When the Halls are Full of Monsters
Rehearsal halls have to be, by definition, safe spaces. They have to be places where people can be as vulnerable as necessary, as open as they need to be, as free of inhibitions, as daring, as fearless, as liberated as the work requires.
I am sick and tired of men who turn those spaces into sites of abuse. Who hide beneath vapid claims of artistic integrity, of boundary-pushing, of radicalism, to justify sexual assault. Who commit physical or psychological violence under the fraudulent cover of art. Who exploit the base conditions for the creation of theatre to their own ends.
Real artistic exploration begins with autonomy. It begins with freedom. It begins with equity and respect. It begins with safety, not with fear. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be conflict. There should be conflict. But fear doesn’t lead to conflict: it leads to repression. It makes abuse possible.
Sexual harassment and assault are repellent under any circumstances. (This doesn’t really need saying, does it? Just like “I believe the women” shouldn’t really need saying. What exactly is the alternative? “I think the women are probably lying?” To what end?) But there is something especially disgusting about men — and of course it’s basically always men — who harass and assault in places and under circumstances that of their very nature ought to be spaces free of such risks. Spaces like rehearsal halls.
Those spaces are always surrounded by the language of safety: when practicing a fight — “be safe.” When arguing for excluding observers — “it’s not safe. The hall is a protected space. It’ll be inhibiting to have outsiders there.” “Safety first.” And yet, underneath all that reassuring discourse, partly protected by it if anything, there are those men. Those men who foster climates of anxiety and fear. Of intimidation. Who make actors do things they do not actually want to do, say things they have no reason or motivation, no intellectual or emotional justification to say. Who touch actors they have no business touching. Who impose their wills and their bodies on the very people they are supposed to guide, to encourage, to liberate, to entrust with the work they are collaboratively creating.
Of course this makes for shitty art. Intimidated actors are limited actors. You can’t actually take artistic risks if you yourself, personally, are at risk already. The abuser may push personal boundaries, but he doesn’t thereby enable his victims to reach new artistic heights. They may do that anyway: that’s a personal triumph, against the odds he has created. But abuse and intimidation, harassment and assault have nothing to do with making powerful theatre. They are obstacles to exploration and mechanisms of fear. They do not “push boundaries,” they magnify them.
It’s a pretty pathetic argument: don’t be a monster because you’ll make worse art. “Don’t be a monster” should be fucking good enough. But evidently it’s not. So, there it goes. Theatre men: if you can’t stop violating women simply because it’s obviously the right thing to do, can you do it out of respect for the first principles of your art? Can you do it out of respect for the sacred space of the rehearsal hall? Can you at least do it because you’ll get to make better theatre?
(There’s a postscript to this. It’s personal and professional. I have long been proud of the very strong record our Theatre and Drama Studies program has in students being admitted to the Soulpepper Academy. For all my criticisms of the aesthetic developments at Soulpepper over the years, I have always considered the Academy and the support the company has given to young actors worthy of great, unequivocal praise. So today’s revelations distress and disgust me not just as a theatre thinker and sometime theatre maker — or as a human being. As a teacher, they make me utterly furious.)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to print (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
One Response to When the Halls are Full of Monsters
Leave a ReplyCancel reply
Recent Comments
- Premodern Performance-based Research: A Partial Bibliography – Alabama Shakespeare Project on My Trouble with Practice-as-Research
- Premodern Performance-based Research: A Partial Bibliography – Alabama Shakespeare Project on Where is the Theatre in Original Practice?
- Alex on Steven Moffat, Sherlock, and Neo-Victorian Sexism
- Tim Keenan on Where is the Theatre in Original Practice?
- Holger Syme on 1920s Berlin Theatre: Research Marginalia 1
Archives
- November 2021
- April 2020
- March 2020
- October 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- July 2017
- May 2017
- March 2017
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
Copyright
Holger Syme's work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.Images may be reused as long as their source is properly attributed in accordance with the Creative Commons License detailed above. Many of the photos here were taken at the Folger Shakespeare Library; please consult their policy on digital images as well.
We all want to know more and hear more from you Holgar. This article is brilliant.