The Screens by Jean Genet (review)

criterion for judging this performance; still, asking the question of why it falls short of tapping the power of that from which it has borrowed so heavily helps in understanding why Brook's task of bridging Western and nonWestern theatrical traditions is so enormously difficult. The paradox in the non-Western tilt in Brook's production is that in traditional non-Western performance there is rarely if ever a director shaping the artistry of the performers. One Asian artist (not in Brook's troupe), on seeing this production, commented, "Brook always seems to manage it so that people talk more about him than about the performers or the play." This Carmen is so compelling, and yet ultimately lacking in the essential strength of the non-Western theatrical world. THE SCREENS Jean Genet Directed by Patrice Chbreau Th6Mtre des Amandiers (Nanterre) Philippa Wehle Patrice Choreau's revival of Genet's The Screens at his new Th6atre des Amandiers/Nanterre opened his second season there. This is the first opportunity French audiences have had to see Genet's drama since Roger Blin's 1966 production, which was interrupted by fire bombs and violent protests . In 1958, when Genet wrote the play, France was just beginning to deal with the overwhelming and painful problems of the Algerian conflict. In 1983, the French must confront the issue of a large immigration of North African workers whose presence has sparked racial tension and heated controversy . Ch6reau has chosen to focus on these contemporary implications of Genet's multilayered tale of rebellion, treason and death. To this end, he plays down the grotesque and the ceremonial. Gone are the masks, false noses, chins and gaudy make-up. With few exceptions, Arab actors play Arab roles wearing realistic costumes. Gone too are the multiple folding screens suggestive of make-believe and sham. There are some screens, to be sure, but only to provide the entrances through which the Dead must pass into oblivion in Scene XVI. Instead, a giant movie screen (not the same word in French as folding screen) dominates the stage-a unique modern symbol of illusion and evasion . A row of dusty red velvet seats lined up in front of it and a ghost light 72 turned on throughout the play signal that this is an abandoned theatre. In fact, Ch6reau had his entire auditorium rebuilt to resemble a '50s movie house, taking great pains to reproduce its smudged walls, worn seats, dirty carpeting and chipped paint. Thus, the play's action unfolds not only on stage (more than ninety characters, played by forty actors, surrounding the audience) but also in the aisles, on the stairs and in the orchestra pit, a novel re-creation of Genet's numerous "stages, levels and surfaces." The Europeans of The Screens, for example, are seated in a center row of the theatre as if they had come to see a movie, a reassuring one, no doubt, about friendly Arab cultures. They nibble and chatter while Mr. and Mrs. Blankensee pursue each other, oblivious of the Arab rebellion which surrounds them. The Arabs, on the other hand, rarely venture into the audience, preferring to cluster along the side walls and in the orchestra pit, or race across the stage painting the "yellow flames" of their terrorist acts such as graffiti on the movie house walls. The Army and Legionnaires strut through the aisles, declaiming, denouncing and posturing. In the midst of these battling factions, the central tale of SaYd and Leila unfolds , a strange adventure of two wretched outcasts determined to achieve utter abjection, one the poorest man in the province, the other, the ugliest woman, forced to hide under a one-eyed hood. Accompanied by SaYd's mother, they journey through evil and degredation toward total negation. No crime is too heinous for SaYd. From stealing to the betrayal of his own people, he seeks to reject society totally, and Leila, the "night" of his darkness, struggles to keep up with him, to share his isolation: "I want you to choose evil and always evil," are her words to urge him on, and he complies with extreme cruelty to her, his fellow workers and insurgents. Around them...