Howard Barker Collected Plays, Volume 1

by Howard Barker

Book by Barker, Howard

Genres: Drama, Plays, British Literature, 20th Century

305 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1990

About the author

Howard Barker is an English playwright. His plays have been produced at the Royal Court, the RSC and the National Theatre, throughout Europe and the USA and by his own company, The Wrestling School. He is best known as the exponent of the Theatre of Catastrophe. He is a theatre theorist, a poet and a painter. His work has been the subject of a number of book-length studies and academic conferences.

Reviews

[ela begüm · Rating 4 out of 5]

rating - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Written and staged in 1983, Victory is a play which is set during Charles II’s reign in 17th Century England, and is written by critical darling and anti-establishment playwright, Howard Barker. Originally performed in the Royal Court in a production by Danny Boyle, Barker’s drama incorporates themes of political theatre and historical fiction and infuses them with the mordant sense of humour that pervades all his work. It follows the story of Bradshaw, a widow of the judge who had signed King Charles I’s death warrant and subsequently been chopped into pieces and exhibited by the current king, as she embarks on a journey to find all her husband’s missing body parts. However, the undercurrent of this plotline is not her ardent desire to find her husband’s mutilated corpse – in fact, she has little interest in the decaying body of her husband – but to find a sense of purpose in her life which has been robbed of it. Referencing Antigone by Sophocles, the play takes odes from the speeches and grief which is such a characterizing feature of Greek tragedies. Meanwhile, the play includes elements of political realism and some emotional substance through the relationship between Bradshaw and McConochie, Bradshaw’s son who changes his name to become a surgeon and pursue his dreams. By recontextualizing the experience of many who are forced to choose between their family and their future, Barker highlights how these issues persist through history and are as relevant now as they were then. Simultaneously, we get a sardonic glimpse into the British monarchy through King Charles II’s antagonism against Bradshaw, as he attempts to sabotage her mission to save her husband’s honour, and his defeatist speech about how bankers were becoming the real rulers of England at the very end. His relationship with his father is also explored through the anachronism of his outward display of love for his father juxtaposed with glimpses of his resentment towards him behind closed doors. Though it is tied together by a loose thread of Bradshaw’s journey towards finding her husband’s dismembered body parts, the play explores many more individual interactions between landowners, preachers, prostitutes, bankers and lawyers, and provide a cross-section into the semi-historical fictitious landscape Barker has created, and therefore it is difficult to write an all-encompassing synopsis, because Barker’s focus is much more on the relationships between characters and what they represent than the plot itself – the plot for him is merely a tool with which to convey his message.
Ever controversial and politically charged, all of Howard Barker’s plays are characterised by a deep sardonic sense of its own irony and poetic language mixed with crass colloquial speech to create a linguistic mix unique to the playwright. Victory is hardly different – set in 1660, the play’s context is deeply entrenched in history, as it centres around the death warrant of Charles I but fictionalizes this setting to illustrate issues that plague the modern world. Barker centres most of his plays around 3 central pillars: sex, money, and power. The brutal nature of his play and the lack of censorship on language or the goriness make the play convey that there is no evil or good, only people who are plagued by issues too great for them to cope with by themselves. Unapologetic in the political messaging of his work, Barker has been slammed by right-wing and liberal critics alike for representing values that aren’t compatible with their respective ideologies, but what perhaps makes Barker so interesting is that he relishes in the controversy and allows it to make a breeding ground for his work. His nonconformist nature also spills into the genre-defying nature of his work – Victory integrates different themes and practices from many styles to make his own, but a few are most clear: his powerful monologues and 17th-century setting draw aspects of a historical drama; his comedic dialogue interspersed throughout the play is reminiscent of a dark comedy; and the political aspects cannot be ignored, much like the absurdist nature to a lot of scenes that make it accessible enough to be relatable, but surreal enough to be engaging and interesting to watch. His construction of this heterodoxic world which defies cultural norms of what theatre should and shouldn’t be allows him to create characters which have more relevance in today’s theatre landscape, and who are not defined by the period, because his writing transcends the 17th-century era it was based in through its tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of its theatricality and performative nature. The trial of Charles I which serves as the historical pinpoint of the time period Victory is set in occurred from the 20-27th January 1649, and he was sentenced to death three days after the end of the proceedings. After his death, there was an 11-year period where Britain was ruled without a monarch, until Charles II was crowned in 1660, and ordered all remaining members of those who signed his death warrant to be tried for regicide. Therefore, the historical context of the play is relatively accurate, but through subverting the speech from what would be expected at the time, Barker allows the audience to understand from the very first scene that this is not your typical escapist historical fiction, but that there are layers to it that make it very relevant to current societal frictions, which is, over all, what Barker is interested in achieving through his plays. Though his plays typically address the machinations of the government or the monarchy in a satirical context, not a lot of them are historical dramas like Victory, which differentiates itself from the rest of his body of work through this distinction. Historical dramas typically have a reputation, especially at the time when the play was first performed in the early 1980s, of being stuffy and filled with language that nobody of the time could understand, and to do with topics such as romance and monarchy in an idealized context which put rose-coloured glasses on. His crass and bold language stands out, especially amongst costumes associated with a period of greater elegance and sophistication, and this contrast helps highlight the absurdity and realism of Barker’s work. Written at a time when the UK was descending into economic chaos, and Margaret Thatcher had given way to what would be 18 years of conservative government following a string of Labour party leaders, Victory undoubtedly reflects the frustration and sense of turmoil experienced in the UK at the time. By setting the play at a time when Charles II had just recently reinstated monarchy after 11 years without it, Barker captured the fear in the returning conservative government with Thatcher after the 15 years of labour government had been in power for years, thereby demonstrating his skills for being able to make a seemingly unrelated event from the 17th century relatable to modern-day audiences and provide a sense of present conflict through demonstrating fictitious scenarios a la Bertolt Brecht. Since both scenarios have an old power returning in a context of change, the play captures the return of an establishment that may or may not be relevant and have a place in society anymore, through the return of Charles II and what this reinstatement may mean to those who had been in support of the changing of the times. Through this political context, Barker demonstrates his skills for making his typically avant-garde political manner while incorporating aspects of historical fiction which make Victory such a stand-out among his plays.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeing the Uncle Vania's performance in 1995, (based on Chekhov's, directed by Barker himself), I became interested to read it, and I enjoyed, as I became interested to follow Barker's works and productions. He has also "Arguments for a theatre" which is about his theories about theatre and his method in performancing