112 performance and the classical paradigm
in being true to the work in this sense. The principles also have some bite in
their critical bearing on our standard ways of classifying things. For example,
it is far from clear that the emplotted point of Shakespeare’s history plays is
preserved in performances that drastically relocate them in such a way that
we lose a purchase on those aspects of the original historical context of the
drama upon which some of the emplotted point depends.^6
3 Challenges to the Classical Paradigm in Theater
We have considered three ways in which one might characterize, by appeal
to the notion of truth to a performable theatrical work, the conditions under
which we have a performance of that work: (1) in terms of aiming to repro-
duce the letter of, and perhaps also the period style of, the work; (2) in terms
of aiming to be true to the characters and plot of the work; and (3) in terms
of aiming to be true to the emplotted point of the work. The first option,
I have suggested, is rarely instanced in its strong form in theatrical perform-
ance, but seems to be widely adhered to in a weaker form that aims merely
at conformity to the playscript of a theatrical work. The third option, I have
argued, is preferable to the second if we wish to subsume under the classi-
cal paradigm contemporary theatrical productions that are uninterested in
being true to a theatrical work in the first sense. We might then see the first
and third senses of truth to a theatrical work as defining two traditions of
work-performance in theater – the more traditional text-based conception,
and the more contemporary point-based conception. To count as perform-
ing a theatrical work at all, we might say, performers must at least intend to
be true to the work in one of these senses. This intention may function only
as a constraint on interpretation rather than as the primary motivation for
the performance. When this intention is the primary motivation for a per-
formance, however, it is natural to talk of a concern with authenticity and
with truth to the work construed on the stricter reading of our first sense.
These two notions of truth to a theatrical work might seem analogous to
the different roles ascribed to instrumentation in defining performable musi-
cal works, as noted in Chapter 5. But the latter is a historical change in the
ways in which composers and performers thought about musical works, and
thus, arguably, a change in the nature of the works themselves. In the theatri-
cal case, on the other hand, our two conceptions of truth to a performable
work are often applied to the same theatrical works. It is King Lear , for exam-
ple, that supposedly admits of both text-based and point-based perform-
ances. But, if a performance is to be true to a work, should we not require
that it conforms to the artist ’s conception – or the artist’s culture’s concep-
tion – of what truth to a work involves, that is, of what a work prescribes