Familiarity supposedly breeds contempt. Maybe that was true a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. But time and again contemporary artists are seeking to create new works by parodying, condensing or creatively rehashing well-known old ones. And as history would have us expect, audiences continue to be enthralled.
For nearly five years Charles Ross has been a darling of the international fringe festival circuit, performing his critically acclaimed One Man Star Wars Trilogy on both sides of the Atlantic. As the title suggests, the show features one man (Ross) portraying the characters, dialogue and plot-lines from the first three Star Wars films – Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). At just over an hour long the show is performed without props, sets or costume changes, and with only minimal lighting. The frenetic pace is enhanced by Ross’ imitation of spaceship special effects, music and occasional commentary on the movies.
In a review for the Chicago Tribune, reporter Chris Jones conceded that One Man has almost as much to offer the ‘semi-willing audience member’ who has been ‘dragged to the show’, as the die-hard Lucas film fanatics hanging on/off every line. But what about the Vadar virgins who have never seen Princess Leia on celluloid? Ross says seeing the films is a prerequisite for One Man. If you haven’t seen Star Wars then “you’d be absolutely lost,” he says.
The same cannot quite be said about productions of The Reduced Shakespeare Company (the ‘other’ RSC) that originated out of Los Angeles. In the early 1980s three comedians with a passion for the Bard began performing 30-minute condensed versions of Hamlet at weekend festivals. The act was physical, funny and fantastically well received by audiences and critics. Over successive decades the Company has produced a number of condensed shows including the The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), which somehow manages to reduce all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays into a maniacal riot lasting 97 minutes; The Complete History of America (abridged), 1993; The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), 1995; and All the Great Books (abridged) 2002.
Whereas the majority of audience members at any One Man performance are likely to what Jones describes as nerdy ‘Lucasoids’, the ‘other’ RSC shows are more likely to attract cultural Philistines unfamiliar with the subject matter being condensed. RSC productions have copied the technique celebrated by music-industry producers who have spliced just about every classic riff, vocal and beat with the shonky vocals and wobbly dance-routines of modern boy and girl bands to create chart-topping smash-hits. They cleverly refer to snippets from the condensed seminal works that have entered popular culture, so the shows are entertaining whether you really know your Shakespeare, have studied the Bible, are into Literature, or not!
Both the ‘other’ RSC and Ross are reliant on the extraordinary pervasiveness of certain cultural works to ensure their shows hit the mark with audiences. That everyone in the Western world can be expected to know that it was Shakespeare who wrote ‘To be or not to be’, or that Darth Vadar speaks like someone with respiratory problems plays to their advantage. But whereas a basic knowledge of Hamlet has always been considered worthwhile, there are many who are rueful of the influence of the Dark Side of popular culture, especially when it is emanating from the U.S.A. Reporter Scott Galupo writes in the Washington Times: ‘Our pop culture is resented in parts of the world as evidence of a poisonous contagion. “Coca-Colonization” it’s been called.’
London-based televisual artist Sheena Macrae plays on people’s familiarity with pop culture to explore ways in which the human experience can be filtered through a relationship with film. Macrae’s most recent work, Fiction in One Minute, reduces Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction to 60 seconds of successive layers of stills. ‘By compressing and mapping the structures of cinema the narrative flips into punctuated forms that force alternate readings,’ she says.
Copying or rather, paying homage, to old works has been a trick of artists throughout the ages. In carving out his David, Michaelangelo Bunarotti owed as much to ancient Greek and Roman sculptors as he did to the Medici. Picasso may never have painted the road to Cubism had he not adhered to the signposts contained in the works of Cezanne and Seurat. What words would Hesse have conjured had Nietzsche’s echo not come first? The development of every art form is based on the continuation of certain themes of experimentation. Whether that is regarded as plagiarism or a more legitimate attempt to advance a movement is not always easy to discern.
The modern world has spawned more people and therefore more artists than at any other time. The availability of cheap technologies that can manipulate any medium has enabled artists to be more creative with existing work. Because they are receptive to and part of pop culture themselves, it is inevitable that, in time honoured tradition, artists will continue to explore, rehash and revive old works in new and increasingly interesting ways for audiences both unnervingly familiar and utterly ignorant of the originals.
One Man Star Wars Trilogy will be performed at Lamb’s Theatre, New York until October 31. For further information, CLICK HERE
