Howard Barker's No End of Blame: From Theatre of Catastrophe to historiographic metadrama

• Published in: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi dergisi Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 912 - 939
• Main Author: Sümbül,Yiğit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih Coğrafya Fakültesi 01-02-2019
• Subjects: Kültür & Sanat; Tarih; Ankara; Türkiye; Theatre of Catastrophe; Howard Barker; Historiographic Metadrama; Tarihyazımsal Üsttiyatro; Felaket Tiyatrosu
• ISSN: 0378-2905
• DOI: 10.33171/dtcfjournal.2019.59.2.10

Howard Barker's theatre has always been dealt with as a characteristically distinctive
kind with respect to the playwright's formulation o f his self-crafted dramatic genre
'Theatre o f Catastrophe' whose main principles were listed in his two monumental books
on drama and performance, Arguments for a Theatre and Death, the One and the Art of
Theatre. In these treatises, Barker designates a new genre which differentiates itself from
the contemporary mainstream tradition o f Brechtian political drama, dominating British
stages for decades, with its non-didactic, anti-cathartic outlook aiming to divert the
audience into individual responses rather than a collective moral improvement. Barker's
plays also stand apart from the mainstream drama in their concern with the tragic
experience rather than the political and moral message with an elaborate, lyrical language
and obscurity o f meaning. However, this study aims to bring a new perspective to the
understanding o f Barker's drama, with specific examples from his famous play No End of
Blame (1981) with an emphasis on the use o f historical subject matter and the choice of
characters from among artists. The play in question is interpreted within the context o f the
contemporary dramatic genre, 'historiographic metadrama ', with an aim to reveal Barker's
veiled political, moral and aesthetic criticism and, thus, to refute his claims that his
'Theatre o f Catastrophe' is a politically, morally and aesthetically functionless and nondidactic
kind o f drama. This study concludes that Barker's drama has to be incorporated
into the mainstream political theatre o f his time despite its other distinctive thematic and
technical qualities.