Presence and the Revenge of Writing: Re-Thinking Theatre after Derrida

Author(s): Elinor Fuchs

Source: Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2/3, 10th Anniversary Issue: The American
Theatre Condition (1985), pp. 163-173
Published by: Performing Arts Journal, Inc.
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 Presence
and the
RevengeofWriting
TheatreAfterDerrida
Re-thinking

ElinorFuchs

Since the Renaissance,Dramahas traditionally been theformof writing

thatstrivesto createthe illusionthatit is composedof spontaneous
speech,a formofwriting thatparadoxicallyseems to asserttheclaimof
speech to be a direct
conduitto That
Being. the dramatictextis realizedon-
lyas spontaneousspeech(andall thataccompaniesspeech:cadence,em-
initsteaching,
phasis,gesture)is institutionalized EnglishandTheatrego-
ing separateacademic roads,Theatreand Speech traditionally joining
forces.Thisscarcelyrequirescomment, butmakesall themorestriking the
emergenceof writing-assubject,activity, and artifact-atthecenterof
theatricalperformance innumerous recentplaysand performance pieces.
Writing,whichhas traditionally
retiredbehindtheapparentpresenceofper-
formance, is openlydeclaringitselfthe environment in whichdramatic
structureis situated.Thepriceofthisemergence, orperhapsitsaim,is the
undermining oftheatricalPresence.
The notionof theatrical
Presencehas twofundamental components: the
uniqueself-completionof the worldof the spectacle,and the circleof
heightenedawarenessflowing fromactorto spectatorand backthatsus-
tainsthe world.(Themagnetism thata particularperformer mayexude,
whatwe meanwhenwe saya performer has "presence,"is includedinthis
"aura"oftheatrical
Thephysico-spiritual
definition.) Presence,to use Ben-
jamin'sterm,'mayalwayshavebeenan effect oftheatre,butbecamean ab-
solutevalueonlyas recently
as thelatesixtiesandearlyseventies,perhaps

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because itsloss was alreadysighted.Inthisperiodbothpractitioners
and
becamepassionateadvocatesofPresence,andnowhere
theorists moreen-
thanintheUnitedStates.
thusiastically
InTheTheatre Event,publishedin1980,Timothy Wilesdiscussesthecase
fortheatricalpresencemadebyartistsofthisperiodwhoworked underthe
influence ofArtaud orGrotowski orboth.Thenewtheorist-practitioners, he
says, "positboththeatre'stemporal orientation inthe
and its affectivity
present, inits'presence.'"2 InTheActor'sFreedom, published a fewyears
earlier,Michael GoldmanextolsPresenceas theuniqueinforming attribute
ofall theatre.Inthetheatre, hewrites,
"wefinda presentbeyondthelimita-
tionsofthepresent, a selfhoodbeyondthelimits ofself... Weidentifywith
actorsbecausetheselflongsforclarification, becauseitlongstopossess
thepresentand possess itselfinthepresent, ina waythatordinary space,
timeandselfhooddo notallow."3Theexaltedgoal servedbytheactorwas
nothing less thantherecuperation offullReality.As JulianBeckputitina
poignant quotationfromEricGutkind, "God is absentbecause we are ab-
sent."'
ThePresencecultivated bysuchtheatre as theBecks,Richard
practitioners
Schechner, JosephChaikin,and PeterBrook(and Meredith Monk,while
younger, could be includedas a transitional figure)was stakedon the
revelationsof theselfand a corresponding suspicionof thetext.To the
positivevalue assigned to improvisation, audience participation,
myth,
ritual,and communion theyopposed a viewof the author'sscriptas a
oppressiveintruder,
politically demanding submissionto author-ity.
The
speech thatbubbled up fromthe innerdepths was more than
trustworthy
thealienwritten word,and manyofthemexperimented withefforts
toslip
theconstrictingknotoflanguagealtogether. Thedesirewas tocomecloser
and closerto a centerof humanexperiencethrough a self-exploration
of
suchintensitythatitredefinedtheself."I havereachedintomyentrailsand
strewn themaboutthestage intheformofquestions,"writesBeck.5

