4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

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from ritual to theater and back
of labor. . . . In the so-called “high-culture” of complex societies, liminoid
is not only removed from a rite de passage context, it is also
“individualized.” The solitary artist creates the liminoid phenomena,
the collectivity experiences collective liminal symbols.
(Victor Turner 1982: 52)
In shows like Yoshi’s money is exchanged for a peek at theatricalized
esoteric ceremonies. And “new rituals” are manufactured as entertainment
or art.
This same process can be reversed:
This is what Grotowski tried to do during his paratheater phase. 29 The
tendency to transform entertainment into ritual by means of theater
has been present in Grotowski almost from the beginning. His works
have been played in churches, their themes are religious, the details of
the performances are full of Polish Catholicism and Hassidic practices
as well as materials drawn from Asian ritual traditions. On a more
immediate level, Grotowski carefully selects his audiences by limiting
their numbers, allowing a relatively high price to be charged for
tickets, and by staging his shows and paratheatrical events in faraway
venues. Much of the paratheatrical work involved invited participants
working intensively, bringing about an intimacy and quasi-religious
solidarity – “spontaneous communitas” – by means of exercises,
group-encounter techniques, and the submission to the will of strong
leaders. Grotowski’s paratheatrical work has close analogies both to
American encounter-group therapy and self-help weekends as well as
to traditional initiation rites where neophytes are separated from familiar
surroundings, removed into liminal (or liminoid) space and time
where by means of ordeals they are “broken down.” What the paratheatrical
experiments lack is the final phase of reintegration. Too often
the newly initiated person is left hanging, betwixt and between, disoriented.
Only the strongest personalities can effect a successful
reintegration on their own.