Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023 - 29

What would the Prague Quadrennial
bring to light then, and in what way, as
the pandemic seemed to be waning?
Would we be kinder or harsher judges
of each other? Would the attempt to hold
politics at bay succeed, or would it inevitably
creep in regardless? Is there a thing
called shared humanity that can help us
transcend our differences? By pushing
artistic boundaries in the present, would
we indeed be able to contribute to a future
as-yet unknown? In the end, what is
theatre, how do we define it, and how do
we celebrate it? What kernel at the core
is essential, and how much chaff has
shaken off?
Throughout the challenging years
I was inspired by
of the pandemic,
Arundhati Roi and Shakespeare. One
day, I was reflecting on the hidden blessings
of COVID-one being that it forces
us all to examine what is truly important
in life and how we live it-when a dear
friend sent me this passage at the end of
a searing essay criticizing the challenges
India faced in the early days of the coronavirus
attack. It is by the activist Indian
author, Arundhati Roi, entitled " The
Pandemic is a Portal. "
" What is this thing that has happened
to us? It's a virus, yes. In
and of itself it holds no moral
brief. But it is definitely more
than a virus. Some believe it's
God's way of bringing us to our
senses. Others that it's a Chinese
conspiracy to take over the world.
Whatever it is, coronavirus has
made the mighty kneel and
brought the world to a halt like
nothing else could. Our minds
are still racing back and forth,
longing for a return to 'normality,'
trying to stitch our future to our
past and refusing to acknowledge
the rupture. But the rupture exists.
And in the midst of this terrible
despair, it offers us a chance
to rethink the doomsday machine
we have built for ourselves.
Nothing could be worse than a
return to normality.
" Historically, pandemics have
forced humans to break with
the past and imagine their world
anew. This one is no different. It
is a portal, a gateway between
one world and the next. We can
choose to walk through it, dragging
the carcasses of our prejudice
and hatred, our avarice, our
data banks and dead ideas, our
dead rivers and smoky skies behind
us. Or we can walk through
lightly, with little luggage, ready
to imagine another world. And
ready to fight for it. " (Roi 2020)
Amen, I thought. Normality is comforting-a
wrapping up of oneself in a soft,
warm blanket when one doesn't want to
be too challenged, but to relish what is already
known. We all need that from time
to time, but can't we do better? Ultimately
normality stagnates when we live for
what has been and don't imagine what
can be-and that was just what Markéta
Fantová was asking of us-to imagine
" what the world and theatre could look
like in the post-pandemic future. "
Concurrently, the lessons
Shakespeare has taught me my entire
life continued-as he was a plague baby
born during a particularly terrible year,
1564, where one-fifth of Stratford's
population was killed. Shakespearean
scholar, Stephen Greenblatt notes, " there
were particularly severe outbreaks of
plague in 1582 (Taming of the Shrew),
1592-93 (Titus Andronicus, Henry VIpart
I, Richard III), 1603-04 (Othello,
Measure for Measure, All's Well that
Ends Well, Timon of Athens, King Lear),
1606 (Macbeth, Anthony & Cleopatra),
and 1608-09 (Coriolanus, Pericles). "
(Greenblatt 2020; The dates are
Greenblatt's, the known and conjectured
plays written during those times are my
insertions.)
Basically, Shakespeare's entire creative
life was colored by plague, and
when I took time to consider what exactly
this timeline of brilliant life-affirming
writing really meant, I found the results
breathtaking, inspiring. Shakespeare's
productivity-during what must have
been an existential crisis that spanned 45
of his 52-year-long life-is phenomenal.
Even when writing in the non-plague
years, the specter of what had been must
have affected the writer's mind, and yet,
what magnificence still emerged!
I began to prepare myself for the long
haul in our own time, and to take heart
in a conviction that even though we will
assuredly endure trials to come, theatre
will never die-indeed, it may thrive, in a
new form, in order to fight back and affirm
the fact that as human beings, we
shall always have urgent new stories to
tell.
Perhaps there was an ironic aptness
for the 15th Edition of the Prague
Quadrennial to have been presented in
the Holešovice Market. The Stedenman
Prague-Now travel guide notes, " From
An aerial view of Holešovice Market. | Photo courtesy of Holešovice Market.
FALL 2023 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 29
Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023

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