The Living Theatre Abroad: Radicalizing the Classics Interview with Jullan Beck and Judith Malina

THE LIVING THEATRE ABROAD Radicalizing the Classics Judith Malina Julian Beck The Living Theatre founders, Julian Beck and Judith Malina, and their contribution to new forms, concepts, and ways of working go back more than thirty years. Their roots in the poetic classics have evolved from the European traditions of Meyerhold, Brecht, Artaud, and Piscator. Also, the basic premise that fascism, authoritarianism, and dictatorship are caused by varying degrees of socialand cultural repression is still the credo of the Liv26 ing Theatre. But nonetheless, there is much change today from the days of Paradise Now's confrontational polemic and dialectic. In the reexamination of the goals they had once set out to accomplish, the Living Theatre continues to ask questions about where they are, where they intend to go In the future, and the best possible way to get there. For now, the Living Theatre has returned to performing in traditional theatres in addition to continuing street theatre performances. As vagabondish and anarchistic as Beck and Malina are, they cannot feed, house, and clothe two dozen people by humane thought or friendly donations. Money Towers are not built of money, alas, but with money. And how does the Living Theatre deal with this basic contradiction? Much in the same way we all do-adjust here, manipulate there-but with an added thrust, a thrust that involves not only their theatrical work and political/community involvement but a never-ending utopianism coupled with pragmatic realism. Since September 1975 the Living Theatre has been touring Europe, and currently they are living in Rome. This Interview was conducted by Mark Amitin In August 1980. MARK HALL AMITIN: Why did you choose Rome as the city where you would base yourself at this time, rather than, say, Berlin or Paris? What is it about Rome that creates such a special situation enabling you and your work to really flourish? JULIAN BECK: In 1965 we found In Italy that there was a very open climate for discussion and the study of social and political alternatives. It was a question with which the entire country had concerned itself. When we went back to Europe In 1975, we went with the question of whether it would be possible to work there and also whether It would be wisest to concentrate our work there in the hope that it might be useful in a movement for social and cultural change. We felt that, one, there was a growing libertarian-anarchist movement and, two, there was a growing Marxist movement. It seemed also to be the most libertarian of the various Marxist movements in Europe and there was a relatively strong youth and counter-culture movement. We've always had a very friendly working relationship with the Italian theatre world, and when we returned in 1975 there were sufficient offers of work, particularly from people in Torino who found a large orphanage for us to live in and supported us for four months while we worked on a new version of The Destruction of the Money Tower. During that period we made many contacts in the Italian anarchist movement and among other Italian political and cultural activists. It seemed to us a territory in which we wanted to stay. AMITIN: Unfortunately, there has been very little information about the new productions you've made in the last two years. Perhaps you could elaborate on the creation of Prometheus. 27 BECK: Let me first give some background. We have been working in these last five years doing a considerable amount of work outside the usual theatre architecture; plays in schools, in factories, in psychiatric hospitals and in the plazas, streets and alleys. We have played 125 cities during this time, many of them again and again and for periods ranging from a few days to a few months. We returned to Italy in 1975 with three plays in our repertoire that were basically new: The Destruction of the Money Tower, Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, and Six Public Acts. We spent the first year adapting these plays to specific aspects of Italian culture, and then spent time observing and trying to figure out what our next step was going...