Philosophy of the Performing Arts

104 performance and the classical paradigm
The sheer awfulness of the performance only fascinates Berthold and
Magda for a little while, and they would have left but for the evident occur-
rence of a real thunderstorm outside. While sitting out the storm, they
entertain themselves by looking at the architecture of the theater, which,
unlike what is taking place on stage, is certainly worth looking at. The actors,
however, continue undaunted by the obvious lack of interest of their audi-
ence. Thankfully for Berthold and Magda, many details of the narrative of
King Lear not essential for the overall plot of the play, as well as all but the
central characters, have been omitted, and after only an hour it is obvious
that the denouement is approaching. However, as the female hobbit-figure is
being led off stage to be executed, the Gandalf-figure springs to life, knock-
ing down those guarding her, and they leave the stage arm in arm to the
haunting strains of “Over the Rainbow.” To a tumultuous silence, the curtain
descends. Berthold and Magda, finally distracted from their distraction, are
still in their seats as the curtain rises again (by accident it would seem) to
reveal two stage hands beginning to dismantle the set. Seeing that they have
an audience, the stage hands ham it up. “Finally,” says Berthold, “something
worth watching!”
The point of this cautionary tale is not merely to discourage the reader
from venturing into provincial theaters. Nor, as might be the case were
it to be told in Chapter 9, is the point to raise questions about the role
of the audience in theatrical performance. As we shall see, some writers
maintain that the presence of an attentive audience is a necessary condition
for a theatrical performance to take place. Rather, the point in the present
context is to raise the following question: assuming that what transpired
before Berthold and Magda was indeed a theatrical performance, was it
a performance of King Lear? Our interest in this question is of course an
interest in the more general question: when is a theatrical performance
a performance of a particular play? But our explorations in the previous
chapter should alert us to a measure of ambiguity here. For we could be
asking two things: (1) When is a theatrical performance a performance of
a particular play – for example, a performance of King Lear? (2) When is a
theatrical performance a performance of a particular play? Here we are
asking whether the performance stands in the “performance of ” relation to
a performable work.
The first question presupposes that we are dealing with something that
purports to be a performance of a performable work, and asks how we
determine whether it is indeed a performance of a particular work. This
is a matter internal to the classical paradigm as applied to theater. It is
analogous to the issues examined in Chapter 2 concerning the kinds of
thing that musical works prescribe for their correct performances. Our
concern here is with the kinds of features prescribed by theatrical works