Great Lengths: Seven Works of Marathon Theater by Jonathan Kalb (review)

“The illusion of living a lifetime within the span of a single day”—this is Jonathan Kalb’s description of “the mayfly effect” (49), which he finds manifested in seven marathon theatre events he watched between 1980 and 2009. These performances—each over four hours long—took their spectators on journeys that seemed, in Kalb’s words, “to compress the incomprehensibly messy, bewilderingly ramified whole of life between their opening and closing curtains” (49). Great Lengths pulls into focus something many of us have experienced in individual instances but haven’t yet conceptualized as a whole: the distinct character and effect of long-duration theatre. In this eloquent and thoughtful study, Kalb guides his readers through richly detailed case studies and intimate philosophical thinking about what lengthy theatre can—and sometimes does—mean to a fast-paced, ironic, media-saturated public.

The book’s introduction surveys the history of theatre through the lens of lengthy performances, spanning the Greek City Dionysia, Japanese noh drama, medieval pageant plays, the shortening of theatrical performances during the Renaissance, and today’s trendy director-based marathon events. The six main chapters provide close readings of seven stylistically varied performances from the US, the UK, and Europe: the Royal Shakespeare Company’s eight-and-a-half-hour, 48-actor Nicholas Nickleby (1980); Peter Brook’s eleven-hour, 24-actor The Mahabharata (1985); Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s five-hour, 24-performer Einstein on the Beach (1976); Tony Kushner’s seven-hour, 8-actor Angels in America (1993); Forced Entertainment’s small-cast six-hour durational pieces Quizoola! (1996) and Speak Bitterness (1994); and Peter Stein’s twenty-one-hour, 33-actor Faust I + II (2000). In each study, Kalb draws on his personal viewing experiences (of both premieres and revivals) and subsequent research to lead the reader on a tour of each work’s structure, concepts, effects, and surrounding critical debates. He makes the argument that length matters, particularly in the theatre: marathon performance provides an antidote to the “hurry sickness” of contemporary culture (2), forges a unique sense of community among spectators, and inspires profound reflections on time in a way no other medium can.

In addition to close readings, Great Lengths engages large swaths of theatre history and performance criticism. The chapters provide insights and provocations on diverse topics, including the role of the auteur director in Germany (Faust), the limitations of identity politics–based criticism (Mahabharata and Angels), the relationship of elite and popular culture (Nickleby), the role of image, sound, and time in making meaning (Einstein), and the fascinating existential implications of lists (Forced Entertainment). The book usefully provides ways of thinking about marathon theatre as a whole: the genre favors unusual theatrical locations; offers “rare and precious experiences of sustained meditation” (2); springs from a long history in festival environments, which foster active communal engagement; and is more popular during the summer (Kalb notes that France’s Avignon Festival regularly premieres marathon works), when we “long to lose ourselves in elaborate and epic story arcs […] and ponder quixotic concepts of the monumental” (16). His production analyses inspire fresh ideas on topics such as double-casting, political theatre and Brecht’s legacy, and the nature of theatricality. Underlying his historical and critical arguments are Kalb’s beliefs that marathon performance can connect us with theatre’s most distinctive abilities, and that theatre is a vital site of meditation and community—sites he believes are increasingly rare in the contemporary world.

Images of tired, uncomfortable, and transported bodies recur throughout Great Lengths, and Kalb makes a strong case for the uniqueness of live performance by his direct engagement with its material conditions. (It is telling that the only piece he confesses he got nearly incurably frustrated with is the one he watched on his computer.) Spectators are “breaking bread together” in “impromptu communit[ies]” (1), experiencing “paradoxically invigorating fatigue” (44), dozing off, and sharing...