ThoughWilesstatesthatthe"movement" he describes"is farfrom over,"

the idealizationof Presencein thetheatreand theory of thesixtiesand
seventies,was almosta rear-guard action.Beginning intheearlyseventies,
a newgeneration oftheatreartistswas challenging theabsolutevalueof
the"PresenceoftheActor"(thetitleofJosephChaikin'sbookpublished in
1972).In 1975 Mabou Mines first
brought beforea New York theatreau-
diencethetriplebillofBeckettstagingsthegrouphad previously perform-
ed onlyin museums.Insteadof threeactors in physicalpresencein
Beckett'sComeand Go,as theauthor'sdirections indicated,theaudience
was confronted by a mirror
nearly the width of the stage, sunk slightly
belowplatform level,thenangledbackand upwards. Theactorsperformed
theentireshortpiecefroma balconyaboveand behindthespectators; we
saw onlytheirghostly Sucha stagingundermined
reflections. habitualex-
pectations ofbodilypresenceand actor-audience contact.Inquiteanother
way, so did the vast theatricallandscapes of RobertWilson's marathon

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spectaclesbeforewhichtheaudiencecouldnothopetodistillor"possess"
a unitary
present; theaudienceat a Wilsonspectaclewas learning
rather to
selfthatGoldmanassumes("theselflongsfor
thepsychological
relinquish
in orderto become non-self,impassivelyporous to a
clarification")
phenomenalistic streamof sensoryimpressions.In theirearlierwork,
Foreman andWilsonevencast theirproductions withamateurswhowould
notcontaminate theperformancewiththeenlargedpersonal"presence"of
theprofessional.
A decade or morelater,theworkofthisnextgeneration oftheatreartists
and theoreticians has increasinglybeen markedby an aestheticsof
Absence ratherthan of Presence.6We can now see that the radical
Presenceoftheearliergeneration was onlyan extremeversionofthetradi-
tionaltheatricalPresencethathas alwaysbanishedtextuality perse, and
enshrined the(apparently)spontaneousspeakingcharacter at thecenterof
action.Theearliergeneration,whiledeclaring,withBeckthat"theTheatre
ofCharacter was stillcarrying
is over,"7 outtheRenaissancehumanist pro-
gramofCartesianself-centered A theatre
signification. ofAbsence,bycon-
trast,dispersesthecenter, displacestheSubject,destabilizesmeaning. A
particularthreattotheidealof Presence,and thesubjectofthis has
article,
beenthe newtextuality, thenewkindof textuality,thathas increasingly
emergedbothinplaysand performance sincethelate 1970s.
EvenbeforePresencefellintodisfavor as a theatricalvalue,itstheoretical
base was beingsubmitted to relentlessinterrogation in theworkof the
Frenchphilosopher JacquesDerrida. "Onthestageitis alwaysnow,"wrote
Thornton Wilderfortyyearsago.8Buttheassumptionthatitis within the
power ofhuman natureto entera Now,to become entirely to
present itself,
has beenpowerfully challengedinthepasttwodecades byDerrida. To Der-
rida,thereis no primordial or self-samepresentthatis notalreadyin-
bythetrace-an openingofthe"inside"ofthemoment
filtrated tothe"out-
side" oftheinterval."Thatthepresentingeneralis notprimal, butrather,
reconstituted,thatit is notthe absolute,whollylivingformwhichcon-
stitutesexperience, thatthereis no purity of the livingpresent"is the
themerunning through everytextualexegesis Derridahas made.9These
close readingscharacteristicallytaketheform ofthediscovery oftheworm
of difference in the apple of wholenessor presence."Trace-structure,
everything alwaysinhabited bythetraceof something thatis notitself,
These"traces"andthese"presences"are
questionspresence-structure."''10
noneotherthantheconceptualoppositions onwhichwestern metaphysics
has stakedits "logocentric" (bywhichDerridameansnotso muchword-
centeredas centeredon a firstor originating principle,centeredon the
Word)claimsto Presencefortwothousandyears.The binaryopposition
thatinDerrida standsfor,evenmaybe said tosubsumeallothers, is theop-
positionofspeechandwriting.
ofspeech at theexpenseofwriting,
Derridasees the"privileging" forin-
stance in the workof Saussure examined in Of Grammatology,
as a late

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In a motionthatparallelsDerrida's
deconstructionofspeechand writing,
theatre havebeguntoexpose
practitioners
thenormally "occulted"textuality
behind
thephonocentric fabricofperformance.

