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

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ethology and theater
few moments there was silence. . . . After a short interval that lowpitched
hooting began again, followed almost immediately by the
appearance of the two rackety cans with Mike closely behind them.
Straight for the other males he charged, and once more they fled. This
time, even before the group could reassemble, Mike set off again; but
he made straight for Goliath [the alpha male] – and even he hastened
out of his way like all the others. Then Mike stopped and sat, all his
hair on end, breathing hard.
(Goodall 1972: 122–3)
Obviously Mike was challenging Goliath’s alpha rank; and not long
after this display Mike replaced Goliath. But the challenge – like so
many encounters between animals about dominance, territory, food,
and mates – came not as a direct attack or life-and-death fight but
wrapped in ritual, played out as a theatrical event. Just as “making fun”
can be an indirect attack on the authorities, so Mike’s charge, driving
the kerosene cans ahead of him, was a rehearsed, yet still indirect attack
on Goliath’s dominant rank.
Mike’s performance can be analyzed in two ways. Either the
sequence was a performance during which Mike worked himself up
step by step in front of the whole band until finally he confronted
Goliath in a chimp version of the game of chicken; or the showing off
and charge at the low-ranking males were rehearsals, try-outs, preparations
for the main event, the challenge to Goliath. In theater I have
often seen similar “unconscious” discoveries – where improvisations,
or simply “fooling around,” during or between work periods in
rehearsals uncover images/actions later used in performance. The activity
of doing things, repeating where necessary, changing, improvising,
and including even mistakes in the performance, is common in theater.
Robert Wilson tape-records workshops and rehearsals, videotaping
when possible, in order to retain business that is repeated and built on.
Spalding Gray constructs his “real-life” monologs by performing, taperecording
his performances, listening to what he’s done, editing, and
performing again and again. The choreography of much postmodern
dance is invented through improvisations and perfected through repetition:
the emotional core of a work is not known in advance and then
“expressed,” it is uncovered through action.