I I

~ t ?~°Jl\ '

J,.,~ TH E THEATRE OF
MARTIN CRIMP

Aleks Sierz

Methucn Drama

3 'PRIVILEGED DISTANCE
FROM DEATH ANO
DISMEMBERMENT'
, Fa a to the Wall, Cn,el and
Atternpts on Her Lift, The CoMntry
ies
Tender, Fewer Emergenc
ce, Attnnpts on Her Li.,.
In 1997, Ma rtin Crimp's masterpie 'J"• was
, an evc nt tha t sccured his
Co wt The atre
sragcd at tbe Royal
tive, mo st exdting and most
repuration as the mo st innova
tion. Por a play which satiriscs,
exportable playwright ofh is gencra
it is .tìtting that it was produced
among otb cr things, media hype,
itivcly recked of overstatcment.
in a cultural atmosphcre tha t pos
swtilt, Lt Monde and London's
In 1996, tbc media - led by New
don as tbe 'capital of cool'.
Evming Standard - rebranded Lon
ny Blair was talking about Cool
Within a couplc of years, eve n To 1 refugee's dead child, a victim of alie
putative cultura.1 renaissance.
Britannia, the nam e given ro this
Countty, and tbe inevitable
Britain was being hyped as a Young
led by Culture Secretary Chris
assortment of scenc-creamers was
e industties, Creative Britain,
Smith, whose love lctt er to tbc creativ
But whiJe Cool Britannia was
sportcd a glossy Damien Hir st cover.
such as Brit pop and frock
prindpally about cultura.1 industries
tbeatre were soon swept up in
flicks, traditional art fonns such as
er.fidai level of marketing, or
thc cxcitcmcnt. Whetber on tbe sup
urge, tbeatre was suddenly
because of a genuine creative ups
Jooked, tbere was a young
ncwsworthy again. Wherever you
playwright David .Edgar put
dramatist cager to make a splash. As
ics [ofncw writing], theatre is
it: 'Pive years on from all thc obituar
and foo d as the 1ìfth Jeg of
listcd along with pop, fashion, fine art
2 le tbc arts media were busy
the new swinging London.' But whi
twenty-something writer,
looking for the nen Sarah Kane or hot
48
'Prlvllefed Dlstance from Death 1nd
Dlsmernbennenf
wri ttcn by an cipericnced
tbc best play of thc decade was
ing bis craft.
t who had spcnt nearly two decades hon
r•-gh
pla-,n
AttemPts on Her Lite
y govemment, a sony tale of
In tbc dying days ofJohn Major's Tor
clamour, Atttmpts on Her Lift
sleaze and continuous_~cnophobic
_and a distinctly European
appeared as bot h a brilliantly original
cnnctb century and a vwon of
play, bot h a comment on tbc latc-tw
be.3 Witb its punning tide _
wbat tbe theatre of tbc future might
e plays-tbc picee advertises
which also recalls Crimp's Orange Tre
tbc tbeatre'. Thesc seventcen
itsd f as 'Seventeen sccnarios for
cme brevity and lengthier
scenes, which vary berwccn cm
ct of a woman caDed Anne
dia}ogue, each ci:plore a diffcrent aspc
ka) -w ho appears to be a
(also Anya, Annic, Anny and Annush
t of a variety of tclephone
complete enigma. Shc is thc recipien
victim of civil war, a typical
mcssagcs, the heroinc of a film, a
e, a makc of car, a physicist,
consumer, a megastar, a tourist guid
an survivalist, an aitist, a
an international rcrrorist, an Amcric
ns, tbc giri nen door, tbc
star, and che subject of a
object of a police investigation, a pom
tbc play, tbc people tal1cing
conversation among fticnds. During
critics, official intcrrogators,
about ber include Mwn and Dad, art
kers, spin doctors, showbiz
border guards, advcrtisers, film-ma
rs and fiiends. In gcographic
pcrfonners, abusive stalkers, lovc
wit h mentions of distant con·
range, she skips across tbc g]obe,
and North Afiican counnics.
tinents, as well as Europcan capitals
and forty; she's both a single
I Hc r age flucruates betwcen recnage
t Door', the idea ofher fluid
woman and a motber. In 'Girl Ncx
I whcn shc is dcscribed as
idcntity reaches a hilarious climax
to 'a dyke with a/emme' (pp.