andeventheculminatingexampleoflogocentric Thehuman
metaphysics.
voice,writesChristopher
Norris, Derrida,
explicating
becomesa metaphor oftruth...,a sourceofself-present"living"
speech as opposed to the secondary,lifelessemanationsof
writing.Inspeakingone is able to experience(supposedly) an in-
timatelinkbetweensoundand sense, an inwardand immediate
realization of meaningwhichyieldsitselfup withoutreserveto
perfect,transparentunderstanding. Writingon the contrary
destroysthis ideal of pureself-presence. It obtrudesan alien,
depersonalized medium, a deceivingshadowwhichfallsbetween
intentand meaning, betweenutterance and understanding. Itoc-
cupiesa promiscuous publicrealmwhereauthorityis sacrificedto
thevagariesandwhimsoftextual"dissemination." Writing inshort
is a threatto thedeeplytraditional
viewthatassociatestruth with
self-presence and the"natural"languagewherein itfindsexpres-
sion."

Farfrombeingsecondaryto speech,Derridaasserts,writinghas always

alreadyinfiltrated
speech,could even be said to precedespeech if by
writingwe understandnotonlytheformalgraphicsystembuttheentire
structure
linguistic thatmustprecedeanyparticular,limitedmanifestation
in spokenutterance. inthissense involves"an endlessdisplace-
Writing
mentof meaning"whichplaces language"beyondthereachofa stable,
self-authenticating
knowledge."12

Iftherecan be noassuranceofthebondbetweenthought andspeech,there

can be nosinglemoment at whichutteranceoriginates;and ifnooriginary
principlecan be identified,
thensuch a thingas a self-samePresenceis
merely a self-serving
illusion.
ThusDerrida'sattackon phonocentrism has
theaimof undoingnotonlythespeech/writing binary,buttwothousand
yearsofthe"metaphysics ofPresence."
Ina motionthatparallelsDerrida'sdeconstruction
ofspeechand writing,
theatrepractitioners
have begunto expose the normally "occulted"tex-
tualitybehindthe phonocentricfabricof performance. Textualityhas
emergedina number ofnewroles,as character,as theme,as setting,
and
as a virtually theatrical
independent constituent
tobe setbesideAristotle's

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six elements.Similarly,
one can questionwhetherthe long-cherished
Presenceofthetheatrical
artcan fully
survive
thisintrusion
byitsformerly
banishedterm.

ThecentralactionofRichardNelson'sTheViennaNotes,firstproducedin
1979at Playwrights'Horizonsin NewYork,is writing.13
Nelson'sSenator
Stubbsis dictating toldas a moment
his memoirs, to moment accountof
his sensations.At firstStubbsdwellson past events,but soon he is
"writinghimself"inthepresent:whatsoundsbestinwriting becomesthe
forwhathe does andfeels.A serio-comic
onlycriterion terrorist
attackun-
foldson theViennahomewherehe has beeninvited todinner;mistakenfor
the Senator,the host has been assassinated offstage.Throughthe
emergency, Stubbskeeps writing-present eventsprovidea mereocca-
has novalueas a manifestation
sion.Unlikespeech,thiswriting/dictation
ofpresence;itsvalueemergeslater,whenitappearsalienated,as itwere,
printedon paperina book.

