“Joan was quizzical; Studied pataphysical Science in the home.” — Opening lines to the Beatles’ Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, alluding to Alfred Jarry, a playwright whose essence is relatively off the table in discussions of Dramatic Art at U.S. institutions of higher education… for easily understandable reasons.

“The United States supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship in the world after the end of the Second World War. (1) I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, and, of course, Chile. (2) The horror the United States inflicted upon Chile in 1973 can never be purged and can never be forgiven.” (3)

“It never happened. Nothing ever happened. (6) Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. (7) The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. (8) You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.”

If you don’t know who said this and you’re a theatre person, why not find out? It might lead you past Brecht and Genet. If you’re a citizen and you’re not interested in any of this or have personal excuses for not having the heartbeats/time to try to make some kind of difference… shame. Shame in the name of Synge, O’Casey and Shaw; it’s not the time to disappear behind the beautiful even-handedness of, say, Stoppard’s Travesties.

The so-called cutting edge theatre of Caryl Churchill, Tony Kushner and just about every other dramatist pushing the envelope isn’t pushing nearly hard enough. And because they are not, they enable the status quo to thrive. Something else — as per Alfred Jarry? — can and must be attempted. And on that count, I have something to offer… in private… in confidence.

I knew Tennessee Williams (Not the answer to this article’s titular question, by the way.), but few who knew him knew that Castro had invited him to Cuba to write in support of the revolution. And that he nearly accepted.

Now… how often is that taught in institutions of higher education? More importantly, why should it be?

My notes:

1) Keep in mind that we’re not addressing the equally well-documented abominations which took place prior to WWII. Native American decimation, Nagasaki, etc.

2) A partial list, to say the least. A definitive accounting (which would have to include support of apartheid South Africa, Barrack Gold in Congo, Chevron in Cabinda, the birth and growth of Israel, etc.) would encompass mortality figures which far exceed — FAR EXCEED — the deaths attributed to what’s commonly referred to as The Holocaust (as if it were the biggest or only one of its kind). Dirty laundry does not capture what I’m addressing here. This goes way beyond the kind of thing Clifford Odets or any early 20th-century “radical” playwrights tried to address. One is hard put to find any playwright dealing with this all (let alone other equally devastating realms brought about by U.S. policy/practice)… adequately.

3) Such extreme expression begs many questions, yes?

4) See note #2 above, please.

5) They included much torture, a practice discussed today as if it were only part of a recent, misguided policy. By the way, NONE of our atrocities can be justified by any of the bogeymen who were invoked in current events alarms of past times. Not any more than today’s horrors inflicted abroad can be rationalized by citing this or that person, event, threat or way of life. The highly-respected William Blum book (”Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower”) which Osama bin Laden recommended to one and all in one of his tapes bolsters this notion. As does the volume which Hugo Chavez handed to Obama, Eduardo Galeano’s “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.” And as do many, many more prestigious publications.

6) The sins of omission in U.S. formal education (along these lines) have a lot to do with why we won’t let our Marcello near U.S. schools We home school him, in part, because it is virtually impossible to thrive as an independent soul in that mainstream educational realm without saluting the flag to some degree, in some manner. Imagine subjecting your child in 40s Germany to a system which denied the fact of concentration camps. Our genocide today is only possible because our Prussian-model education preaches American Exceptionalism, denying that which is rotten to the core and an ongoing horror to boot. To cite only one unjustifiable relatively mild indiscretion see http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21453. “Relatively mild” (albeit mind blowing) compared to many routine horrors which have become institutionalized. And not at all an “indiscretion.” But there are much, much greater — totally unnecessary — vile transgressions which we perpetrate regularly… which rank with the worst excesses documented in all of history. “Proof” upon request.

7) And intellectual, academic, politically correct TALK aside, there is no real interest in what we’re doing today, as I write. As I will wake up tomorrow. Musical theatre — which I can absolutely love on occasion — serves, in part, the function of keeping people happily hypnotized as per the wishes of the powers-that-be. Such forces manifest in virtually endless variations, and have given me — as they have given Dario Fo and others — a bottomless pit of inspiration for meaningful, necessary theatre.

8) Oh, talk (at marginalized times and places) yes… as long as it doesn’t lead to action.

Richard Martin Oxman, writer of Millay Song Against the Day, among other dramatic works, is currently working on a piece that he believes Harold Pinter* would have loved (along the radical lines recommended above)… and which David Mamet (the polar opposite of Pinter politically these days) would be likely to castigate. One must not say that one cannot make a difference. Or that enough is okay in this American World. The reader is invited to contact the author at headburg@yahoo.com to learn more about why the U.S.A. is not “the greatest country on earth.” Or why even if one insists that it is… it is killing itself for reasons above and beyond what’s cited/addressed in this article. And/or to learn what citizens can do to help in or out of theatrical circles. Neither cynicism, resignation, fear, personal struggles nor… anything… need interfere with moving in meaningful solidarity… to contribute to a better world.

“Men must endure
Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
Ripeness is all. Come on.” — from King Lear, Edgar stating the play’s opposition to despair

*The titular excerpt above is from Pinter’s 2005 Nobel Lecture

Special note: Back when the French were torturing the rebellious Algerians, Samuel Beckett’s publisher, the fearless Jerome Lindon, took the intrepid step — virtually alone — of confronting the French government and military. We of The Theatre have an obligation to do the same vis-a-vis such abominations as are delineated in http://www.counterpunch.org/scahill05152009.html. We cannot hide behind an easy love of Shakespeare. Nay, we must move against the day. Before the parameters which were imposed upon Linden are imposed on us. There are no excuses. For this particular spotlighted horror is situated among a full-spectrum of unspeakable abominations. And the momentum against humanity grows.