The Third International Theatre Festival of Chicago has begun. The city's stages are hosting the theatrical artistry of ten nations in sixteen productions performed by thirteen drama companies from May 23 to July 1 - a unique event in world theater.
Kenneth Branagh has brought the Renaissance Theatre Company of Great Britain. It opens the festival with A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, followed by King Lear. It would, of course, be folly to predict success, especially in the theater. But Branagh is not a mere hollow man, puffed full of the hot air of media overkill. Yes, he has been heralded - branded - as "the next Olivier." Yes, the British arts press has swung, predictably, from adulation to suspicion and back again. But his twenty-nine years belie a theatrical gift that matches his artistic ambitions. His Henry V was a surprise nomination for an Oscar.
Fiery Artist
Even as a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Branagh was seen to possess the fiery intelligence and artistic tunnel vision that mark a great actor. He had the chameleon quality of instant transformation. Although he could have concentrated on realizing his potential as an action, he and a fellow actor, on the proceeds from a small film and television series, founded the Renaissance Company. The company was dedicated to artistic ideal of a small-scale actor-based company. Derek Jacoby directed Hamlet, Judy Dench Much Ado About Nothing, and Geraldine McEwan As You Like It, all to great critical acclaim. But there was no stopping Branagh: By twenty-eight he had formed an important new company, and within the next year he made the landmark Henry V. Now Branagh takes on Chicago. He appears in Lear and Dream and has directed them both. Anticipation is running very high.
But the strength of festivals is not just to be found in these past and future icons of the English stage. In 1986 the Market Theatre of South Africa tore into the souls of its unsuspecting audience with Asinamali! We had never seen a folk theater that could create, by use of just a little music, dance, a few bentwood chairs, and some rusted tin roofing, a world of politics and pain, laughter and grief. What happened then and in dozens of performances throughout the festivals - whether in Japanese, French, or Lithuanian - was that the insularity of American theatrical art was gratifyingly violated.
If one visits the regional theaters of this country, in Denver, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago, or, for that matter, New York, one is likely to see if not the same plays, most certainly the same style of performance. American theater still is largely rooted in the realistic. This is our theater's strength - our acting style is still uncompromisingly truthful - although it is rarely challenged and therefore rarely changes. This is no one's fault. There is no artistic conspiracy. The fact is we are, in theater, geographically insular. In Europe and the Eastern-bloc countries, there is a continuous cross-fertilization of theatrical ideas, of styles - yes, even of philosophies of theater. (Incidentally, those theaters of England we talked of before have been roundly criticized for their own insularity by the British press.) So, in 1990 there will be another gratifying and stimulating invasion.
The festival is the brainchild of two remarkable people, Jane Nicholl Sahlins,
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