending the Audience''.


Language

Handke wished to challenge the relationship of language and reality and to make the audience "intensely, unbearably conscious of the fundamentally arbitrary connections between words and things, until the linguistic mucilage that holds the world and our minds together crumbles."Richard Locke "A Literary Troublemaker", ''The New York Times'', 8 June 1972 The most prominent way of how Handke challenged the meaning of language is found at the very end of the play. The actors first begin to compliment the audience on how perfect they were and then proceed to call them various insults. The names the actors call the audience seem to become more and more random. The point here is to create acoustic patterns in the words so that they eventually become meaningless.


Theme

As is evident from the name, the whole show leads up to the point at the end where the audience gets "offended." The significance of the insults at the end is questioned—-what exactly makes these words (any words for that matter) more than just noise, but items which hold meaning. Handke wanted to take the ideas of language and theatre—two subjects which were often accepted as they were without question—and point out why they didn't get questioned or challenged very often.


Spectacle

In theme with the whole anti-theatre idea, ''Offending the Audience'' has very minimalistic production values. The stage is usually bare, but there could be a false set in order to deceive the audience into thinking that it will be a conventional play.


Music

Handke was influenced and inspired by the music of the time. One of his "Rules for the actors" is to listen to "
Tell Me Tell Me may refer to: * '' Tell Me...'', a 1979 album by Jimmy Knepper * Tell me (advertisement), a 2005 Chinese-language newspaper ad calling for universal suffrage in Hong Kong * ''Tell Me'' (TV series), a 2019 South Korean quiz show * Tellme ...
" by the
Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
. He was especially influenced by the
Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
. Two more of his rules are to see the Beatles' movies and "watch
Ringo Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...
's smile" in " A Hard Day's Night."


Sample production history

''Offending the Audience'' has been performed all over Europe since its German premiere in 1966, and after its translation was published in English in 1970. The first performance was by Michael Locascio's troupe at various locations in New York City in 1969. Subsequently, it was produced at numerous locations, especially colleges, in the U.S., Australia, China, South Africa and the UK. It was revived in 2008 at
The Flea Theater The Flea Theater, founded in 1996, is a theater in the TriBeCa section of New York City. It presents primarily new American theater and provides a venue for film stars to act on a very small (74-seat) stage, as well as a smaller black box theat ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.


References


External links

*
Offending the Audience
oxfordreference.com {{authority control 1966 plays Austrian plays German-language plays Plays by Peter Handke