Presently theothertwocharacters onstage,Stubbs'ssecretary Riversand

theirAmerican hostessGeorgia,catchthefever, and inan ecstasyofself-
alienation,thethreetaketurns"writing" themselvesto theothers'suppor-
tiveaudience.Penciland notebookare abandoned,butitis writing all the
same,a comicsearchfortheright"script"withwhichto countertheim-
mediacyofevents.Thiscontinuesuntilgunshotblastsripthedooroffthe
hinge.Inthefinalscene,twoyearslater,thecompletedbookofmemoirs
itselfappears,completingtheparabolatravelled bythedramatic character,
SenatorStubbs.He emergedfromwriting intospeech,butspokeonlyto
return to writing.
Andnow,inmirrored regress,he springstospeechagain,
or his writingdoes. Sittingraptlyto his secretary'sreadingaloud of a
passage from thebook,heexults"Itplays!Itplays!,"satisfiedthathiswrit-
tenwordshavecreatedtheillusionofa spontaneous"character."
LenJenkin's DarkRideproduced at theSoho Repin1981,beginswitha nar-
rationbya Translator whohas beenstruggling withthemeaningofan oc-
cultChineseparchment, "TheBookoftheYellowAncestor," a textabouta
textcomposedof fragments of othertextswhichappearto embodyyet
othertexts.1'Its originallanguagemaynot be Chinese,confessesthe
Translator,and ithas evencrossedhis mind"thatthiswork... is itselfa
... ofa translation
translation ... ofa translation."
ThoughJenkin's playis
at one levela send-upof self-referentialmodernist it is also a
artifice,
seriouslyintended deconstruction oftheartoftheatre,whichtraditionally
banishestextand textuality to the marginsof the livingperformance
represented byspeechand gesture.
TheTranslator us to a passage from
introduces theBook.Notsurprisingly
inthisplayabouttextuality,
itis abouta youngwomanreadinga book.The
youngwomanappearsreadingthebook,whosecharactersinturnappear.
Justas the youngwomanstands inside the verytextshe reads,the

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Translatorand his publisherare also among the supposed Chinese
manuscript's ten peripateticcharacters.The veryscene discussingthe
manuscript is partof the "translation."
Likea moebiusstrip,the play's
frame andframed narratives
cannotbe logically
distinguished,andthecon-
ventional distinction
betweenperformance andtextis unsettled as theper-
formance drawsitstextualitytoourattention.
Theplaymaybe a deliciously
artificial"spoof,"butthejokeinpartis onthetheatre'scustomary creation
ofan insideofspontaneousspeechthatrelegatestextuality to an outside,
beyondtheperformance. Jenkin seems to say thattextis inside,and text
is all thereis. "Youngman,"says Zendavesta, theoculist/occultist whois
representedas having commissionedthe "translation,""the new
cosmogony has beenrevealedto me.... We liveinsidetheearth.Modern
astronomers are perfectly
correct,exceptthattheyhaveeverything inside
out.... What,youask,is outsidetheshell?... Absolutely nothing. Thein-
side is all thereis"'15

The blackand whiteof Adrienne Kennedy's A MovieStarHas to Starin

Blackand Whiterefersnotonlyto racialdifference butto twodifferent
modes of writing, printon paperand imageson film.16 The playis an
autobiographical collage looselyfocusedon the hospitalization of Ken-
nedy'sbrother aftera car accident.Clara,Kennedy'scentralcharacter,is
an obsessivewriter whowrites continuouslyduringthecourseoftheaction
and reads to us fromherdiariesand plays.She is writing the playsof
Adrienne Kennedy, quotingfromTheOwlAnswersand Kennedy's diaryen-
tries.BetteDavis,JeanPetersandShelleyWinters appearas charactersin
tableauxfrom othermovies,butimmediately becomewhite"star"versions
of Clara. Clara says she triesto workeveryday on A Lesson in Dead
Language(anotherKennedyplay),as ifaskingus to notethatA Movie
Star..., is a third-hand
realitystitched
together from"deadlanguage."Like
theparchment inJenkin's play,MovieStaris a textcomposedofwritings
derivedfromotherwritings, some of whichare derivedfromstillother
writings.
Thiswritingis alwaysreminding us thatitcomesfrom a finishedpast-old
diaries,old movies.Its presentlife is not the interaction of "living"
charactersuttering seeminglyspontaneousspeech, but a lifeof texts
refractedthrough each otherto producean eerieinteractionofgenres.We
enterthesetextswithan interest incharacter,
ofcourse.Thisplay,firstpro-
ducedas a workin progressat the PublicTheatrein 1976,was written
incharacter
earlierthantheothersI discuss,as itsinterest mayevidence.
Yet we entercharacteronlyto see it dissolveintowriting. Clara herself
questionswhether she existsoutsidethe"blackand white"ofwriting. All
threeplayshave in commonthisstrangereversibility (are we following
character,orwriting?arewefollowing plot,orwriting?
etc.),openinga slow
leak,as we might conceiveit,intheself-complete ofthestage
authenticity
thatis partoftheatricalPresence.

