An important aspect of Johnstone’s work is his emphasis on the
inevitability of power relationships within dialogue. In this respect his
work parallels, and gives practical realisation to, the view of cultural theo-
rist Michel Foucault, mentioned in Chapter 5, that power relationships
underlie all discourse. Johnstone suggests that any conversation involves
each person adopting high or low status with regard to the other person.
If somebody says something to you, you have the option of adopting high
or low status in relation to it: that is, adopting a superior or inferior posi-
tion. Working with actors in improvisation, Johnstone’s advice is ‘to get
their status just a little above or below their partner’s’ (1981, p. 44). John-
stone argues that in any given encounter people are always adopting either
low or high status. Power games operate continuously, not just between
competitors, but also between friends.
Johnstone says:
My belief... is that people have a preferred status; that they like to be low,
or high, and that they try to manoeuvre themselves into the preferred
positions. A person who plays high status is saying ‘Don’t come near me, I
bite.’ Someone who plays low status is saying ‘Don’t bite me, I’m not worth
the trouble.’
(1981, p. 43)Johnstone also talks about the see-saw principle:
Walk into a dressing room and say ‘I got the part’ and everyone will
congratulate you, but will feel lowered. Say ‘They said I was too old’ and
people commiserate, but cheer up perceptibly.
(1981, p. 37)Dialogue, then, can be structured around participants adopting high or
low status with regard to each other. But it can also involve a struggle over,
or a change of, status. A good example of such dialogue is to be found
throughout Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The play
hinges on power struggles between wife Martha and husband George.
They both try to dominate and gain advantage over the other, and who is
‘winning’ continuously oscillates. In the following example Martha taunts
George, who then turns the tables by saying he doesn’t want to ‘bray’ like
her. But Martha has another card up her sleeve, because she has invited
guests without telling him. There is some reversal of stereotypical gender
roles here. George is the passive one who is ‘tired’ and wants to be left
alone. Martha is assertive, demanding and aggressive:
118 The Writing Experiment