I evcrything from 'a cheap cigarettc'
263 -4). "
's quest to many fonn and
The play is tbe cu]mination of Crimp
I e flair, bis text indicatcs where
content. Witb enonnous imaginativ
49
I
 The ThNtre of Martin Crimp Dlsmembermenr
'Prlv llege d Dlstance from Death and
--
sn't assign them to being refurbished. Director
onc spccch bcgins and end s, but doe ied Cflllllbling Sloane Squ are buil ding was
chara s, lcavmg
cter
. 1t . to the directo r and actors to <n!trib nan
'fiJll Albery cas t fou r me n and fou r
wom en, including a Bosnian
the composition: ; : : rt's ttadition of austere
lincs. Alt hou gh the cas t 'sho uld refl ect and a Nigerian. In defiancc of the Cou
the num ber of actors is n overtly theatrical, a richly
wor ld bcy ond the the atre ' (p. 202), siaging, Atte mpt s on Her Lift was
d, alth oug h in som e scene:t get. Images of Albery's
spccified. No r is the ir gen der indi cate entertaining eve nt despite its tiny bud
be infeITed. Sitnilarly, th~ the two lon g lines of red
suc h as 'Mu m and Dad ', it can easily pro duc tion tha t stic k in the min d include
eac h oth er and quote each stage, suggesting an ailp ort
sce ncs are not ran dom : the y refe r to lights tha t con ver ged at the bac k of the
again. Abo ve all, the play's of aitplane windows, con-
oth er, and som e mot i& occ ur aga in and runway; a blac k fram e rem inis cen t
bot h play ed in a foreign en; thc passing images of
daring form is sym met rica l: two scenarios, ference ven ues or a telcvision scre
r the beg inni ng and the end l in 'Mu m and Dad'; blea k
language wit h a tran slat ion , occ ur nea x-rayed Iuggage on an airp ort carouse
scenes, 'Tb c Camera Lovcs Scenario 5, Hak eem Kae-
of tbc play; and the re are two rhy me d diyscapes and a vio lent TV mov ie. In
s, 'Fai th in Ourselves' and Kaz im per fon ned a rap son gwh ile a
film projection sho wed a girl's
You' and 'Girl Nc. n Doo r·. Tw o scen ario
e stor y. Som e scenes, such as as blo od starts run nin g
'Strangclyl' are epis odc s from the sam lcgs dangling - whi ch sud dcn ly twi tch
olv e usin g wor ds from real s - and Scenario 14 was a
the car adv ert and 'Th e Occ upi er· inv dow n them , soa kin g ber whi te sock
due b, a kin d of obja trouvé. nian Btela Par do play ed
adv erti scm ents or tho se prin ted on pro showbiz song-and-dancc rou tine . Bos
a dive rsit y of voices, most Wa rd translating; Kacey
But alth oug h the pla y doe s incl ude the 'Ne w Anny sce ne wit h How ard
an survivalist in Scenario girl and ber Por tug ues c
notably tha t of the mo the r of the Am eric Ainsworth was the naiv e 'Po m6 '
art-makers, creatives and 'Untitlcd (100 Words)', the
10, the rec uni ng ton e is tha t of tod ay's translator was Dan ny Cer que ira. In
e. a par ody of The Late Show,
com men tato rs - wh o all sou nd the sam critics wcr e sea ted aro und a table in
the fìnal scenario, whi ch
Attempts on Her Lift beg ins wit h 'All
Messages Deleted', which BBC2's arts rev iew pro gra mm e. In
eared not in cha ract er but
es, mo st of which relate to looked like a din ner par ty, the acto rs app
consists of eleven ans wei pho ne mes sag wit h the play over, the
s. For examp1e, one from as themselves, in the ir ord inar y clothes:
one or mor e of the sub seq uen t scen ario and the smokers bav e lit
now in the sho wro om and cast enjo y a mea l; win e has been pou red
'Sally at Cooper· s· says 'the veh ide is xed, untheatrical.
whi ch dear1y prefigure.s thei r cigarettes. Tbc atm osp her e is rela
ready for you r collection· (p. 204), eren t explanation on thc
ody of car adverts. The The aiti cs stru ggle d to imp ose a coh
Scenario 7, 'The New Ann y', a par rs. Nicholas de Jon gh beg an
e the first scen ario may be play, som e mo re successfully than othe
definitive ten ·s not e tha t in per form anc a suggestion of'w hat the
ch is jus t a pre lud e to tbe bis rev iew by seei ngA ttem pts on Her Lift as
cut allows directors to om it mat eria l whi loo k like - bot h on stage
ina! stag e direction: 'Let each brav e new the atte of the 21st cen tury will
mai n play. The oth er cut - of the orig put dow n: Just heartfclt
aga inst a distinct woricl and pag e·, but cnd ed it wit h thc
scenario in words - the dialogue - unf old s end up congratulating tbc
- was mad e to discourage pretension. • Pau l Tay lor said: 'On e doe
- a ~ig n-: 'hic h best exposes its iron y' ppears up its own self-
thc pla y's iron y. s play for the wit and agility wit h whi ch it disa
versions ~~e h too obviously und erli ne saw it as 'a private drama
mak esh ift space at the reflexive futility.' Joh n Pet er correctly
Tbc Original Produetion was stag ed in a ·, while the New Statesman's
whe re the Cou rt, an early who se hcr oin e is defined by ber absence
~b~ sad ors Theatre in the We st End, tivity' of the production,
anz a, had ren ted two theatres Susannah Clapp praised the 'visual crea
l'CClpICnt ofthc Nationa} Lottcry bon hil ·rs ofb ewi lden nen t'. Alastair
-th c oth cr was the Dukc 0 fy ork•s - as tem por ary bases w. e 1 describing the play as 'a blo w on beh alf
51
so
 and o1srnem berment '
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp ed o1siance trom oeath
•prtvllei , • ),
chiatric treaan cnt (p 253 ,
~~ul~ y made thc most SUstaincd case . d to underg o psy . Cbarlc s 5pencc r s
tcrriblc play. calling it po-od e • ~ What hc saw cornpelle al-life evcnt.