DarylChin's textsare some of the mostradicallyanti-theatrical

amongthe

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recentforaysoftextualityagainstthetraditional boundariesoftheatrical
Presence.Manyof his playsincorporate longpassages of artor literary
The recentActand theActor,forinstance,producedin 1984at
criticism.
theTheatrefortheNewCity, takesitstitlefrom thebookofthesame name
byartcriticHaroldRosenberg. The playbeginswitha readingof a long
paragraphfrom a 1966essay inFilmCulture byAnnette Michelson,deliver-
ed bya charactercalledsimplyTheReader.Thisprologue continueswitha
readingofan author'snoteabouttheorigins oftheplay.Itwas derived
from
a moreambitious, unproducedplay(another texthoveringbehindthetext
beingperformed), thatposedthequestions,"Whatwouldhappenifthere
was a mergerbetweenJacques Derridaand PrestonSturges?Whatif
Deleuze and Guatarrianalyzed ErnstLubitsch... ." The currentplay,the
Prologueconcludes,is an "attemptto analyzetheproblematic"whether
American culture
popular and mass medium conventions
"can be calledar-
chetypes."17

Theplayproper consistsofan interweaving ofdozensofscene fragments

quoted from or inspiredby "classic" Americanfilms,interspersedwith
criticalpassages. Thisweavingoffragments nevercoalesces intoan illu-
sionisticreality withplotand characters,yetcoheresbecause thetexts
behindthetextare partof ourculturalnarrative. We findourselvessur-
rendering to the of
pleasure these a
sources, surrenderthatslylyreasserts
thecriticalquestionoftheirculturalpowerraisedat theoutsetoftheplay.

Chinthrusts textsat hisaudience,books,articles,films, criticism.

fiction,
HisearlierApoplecticFit"fits"togethervariouspieces ofdancecriticism
withenactments ofplotstakenfrom DjunaBarnes'sNightwood andBeauty
and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata. Chin creates a thin,almost
transparentdramaticsurfaceof "character"and "plot"throughwhich
shinea discoursewovenofand abouta variety oftexts.Itis theworldof
rather
textuality thana dramatic worldthatChinis concerned withinmost
ofhis plays.

Chinalwaysco-directs
hisownplayswithhiscollaborator LarryQuails.The
groupoffaithful
andtalentedactorswhoworkwiththemhavedevelopeda
mode of stage speech quitedifferent fromthe expressivespeech that
passes forpresentand originary
utterance.RathertheChinactorsspeak
and
quietly,hurriedly in flattones,in some liminalzone betweenspon-

whichhas traditionally
Writing, retired
behindtheapparentpresenceof
is openlydeclaringitself
performance,
theenvironmentin whichdramatic
structure
is situated.

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taneousspeechand reading.Thusevenin playingstyleChinundermines
theillusionofpresencetoremind
us thathiskindofperformance is always
intheshadowof,eveninawe of,texts,and usuallytextsthatoriginate
out-
side thetheatre.
Thisinvasionoftheplace ofspeech bythe"other"oftextuality is taking
many forms. While theorigins ofsuch practicesmay be tracedin parttothe
postmodern dance and experimental filmworldsofthe1970s(certainly in
Chin'scase thereis a directinfluence) the phenomenon in theatrehas
becomeso pervasive as toevadeassociationwithanyparticular lineageor
It
style. is notlimitedto or
avant-gardeexperimental as
theatre, Christopher
Durang'sTheMarriage ofBetteand Boo shows.Inthatplay,producedin
thespringof 1985at thePublicTheatre, theson Mattis a studentofthe
novelsofThomasHardy, andfrequently stepsforwardtoutteran apparent
digression to the audience on The of
Mayor Casterbridge or Hardy's
"unrelieved pessimism,""18 a piece of dramaticcriticism,in effect,both
within and outsidetheplaythatallowsus to readitas satireand tragedy
simultaneously. Matt'sfirstspeech to theaudienceannouncesthatonly
writing can order and rationalizethemessofdomesticity, and thatwe are
abouttosee an attempt at suchwriting."Oncethesedetailshavebeencon-
sidered... generalizations shouldbe writtendownlegibly,
andstudied,"he
says,indicating thenextscene as theobjectofstudy.Thatintheplay's
premiere theroleof Mattwas playedbytheplaywright himself onlyrein-
forcesthe intendedperception thatwe are to regardthe spontaneous
speech of thecharactersas ifbracketedin the perspective endowedby
written form.

