Next
weekend, and for one weekend only, the University
of Utah’s Lab Theatre will host an important
but obscure playwright and a collapsing civilization.
Craig Rich’s production of Howard Barker’s “A Hard Heart” portrays
a civilization of ambiguous time and space. The play examines the gap between
knowing the world and knowing oneself through the story of a woman inventor
who helps stave off the nearing barbarity and destruction of her culture.
“The play deals with a culture that is under
attack and the extremes that they go to in order
to save themselves. I think that’s relative
to this world. Even though it’s in a nondescript
time and location, it’s
strikingly relative to modern times,” Rich said.
| |
This lack of cohesion may be the reason that
Barker’s plays aren’t often performed
in Salt Lake City—a factor that adds
to
the importance of this production.
|
Barker’s plays are noted for bold explorations
of sexuality, human motivation and power struggles.
These characteristics are seen in the heroine and
a man who persistently courts her.
Barker writes his work through the concepts of
the Theater of Catastrophe movement, and intends
for the actors, directors and audiences to find
much of the meaning themselves. His work, therefore,
never gives a simple, easy message, and due to
the many possible interpretations, is more important
to see performed than text-based plays.
“As people, we have certain things that we want when we go see a play,” Rich
said. “We want a message at the end. We want a resolution. Barker denies
the audience that. Part of the reason is that he really wants people to debate
and struggle with the material in the piece…That’s why he chooses
to leave some things open.”
Working with the complicated, not-quite-structured
play, Rich had to do certain things that were
quite different from his previous productions,
which include plays by Shakespeare and a range
of other works from “A Little Night
Music” to “How I Learned to Drive,” as well as his work
as the artistic director of Salt Lake Shakespeare. “It’s forced
me to look at every scene more as complete within itself rather than looking
at the entire journey of the play,” he said. “Some things connect
and some things don’t.” Some scenes offer different perspectives
on the same subject, while others are completely unrelated.
This lack of cohesion may be the reason that Barker’s plays aren’t
often performed in Salt Lake City—a factor that adds to the importance
of this production. While Barker is considered a very important figure in
European and world theater, his work isn’t very well-known in his country
of Great Britain and in the central United States. Even Rich, the play’s
director, has never seen one of Barker’s plays performed. “I’ve
just read his work and read about him and thought it would be a great challenge,” he
said. “In terms of the research that I’ve done, I’ve only
found two or three productions of the play in the United States. As far as
I know, this is a regional premiere.”
And the premiere took a long time to arrive from
Rich’s interest in
it. “It’s a play I’ve actually had for about 10 years,” Rich
said.
In addition to his
work at Salt Lake Shakespeare, Rich is an adjunct
assistant professor in the U’s theater department
and has produced work at the Babcock Theatre and
the Lab, including the Babcock’s “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.” He will put
his own perspective on Barker’s
work, just as the playwright intended. “The play has been an exciting
challenge… for everybody involved,” he said. Now it’s
the audience’s turn to make some sense out of it.
The
U’s Lab Theatre, in the Performing Arts
Building, plays Thursday, March 4 through Saturday,
March 6 at 7:30 p.m., with a Friday matinee at
4:30 p.m. Tickets cost $7, $5 for students. Buy tickets and get information
through Kingsbury Hall (581-7100) or ArtTix (355-ARTS, www.arttix.org).
jeremy@red-mag.com