• .."4u m - post-civilisa . ,...ctead be . ferencc to a re ·eh 'It's not a
post-feeling. post-tc cth. post-cvcnn-l.;.. _, as a JJ.,., oWlllg re , e in whi h c -rrnte - .. - ,
tion, P<>st-tn...1. it's a lcn , ph,atdra s LoV •
la · • ulsi • . - J ..._.'!; - and accu..;.. ft • -
chi trist ,10
P ymg rcp ve • tnanipu -o.q, . w of JWlC s . d bere it's a psy a
lativc games With · -:--e, Crunp of re<11e ·oc tbat' s reqUlJ'C .
and media. Michac l Bill;.. ,_
. • ~Lon saw Annc as 'basi
tctTOnstn, r,. ....,1... d thrilling ncw plays of tbc 1990S,
thc wntcr s mora} rtjcctio n ofa ~-1c.h ·--:u,, art tbeatfC :;tbe rnost arnbitioUS anbis . .est and satirica l best. A tensio n
. . cally a Vchiclc for
~ • matcria list rn..1, __ • • c ... · blc
0ne on ;~ 1S
Htr Li_,t ........ -
"".P at 10 1 who are rccogn isa
on consum cr fctishism' and argucd that Crim has~•~tio n hascd AtteniPts crers of tbc P ay' mc
act of thcatrc can still survivc if propcll d byp provcd that tbc t,etWeen tbe ~ tbc don't bave names , and tbc cxtrc .
e tnoral fcrvour· , . .J;.,;duals cven if Y rall c0 .....,. aivcs tbc work 1ts
general, w hat thrcw thc critics was thc idea tha · In IJ1uiY• f th play's ove ii .... ~ r:r
r...mnentation ° e . fi al daring also suggcs ts a future
u-e,-·-
so many diffcren t idcntitics. But as thc se...... ~ ~ chiould havc
.......... &o 111 w .eh shc . edgc But 1ts onn
prcscn tcd as a make of car makes• clcar Annc • hicl 18 conternPorary . ~hich tbc conven tions of natura lism are sub-
1S a ve e 7 Likc kind of tbeatre JJl d This . a reope· for an avant-g ardc tbcatre
mctaph or, shc carrics m c ~ that 'arcn't litcral. In~ a
picee's ~layful approa ch to scrious issucs is signalled by thc ~ verted an d rcmventc . alitylSand sunulta ncousl y dccons trUcts 1t. •
0 wbich both rcpresents re yful d borrifì c in
playtcx t s back-co vcr blurb: 'Attcm pts to dcscnbc hcr? / Attcm Tbc rcsult is a scrics of parado xcs, botb pia an .,
to dcstroy hcr? / Or attemp ts to dcstroy herscID / 1s Anne : bich tbc play' s audicnccs are voycur s of a satire on vo~cu nsm,
objcct of violcnce? / Or its tenifyi ng practitioncr?' The answer, of ~d meaning in critiques of mcanin g' s social constr11et1on, and
coursc, is all of thcsc, and more. create a character out of tbc fragme nts of ber fugitiv c abscnc e.
Crimp has said that Attemp ts cm Her Lift was the play hc was wisely, Crimp refuscs to fìnally offcr a comfor table explan ation.