imagesofwriting
Finally, and itscompanion, havebeencropping
reading,
up intheperformancewingoftheatrewithincreasing frequency.Richard
Foreman'ssettingswiththeirstringsoflettersand wordsrunning across
thestagehaveforyearscreatedenvironments oftextuality,
as iftosaythat
thespeechwe are aboutto hearand theactionswe are aboutto witness
takeplacewithin Muchmorerecently,
writing. piecesofTheWooster Group
andStuartShermanhaveincorporated readingandwriting
directlyintothe
ofperformance.
texture

I havewritten earlierofTheWoosterGroup'sstagedreading(thatis, the

stagingofreading)."'ThefourpartsofL.S.D.as theyevolvedbecamean in-
vestigationofthe extent towhichperformance couldbe invadedbywhatit
banishes-readingand writing-while a theatricalforce.
still retaining
Since 1981 performance artistStuartShermanhas been creatingworks
abouttextsandtextual itythatuse actualpiecesofdramatic textas partof
theirvisual design.The back wall of his 18-minute silentHamletwas
decoratedwithpagesfrom Shakespeare'stext,cutandpastedintodagger-
likepatterns. The characterHamletwas playedbyfiveactorscarrying
copies of Hamlet.The centraldesignelementof his 1985Chekhov was a
groveoftwo-dimensional cherry treesconstructed fromblow-ups ofpages
fromChekhov'splays. Otherpieces of set furniture
werecoveredwithtext

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 Iftherecan be no assuranceof thebond
betweenthought and speech,therecan
be no singlemoment at whichutterance
and ifno originary
originates; principle
thensuch a thingas
can be identified,
a self-samePresenceis merely
a self-serving
illusion.

as well,andtwostagehandsinblacksat at eithersideofthestagereading
Chekhov'splays.To a background ofrecorded linesfromtheplays,theac-
torsperformed silentgestures.One's attention choicelesslyfrom
flickered
thegesturesto recordedsoundto the texton thestage objects.Atthe
climacticmoment ofthepiece,thegroveoftexttreestoppledoverandwe
wereleftfora moment to contemplate the stage,and byextensionthe
world,strippedoftext.The nostalgiaon audienceexperiencesas Ranev-
skaya'sworldofcultivatednaturefallstotheaxe ofCapitalis recapitulated
inthisimage.Butthistimethesense ofloss comesfrom thefallofthetext
thattellsthestory.
RobertWilson'srecentcollaboration withEast Berlinplaywright Heiner
Milleron ActIVoftheCIVILwarShas forthefirst timegivenhisworka cer-
taintextualdensity.Theact bristled withnumerous "high-culture"
quota-
tions,forinstancefromShakespeare,Racine,Voltaire, Goethe,and MUller
himself.FrederickWilhelmI is representedpenning a notorious
lettertohis
son,FredericktheGreat;theletteris simultaneously readaloud.Alongwith
thisnewinterest intextuality,Wilsonalso createdsomestrongvisualim-
ages associated withwriting, such as the figureof the WhiteScribein
Scene 2 in herenormouscostume,or theeightelongatedBlackScribes
whosidle inlikeso manyquillpens inScene 8.

In all these performances, The WoosterGroup,Sherman,Wilsonand

MUller, thereappearsa kindofacknowledgement, unthinkableinthework
of the earlieravant-garde, thatcultureinescapablytakes place within
languageand writing. Atthe same time,theseartistshave reducedthe
authorityofwriting,byfrankly itonstageas a separatedtheatrical
bringing
element.The performance is neithera reenactment of the logocentric
dilemma, as intraditional
theatre,nora rebellionagainstit(whichendsup
recapitulating itanyway),
butone might say,an effort
at strategic
contain-
ment.

Todayit mightseem thatthetexthas beenrevalidated,inkeepingwitha

backlashinsocietygenerally.
conservative Butwhatwe areseeingcannot
be describedas a "normative"
returnto textuality,
foritis no longerclear

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thatthe textis the outside of whichthe inside is the representationof the
lifeof charactersin action. In fact,it is the decline of confidencein any
possible authenticityof Characterthathas cleared a space forthe naked
emergenceof textualitythathas occurredin the past decade. Writinghas
re-asserteditself,butit has emergeduncloaked,out frombehindcharacter
and spontaneous speech. One of the manysymptomsof the shiftis the
separation of the actor fromher voice. In the workof Wilson, Foreman,
Breuer,and now intermittently in Serban,Sellars, Pina Bausch and others,
microphonesand loudspeakersare used, oftenin such a way thatit is not
easy to associate a particularvoice withthe bodyfromwhichitemanates,
norto be certainwhetherthatvoice is liveor taped.

