120 performance and the classical paradigm
If all theatrical performances are by their very nature unscriptable than, it
is claimed, there is no script against which they can be measured to gauge
their fidelity or success, and thus they are never of something independent of
themselves. This argument, if it applies to the idea that performances are of
independent performable works, will apply equally to the idea that perform-
ances are of independent productions.
We shall examine in Chapter 9 the idea that artistic performance requires
the presence of an audience. But we may wonder how the liveness model
really calls into question the idea that at least some theatrical performances
are of independent works or productions. For, as we saw in the previous
section, the intention to be true to such a work or production can be under-
stood in a number of ways: in terms of fidelity to a script of some kind,
certainly, but also in terms of being true to the emplotted point of that work
or production. If a troupe of performers indeed intends to be true to a work
or production in this latter way, then, while the requirements of liveness may
indeed lead to various departures from a script, they will lead to departures
from truth to the work in the sense specified only if the performers betray
the very aim of the performance. Indeed, a tacit recognition of this point
seems built into the very argument for unscriptability. To ask whether a par-
ticular set of tactics will “work” for a particular house presupposes some goal
that one is trying to achieve. It is only by reference to such a goal, as end,
that one can question the efficacy of certain tactics, as means. That liveness
calls for certain departures from a given script or way of presenting such a
script only makes sense in terms of an end pursued. It is the idea of being
true to the emplotted point of a work that arguably provides us with the
end pursued in many contemporary theatrical performances, such as those
staged by David Thacker, as we saw. Scriptability, then, only seems to be an
issue if one thinks of truth to the work in terms of conformity to an explicit
script. And, if a company’s goal is to stage a performance that is true to a
work in this first sense, it is this that will define the end pursued relative to
which the demands of liveness must be answered. So in this case, it seems,
the performance is scriptable.
4 Dance and the Classical Paradigm
In Chapter 1 we considered a dance performance attended by Noël Carroll
and Sally Banes. In following their lead in describing it as a performance
of Yvonne Rainer’s Room Service , we treated the performance as one fall-
ing under the classical paradigm, and Room Service itself as a performable
work. This seemed a natural way to talk at the time, before we started to
think more carefully about the status of artistic performances. It is certainly