'happic st writing ', partly bccaus c he fclt free from thc obligation to As in Tht Treatmmt, tbc bordcr bctwce n lifc and art is trampl cd,
create natural istic charact crs and a lincar plot. 1 Annc's contra- leaving lingcring imagcs of tcrror and suicide , violenc e and
dictory charact er indicat cs that she's an absurdist notion, an violation . His characteristic tbemcs - tbc social constru ction of
abscncc fillcd by otbcr pcoplc 's opinions and ideas. In fact, in imagcs of women and tbc relation ship bctwce n art and lifc - come
Scenario 6 Crimp nimbly parodie s this view: ·An abscnce of at you with a dizzying spced, yct always with a scnsc of linguis tic
character, whatev er tltat means .. .' (p. 229). Yet, although he has
pleasurc and with tantalis ing intellig encc.
libcratc d himsclf from tbc conven tions of thc traditional wcll- Attempts on Her Life has bcen tbc most oftcn pcrfon ncd, and
madc play, he also makes sure that tbc picee has a satisfyingly
most oftcn studicd, of Crimp' s works. David Edgar rightly sccs it
symmctrical fonn, and that its kaleidoscope of sccncs is bascd as ~th an cxperim cnt in fonn and as a criticai qucstio ning of
firmly on narrative. The wholc play, Crimp has pointed out, is hcld audience cxpcctations:
togcthc r by tbc fact that pcople are 'telling stories ali the time' ·9
Bach of thc storics draws attcntio n to its own telling, so thc stoiy CrimP·5 purposc is· not only to qucstion whethe r wc can trUly
of Annc the suicidai artist is told by means of a discussion among know anothcr human being, but whether we can regard othcr
pcople as CXJStmg
· · at all indcpen dcnt of the models wc constrU
critics about thc merits and dcmcri ts ofhcr lifc and art. At thc same ct of
time, passagcs of concrete poetry, groups of free-floating words, tbcm. And he docs this not by a bald stateme nt, but by playing an
punctu ate thc discussion - it is, aftcr ali, a scene about art. And elaborate and sophisti cated game with the audienc e's expccta tions
whcn one of Crimp' s charactcrs claims tbat tbc artist Annc ·should ofhow sccncs connect within narrativ e. 11

52 H
 ._..
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
Othcr reactio ns bave bcen less cohere nt. Por ex.unpie,
d . M L ckh urst enthw1astt. .cally secs tbc play as 'th
aca enuc ary u
most radical ly interro gative work in wester n rnainstrcarn theair:
sincc Bccke tt', and thcn gives an accou nt of hcr York Universi
produ ctioni n 2002. Focw ingon tbc politic s ofCru np·s 'fascinatio~
with thc scxual object ificatio n of wome n and wornc n as victuns
and pctpet uators of violen cc', she points out that Annc can be •a
f.mtas y-repo sitory for extrem c kinds of wish-fulfilmcnt'. But since
hcr readin g of the play is so apprcc iativc, hcr conclw ion that iu
conten t is 'limite d' is odd, as is her criticis m that its suggcstion that
wome n are compl icit victim s remain s unque stionc d and that iu
repres entatio n of men is 'so excess ively negati ve'. 12
By contra st, Dr Hcine r Zimm ennan n sees Annc as 'a gallery of
mirror s in which the play satiric ally reflects the rnultitude of
contra dictory imagc s of postm odem woma n'. Por hirn, thc play is
an cxamp le ofpost -dram atic theatre , in which images of Anne try
to render her presen ce while simult aneow ly ernphasising ber
absence:
The spcakcrs evoke rcflections of Anne in various media such as
photographs, videos, film scripts, rccordings on an answering
machine, a commcrdal, ttia1 proceedings, hcr suicide notes and
persona! objects such as her medicine bottlcs or her ashtray - in
short an archive of the abscnt centrai character.
Zimm crman n rightly stresse s that Crimp not only satirises the
male gazc but also the respon se to it of femini st body art. The
picee, he convincingly argues , parodi es discou rses about women ,
and its politics are precise ly a denun ciation of 'thc absenc e of
woma n in a culture in which male projec tions of her concea l her
13
rcaJiry· - Reviewing the Ameri can premi ere, playw right Ken
Urban sums up:
The play is after the big question: how is it that we come to know
the othcr? Crimp suggcsrs that the proccss of knowing is never a
ncutral one, and in fact, that thc subject perpetuates a violence on
54
'Prlvlleg ed Dlstance from De.ith and Dlsmemberment'
the object that it sceks to know. It is no coinddcnce that the object
of investigation in this play is a woman, sincc thc fcmale other has
14
becn tbc objcct of thc male gazc sincc time immemoriaJ.
Finally, Dr Merle Tonni es sees Attempts on Ha Lift as Crimp 's
rcactio n to the more headli ne-cat ching in-yer-face playwrights of
the 1990S- He 'oppos ed a dclibc rately low emotio nal tempe rature
. al •IS
to the genera l mood o f scnsat ton excess .
Atump ts on Ha Lift was not only an intcma tional bit, with
produc tions in many Europ can countr ies and bcyon d, but it has
also gained resona nce follow ing the events of 9 I 11 and the W ar on
Terror. In a produ ction at Londo n's BAC in 2004, directe d by Anne
Tipton - winne r of that year's James Menzies-Kitchin award for
young directo rs - the play's referen ces to terrori sm and violcn cc
felt, if anythi ng, even more timely than in the 1997 original. In
comm on with The Treatmmt, tbc worst produc tions are thosc in
which the media elemc nt of the play is cxcessively highlig hted,
drown ing its satire with noisy video image s or the like.