Theatre is ever the presence of the absence and the absence of the
presence.Bothare componentin its everymotion,butuntilrecentlyits mo-
tions have taken place withinphonocentriclimits.One mightsay thatwe
have been witnessingin contemporarytheatre,and especially in perfor-
mance, a representation of the failureof the theatricalenterpriseof spon-
taneous speech with its logocentric claims to origination,authority,
authenticity-in short, Presence. This motion amounts to a virtual
deconstructionof the defininghierarchythathas sustained theatresince
the Renaissance. The stage has revealed,as Chantal Pontbriandhas writ-
tenabout performance, an "aversionformetaphysics."20 Derridaraises the
large question whetherphilosophycan continueto be philosophywithout
thesupportof logocentricmetaphysics.Have we arrivedat such a question
in theatre?

NOTES

'WalterBenjamin, "TheWorkofArtintheAgeofMechanical Reproduction,"inIl-

luminations,ed. HannahArendt (NewYork:SchockenBooks,1969),p. 221.
2Timothy J.Wiles,TheTheater Event(Chicago,University ofChicagoPress,1980),
p. 112.
3Michael Goldman, TheActor'sFreedom(NewYork:TheVikingPress,1975),p.
160-1.
4JulianBeck,TheLifeoftheTheatre (San Francisco: CityLightsBooks,1972),No.
84.
"Beck,No.10.
"AsPhilipAuslander writesina helpful overview,"Muchrecenttheory has infact
suggestedthatinordertoremain viableas a radicalartform,theater
mustdefeat, or
at leastconcepturalize
thedefeatof,presence."Theunpublished paper,"Theatre,
Performance and theProblematics of Presence,"was delivered at thesymposium
"Towardsa NewPoeticsofTheatre," William and MaryCollege,April, 1985.
7Beck,No.35.
"Thornton Wilder,"SomeThoughts on Playwriting," quotedin Bernard Dukore,
Dramatic Theory andCriticism (NewYork:Holt,Rinehart andWinston,Inc.,1974),p.
892.
'JacquesDerrida,"FreudandtheSceneofWriting," WritingandDifference,trans.
AlanBass (Chicago:University ofChicagoPress,1978),p. 212.
IOGayatriSpivak,intro.to Derrida,OfGrammatology JohnsHopkins
(Baltimore:
UniversityPress,1976),p. Ixix.

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 11Christopher Norris,Deconstruction:Theoryand Practice (London: Methuen,
1982),p. 28.
121bid.,p. 291.
'3RichardNelson, The ViennaNotes, in Wordplays1 (New York:Performing Arts
JournalPublications,1980).
14LenJenkin,Dark Ride, in Wordplays2 (New York: Performing Arts Journal
Publications,1982).
15Cf.Derrida'swell-knownpun, "II n'y a pas de hors-texte,"meaningboth that
thereis nothingouside the text,but also thatthe texthas no outside.
16Adrienne Kennedy, A MovieStarHas toStarinBlackand White, in Wordplays 3
(New York:Performing ArtsJournalPublications,1984).
17Daryl Chin,Act and theActor(New York:unpubl.,1984).
16Christopher Durang,The Marriageof Bette and Boo (New York:unpubl.,1985).
"'Fuchs, "Performanceas Reading,"Performing ArtsJournalNo. 23, vol. VIII,no.
2, 1984.
20ChantalPontbriand,"The eye findsno fixedpointon whichto rest...," trans.
C.R. Parsons, ModernDrama,25:1, 1982. Pontbriandmakes a distinctionbetween
the"presence" of theatreand the "presentness"of performance. However,I believe
the plays I discuss and manythatI have no roomto discuss also evincethe "disar-
ticulation"(whichI call Absence) thatshe findsin performance.

ElinorFuchs is currentlyin residence at the BuntingInstituteof Radcliffe

College where she is writinga book on postmoderntheatre,forwhichshe
was awarded a Rockefellergrant.

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