The Mise en Scène of the Non-Euclidean Character: Wellman, Jenkin and Strindberg

The Mise en Scene of the Non-Euclidean Character: Wellman, Jenkin and Strindberg JON ERICKSON Mac Wellman, in his 1984 essay "The Theatre of Good Intentions," acerbically critiques the contemporary state of American theater in regard to its "manipulation of emotion," the predictable ronnal structure of its "realism," its explainringJ away" of evil through continual recourse to an aesthetic of "good intentions," and its conception of a "rounded" character, which he calls the "Euclidean character," because of its "intense symmclr[y]."l While I have cenain problems with some orthe claims about character made in the essay, it does respond insightfully and truthfully to lhe solipsislic and sterile stale of a feel -good theater devoid of ideas. My primary purpose here is to show how Wellman's theories of character and dramatic mise en scene, especially as they arc exemplified in the work of Len Jenkin, have a fannal precursor in the work of August Strindberg. In the process, contrast and critique will necessarily playa part. The Euclidean character is to be found in plays based on "an aesthetics of intentions rather than that of action." Wellman claims that "[clharacters in American plays frequently do nothing ... because actiuns hy themselves are not considered to be dramatically important" (emphasis added).2 In a curious way, this statement reflects a classicist position close to that of Peter Szondi, who critiqued the overwhelming discursive focus of modem drama in similar teons.3 Wellman asserts that in American plays "[tlhis confusion of emotionality with real feeling is encouraged by ... acting teachers especially." Anothcr real problcm is that any "nasty, unsympathetic, or downright evil character ... must al ways be shown to have suffered in such and such ways" as 10 make it clear that " he is ... a victim of circumstance," emphasizing victim. "A certain alleged suffering then becomes the foclIs of dramatic interest." This is all the result of what Wellman calls "the theatre of good intentions," where evil actions are always reflected upon as "thwarted ... possibilities" ror good, what he calls the "[tJ he old goodness-gone-awry syndrome." All of this results in Modern Drama, 4' (1998) 355 JON ERICKSON "the true impossibility of an honestly pessimistic American play," although it remains unclear whether or not this is supposed to be a synonym for tragedy' The Euclidean character is perfectly smooth: "[e]very trait ... must reveal an inner truth of the same kind about the personality in question: each trait must be perfectly consonant with every other trait." In addition, "[e]very revealed aspect of the Euclidean character is equidistant from its center." Wellman sees these characters as "made up of explanations ... creakingly artificial , emotional automata who never, but never, resemble people as actually experienced ," but who "are merely theoretical."5 Now compare this to the foreword to Miss Julie, and Strindberg's reasons for creating "characterless" characters. Character must have originally signified the dominating trait of the soul-complex, and this was confused with temperament. Later it became the middle-class term for the automaton, one whose nature had become fixed or who had adapted himself to a particular role in life. In fact a person who had ceased to grow was called a character, while one continuing to develop ... was called characterless, in a derogatory sense, of course, because he was so hard to catch, classify and keep track of.6 It is clear that both Wellman 's and Strindberg's definitions include the notion of automaton, and one might even equate Wellman's "emotional" with Strindberg's "temperamental." Yet one must ask if Strindberg's middle-class character is "merely theoretical" in Wellman's sense of continual self-explanation . For Strindberg, "[a] character came to signify a man fixed and finished : one who invariably appeared either drunk or jocular or melancholy, and characterization required nothing more than a physical defect such as a clubfoot , a wooden leg, a red nose."7 Strindberg thus stresses outward behavioral or gestural consistencies rather than confessional ones. But in both cases, inconsistency or even contradiction is recognized as anathema to the conventional theater. Furthermore for Strindberg, this characterization "should be challenged by the Naturalists who know the richness of the soul-complex and realise...