On 1 May 1997, Tony Blair was elected prime minist er and the
t
era of New Labou r, with its spin doctor s and politically correc
contro l frcaks, bcgan. About eightc en month s later, the Guardian
ran a featur e in which British playw rights were asked to describ e
their favour itc playw right. Crimp chose Caryl Church ill:
Wlùlc most of us inch forward like pawns, shc Jeaps about the
board with the strangc frecdom of a knight. She always darcs to
imaginc. She is ncvcr guilty of what Bcckctt once callcd 'that dismal
conscrvatism of form and &tal joumalism of contcnt' that is stili
16
frequently found masqucrading as thcatrc.
In what reads like a pcrson al manife sto, he also praiscd ber ability
to realise the 'playfu lncss of the play'. In the same article, Kane
chosc Crimp:
Hc's rcmorsclcssly unsentimental and has some very hard cdgcs.
His work doesn't scream for attcntion, but hc's onc of thc fcw
genuine formal innovators writing for thc stage. Hc's constandy
55
 The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
refìning bis languagc to find more accurate theatrical aprca ion,
on
manyi ng rhythm and skill with real bcauty. His prcdsi
17
compc ls.
two
This suggests somet hing of the mutua i regard that thesc
e her professiona}
playwrights had for each other. Howe ver, despit
shc
success, Kane was deepl y troubl ed, and, in Febru ary 1999,
18
comm itted suicide.
The Country
As the new millcn nium began , British cultur e sent out mixcd
,a
messages. On the one band, tbere was the Millen nium Dome
New
white elepha nt which symbo lised all that was wrong witb
tbe othcr
Labour's ignora nt and philis tine attitud e to the arts. On
c -
band, British film, televi sion and media - as wcll as tbeatr
tive
cntere d tbe new era witb its fair share of creati ve and innova
d back into its
clout. When , in 2000, tbe Royal Cowt move
as
refwb ished Sloane Squar e base, it staged plays by talent s such
. But,
Conor McPherson, Jim Cartw right and, of course , Crimp
to tbe limit
having pushc d the bound aries of theatr ical possib ility
took
witb .Atttmpts 01t Her Lift, bis nen play, The Country, ostens ibly
play
a more traditional fonn. As he said, 'Attempts 01t Her Lift was a
pt to put
that pullcd plays apan, so this is a play where I attern
19 that
playb ack togetb er again.' As well as its fonn, it also tackle d
staple of mainstrcam tbeatr e, 'an adulte rous relatio nship' which
20 was
symbolises 'tbc proble ms of mode m marri age •. Tht Country
on
originally broadcast on BBC radio in 1997, and when it was put
tbc main stage of tbc Court in 2000, the Jndq,tndmt quote d Crirnp
as saying that 'aftcr tbc chilliness of much of bis precc ding work,
7?'t Country is bis fìrst stab at a "hot" play', and that 'at a very
nt
sunple lcvel [it] is about fìdelity and infidclity and the differe
kinds of~ain that botb might entail and it cxplo res, or it plays with,
tbc rclanonship bctwc en the urban and the pastor al'.21
56
'Prlvlleged Dlstance from Death and Dlsmemberment'
Tltt country is about a forty- somet hing couple, Richard. a GP,
tbeir
and Corin ne, bis wi.fe, wbo bave movc d to tbc count ry witb
children. Dcspi tc bis respcc table job, be is a recovering drug addict
and they'r e trying to start a new life. One night, hc brings home
bave
Rebecca, a rwent y-som cthing Amcr ican, whom hc claims to
and,
found uncon scious by the roadside. Corin nc is suspicious,
watch . Then,
whilc Rebecca slccps, shc cxami nes ber cxpcnsive
, shc
while Richa rd talla to Moni s, bis senior partne r, on tbc phone
t,
discovers Rebec ca's bag. Whcn Richa rd lcaves to visit a patien
lover:
Corin ne qucsti ons Rebec ca, wbo turns out to be Richa rd's
drugs
hc broug ht ber bomc to recov er wben sbe overd oscd on tbc
anotb cr
Richard had givcn ber. For ber sakc, hc has neglccted
paticnt. After that man's dcath , Richa rd has to facc Morris's angcr,
also
althou gh tbc senio r docto r covcr s up tbc ncgligcnce. lt
to tbc count ry
cmerg es that Richa rd has broug ht bis family
be
becausc Rebec ca movc d thcre fìrst. Sbe tells Corin ne that
Richa rd
bough t ber tbc watch. In tbc last scene, two month s later,
of
celebrates Corin nc's birthd ay by giving ber an cxpcnsive pair
tbc
sboes. Sbe tbcn tclls him that, tbc night before , she visited
met Morti s.
same piace where Rebec ca ovcrd oscd and that she
to
Morti s had just found Rebec ca's watch there. 'What if I bave 22
spcnd tbc rest of my life simul ating love?' shc asks (p. 366).
