Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 309
balance of the bold and conventional, terrifying and traditional,
that accounts for her originality.
For the last few years, as mentioned previously,
Mitchell has been staging plays in Europe, including her
startling Forbidden Zone. In 2014 she subverted form
once again to tackle a truly global phenomenon—climate
change—by directing 2017, a theatrical lecture by the
climate scientist Chris Rapley on the need for collective
action to prevent worldwide disaster. With the expectation
of decades ahead of her, Katie Mitchell promises to
keep leading the English—and global—theatre in new
and exciting directions for a long time to come.
Conclusions About
Theatre Today?
Can we draw any definite conclusions about theatre today?
In a word, no. We cannot, because what is current
is never concluded. The current theatre is in process;
it is current in both senses, a river that is continually
running, newly replenished with fresh rainwater and
snowmelt. And what is hot today may be cold tomorrow.
But the theatre of today is our theatre and it is
your theatre: there to apprehend, to enjoy, to appreciate,
and to respond to. It is not just a series of plays,
or an array of styles, but a communication between
individuals and peoples that raises levels of human
discourse and artistic appreciation. It responds to individual
impulses of creativity and collective demands
for human contact and understanding. It synthesizes
the impulses of artists and audiences, and it fosters a
focused interaction that incorporates our human experience,
aspirations, and values. Like a river, theatre
began long before the advent of recorded history and
“keeps on rolling.”
And it is always new. As Heraclitus said twenty-five
hundred years ago, “We cannot step twice in the same
river; for when I step in the river for a second time, neither
I nor the river are the same.”