Direc ted by Katic Mitchell, tbc cast was Juliet Stevenson,
chilly
playin g Corin nc witb clcnch cd suspicion, balancing a
a ry
sarcas m witb a deepcr warm th, Owcn Tcale, plausible, slippc
a
and fìnally sinistcr, and Indira Vann a, wbosc Rebecca had
hite
subdu ed scnsu ality and cniel confìdence. Castin g a non-w
css that
actor likc Vann a also gavc ber charac ter an otbem
main
contra stcd well witb tbc Anglo-Saxon Englishncss of tbc
ed
couplc . Vicki Morti mcr's darle, bare and brood ing set radiat
of fear,
discom fort, with its crepu scular lightin g indicating a night
the
and only blosso mcd into sunlig ht at tbc end. Tbc noise of
tcleph one which intcrr uptcd Richard and Corin ne as Mortis
two
phonc d to check up on Richard added to tbc tension. And
rows of rootle ss, bare trees were suspc ndcd abovc tbc room. Their
57
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
presence conveyed a sense of menace, as if they might crash down
at any moment, and thcir wintry sterility suggested stunted
feelings. As Stevenson asked the question about 'simulating lov .
e,
pain radiated from the stage. In the playten, Crimp mentions the
childrcn's game of scissors, paper and stone, an echo of the power
games of these unhappy adults.
The play had mixed reviews. Billington saw it as 'an assault on
the pastora! myth: the Virgilian idea of the country as a piace of
ordcr, hannony, continuity', and as 'deeply disturbing'. In C01tntry
Lift magazine, he aptly noted that the play was about ·a sickness at
the heart of modem man which we cannot expect the countryside
alone to cure', while Taylor said, 'Like Crimp's compelling,
microscopically calculated script, the production transmits a
powerfully [sic] sense of the abyss gaping under this precarious
middle-class marriage. · Spencer was more sceptical, observing that
Crimp's dramas 'may generate interest, but they never generate
warmth' as he ·combines the unsettling menace of the early Pinter
plays with the sexual anxiety that informs his mid-period
masterpieces·. Tue metaphor of surgery appealed to some critics:
Georgina Brown said that 'Crimp detects the tumour ofbetrayal
with a specialist surgeon's precision and accuracy' while Sam
Marlowe praised the 'razor-sharp linguistic precision of these
exchanges'. Finally, de Jongh commented on the play's wider
resonance: 'At a time when doctors have lost thcir old aura of
sanctity and too many are being dramatically exposed as
incompetent, delinquent and heartless, The Country hits raw
23
nerves.' As well as being a play about a marriage, it also offered a
passing comment on a decaying health service.
One of Crimp' s richest and most subtle plays, Tht Country is
oblique and disturbing. It is divided into fi.ve scenes, each of which
has two speakcrs. Although none of the speeches is ascribed to a
namcd character, the combinations are clear: Richard and Corinne
in the first two scenes; then Corinne and Rebecca; then Rebecca
and Richard; and fìnally, Richard and Corinne again. The plot
unfolds through a serics of stories they tell each other, with
58
'Prlvlleged Dlstance from Death and Dismemberment'
aracters - such as Morris, Sophie, the part-time
t ch
iJTlportanand
tbc couple's children - kept offstage. The centrai
nannY' . that modem urbanites tend to see the country as a refuge
theine 1S
the evils of city life. But all their attempts to escape fail- they
frotn :....ply brought thetr .
. nuscry W1
.th them. At one pomt, .
bave Suu
becca and Corinne talk about the difference between the words
~e n-v' and 'country5ide', and this underlines Corinne's
coun-,
alienation. The theme of a rura1 idyll is repeated with variations. In
the first scene, Corinne tells Richard of bow Mortis visited her in .
the aftemoon, at one point •chanting to me in another language'
(p. 303), which tumS out to be a poem by Virgil, the Latin poet of
the Gei,rgics pastora!. Other references to him follow. And there's
also a touch of fantasy. Early on, Corinne says sbe feels like ·a goat-
girl' from afairytale (p. 301), thenlater she's like Cinderella, trying
on new shoes. Rebecca uses the language of a bedtime story to
dcscribe how Richard gave ber drugs and had sex with ber:
The trcattncnt was wild, childrcn. It could t3kc piace at any time of
the day or rught. In any part of thc city. In any part ofhcr body. Hcr
body .. . bccamc thc city. Tbc doctor leamcd how to unfold ber -
likc a map.
Until onc day tbc bright young giri dccidcd tbc trcatmcnt would
havc to end - bccausc tbc more medicine shc took. tbc more
medicine she cravcd- and bcsidcs, she was lcaving for thc country.
(p. 342)24
Tue play is suffused with an enigmatic feel and emotionally raw
undcrcurrents. Often the devices Crimp uses are simple, such as
Richard's reiterated reply of 'I have kissed you' to Corinne's
request for a kiss. Although there is no doubt about the emotional
devastation of Corinne's line about simulating love, Morris's
reply-Tm sure the two ofyou will simulate love immaculately'
(p. 366) - fcels like a judgement on both of them. And bis discovery
of Rebecca's watch is typically ambiguous: it shows either that
Richard is still meeting her, or it is simply a reminder of ber
cxistence. What happens between the lines is as significant as what
59
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
is said On onc lcvcl thc play shows how language can be UScd to
evade responsibility and to elude reality, on another it packs a
satirica! punch in its account of urbanitcs sccking rural bliss, and
cchocs Cavafy's poem 'The Town': 'New placcs you Will not
find, you will not find another sca. / Tbc city will follow you:is
Wherever you go, you take your problems with you. Gradually,
Richard and Corinne's marriage erodes, and Rebecca, who at first
secms to be a victim, emerges as manipulativc and forccful, a
bearer of truths no one wants to bear. In a house wherc sbaq,
objccts - such as scissors - cebo the hard clarity of the language, an
oppressive feeling of evasion and of thc banality of cvii minglcs
with issues of trust and truth. 'Scissors mcet stone; metal meets
flesh; stonc mcets flesh. Tbc counny is full of the contcntion of
elcments. lt has, Corinne explains, "nothing whatsoever to do
with Virgil".' 26
Tbc year 2000 also saw the publication of the fìrst volume of
Crimp' s collected plays. This collection included a preface which,
instcad of intcrprcting the plays, offered a portrait of 'the writer'
under the title 'Four lmaginary Characters'. With delightful self-
irony, Crimp describes, for example, meeting tbc actors of bis
plays: 'Tbc room becomes a tiny tbeatre in which wc improvise
delight, modesty, anxiety, mutuai respect, witb varying degrees of
success· (p. vii). Reminiscent ofFranz Kafka andjorge Luis Borges,
thesc shon pieces are beautifully wrinen and wonderfully
evocative of a writcr's life. Witb tbeir ironie tonc, and thcir
slippcry slide from autobiography into fiction, and back again,
thcy are charactcristically Crimpian.
Foce to the Wall
Crimp returned to thc Royal Coun in March 2002 witb Fact to tht
Wall, a powcrful slice of thcatrical minimalism about tbc media,
mass murder and domestic violence. It was, be said, a 'kind of
footnote to Atttmpts on Htr Lift', the rcsult of an attcmptcd but
60
•prtvlleged Dlstance from Death and Dlsmemberment'
. Attempts on His Lift. 27 This fìftcen-minute shon begins
abornve
·th thfee narncless characters discussmg
· a massacre: 'He sh oots
W1 bfough the moutb' (p. 25). Charactcr 1 elaborates on tbc
ber t wbich involves schoolkids being killed, while characters 2
story, • •
and add suggestions. Altbough this secms 1:1__ u..r.c a pnvate scnpt
3
conference for a film, it suddenly becomes apparent tbat tbc
cbaracters are performing in public. As the emotional reality of
violence bits homc, it puts such a strain on l's memory that hc
forgets bis lines and nccds prompting from character 4. Thcn 1
loses bis tcmper, tbcre's a pause and hc resumcs, answcring
questions from 2 and 3 about the killcr's motives: he has none of
the usual motivcs. When 1 says that a late postal delivcry makes
biro feel 'angry', tbc otbers suggest be might kill tbc postman. No,
replies 1: 'lt'snotthepostma n'sfault' (p. 33). Thenhe imagines tbc
posnnan waking up, as bis child brings him a cup of tea, 'but thc
posnnanjust pushes himsclfharder against tbc wall' (p. 34). Now
the play flips over complctely and a twelvc-bar blues song is
perfonned, telling the postman's story. lt cnds: Woke up this
morning I Heard my son call / Turned away from tbc window /
Tumed my face to thc wall. / Son son, I bear what you say / But
there just ain't gonna be no delivcries today ... / (No way)' (p. 36).
Fact to tht WaU was directed by Kati.e Mitchell. At tbc time, she
was also directing an experimental production of Jon Fossc's
night.songs, witb tbc main stage of tbc Royal Court reconfi.gured
into a traverse setting. On tbc samc minimalist set, Crimp's play
was performed by actors from thc nigkt.songs company, and tickets
were free if you booked for eitber n.ightsongs or the Thcatrc
Upstairs show. Pctcr Wight was the lead, witb Sophie Okoncdo,
Paul Higgins and Gillian Hanna in support. At thc end. through
the gloom, you could sec Crimp himself, pounding thc ivories as
he accompanicd Wight in tbc thumping twclvc-bar blues whose
rcfrain, 'Turncd my facc to tbc wall', summcd up tbc loneliness
and angcr at tbc play's core. Not many critics revicwcd the play.
Lyn Gardner in the Guardian said that 'the distinction between
performance and story, actor and reality are entirdy blurred' and,
61
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
at thc end, 'The song curls throug h thc audito rium and into your
brain like a whiff of smoke from a still-w ann gun·, while IanJoh ns
in The Time.s wrotc: 'In Crimp 's typically absurd ist stylc,
he
summ cd up a mcdia -satura ted, pop psycho logisin g age that trics to
warp up compl cx horror in ncat packag es.' 21
Crimp ' s play is uttcrly simplc but profou ndly rcsona nt. Hc gives
a vivid snapsh ot of feelings so awful thcy are almos t bcyon d
words . Thcn hc neatly subvcr ts all the usual explanations of
psycho-killing - domcs tic violcn ce or abusc - and suggcsts that
rcpres cnting thcsc horror s can put an intolcr able strain on writcrs,
actors and dirccto rs. Little wondc r that most media imagcs of
horror are sanitiscd. Durin g the twelvc -bar blues, thc most
shocking cvcnt is whcn thc postm an respon ds to his child' s waking
him with a cup of tea by throw ing it 'RIGH T IN HIS PACE', and
thcn advising him: 'Don't rub on buttcr / Whcn your skin is all
burncd ' (p. 35). Tbc postm an has bccom c a man posscs scd and his
savagcry raises troubl ing qucstio ns: are aggressive feelings
towards childrcn normai? And, in an agc satura tcd by violcn t
media imagcs, what is norma i anyway? With its sclf-subvcrting
structu rc, which kecps audicn ces on thcir tocs by consta ntly
surprising thcm, this is a gcm of a play, as hard and disturb ing as a
picee of grit in thc eyc.
By now, Crimp was also respon ding to global cvcnts . Aftcr
9/11, world politics wcrc transfo rmcd by Presid cnt Gcorg c W.
Bush's dcclaration of a War on Tcrror . Onc result was the war in
Iraq, an invasion led by thc USA and Britain that rcsultc d in thc fall
ofits dictator, Saddam Husscin. The invasi on bcgan in March 2003
and, in thc following month , thc Royal Court stagcd ·war
Corrcspondcncc·, a scrics of protcs ts which includ cd pocms by
Tony Haniso n, a documentary picee by Caryl Churc hill, and short
plays by Rebecca Prichard and Crimp . Crimp 's Advice to lraqi
Womm is a savagcly satirical picee which lists some domes tic dos
and don'ts starting with 'Thc protcc tion of childr cn is a priorit y.
Bvcn a small child on a bikc should wcar a hclmc t' and conclu ding
with advicc about sunburn: 'Your child will not burn if you are
62
'Privlleged Dlstance from Death and Dlsmem bermen t'
liberal with a reliable [sun]cr eam. · The contra St betwe cn worry ing
about your child in a safc Weste rn countr y and thc pointle ssncss
of protecting your cbild in a land bomb ed by missilcs was stark.
ibe picee was read by Steph en Dillan c and Sophic Okonc do, who
•soleOUÙY delive red bousc bold tips as if addres sing wcste miscd
bourgeois womc n. In tbe contcx t of tbc weck's picrur es of
maimed mothe rs and cbildre n, tbc idea of thc bomc as a potcnt ial
"rninefield" moved from metap bor to grisly reality .' 29 But Crimp 's
response to tbc War on Terro r was not limite d to this sbort picee~
it was also thc subjec t of his next play.
cruel and Tender
The War on Tcrro r soon provo ked 'a signifi cant body oftbca trc
work in Londo n' .30 Nicho las Hyme r' s inaugu rai produ ction as
artistic directo r of tbe Nation al Theat rc in 2003 was a contem -
porary versio n of Shake speare 's Hmry V, wbosc stage imagc
s
rccalled the war in Iraq, and vcrbat im docum cntary dramas a year
latcr includ ed David Harc' s Stuff Happm s (Natio nal), as well as
]1'Stifying War and Gwintd namo: HOJtDT Bmtnd to Defmd Frtedm
n
(Tricycle Theatr c). All this wcnt band in band with a rcncw cd
intercs t in Grcck tragcd y, cxemp lified by a rare reviva l - by Katic
Mitch cll- ofEuri pidcs' Iphigm ia at A1'lis (Natio nal, 2004), plus two
versions of his Htctiba (Donm ar and RSC, 2005). Argua bly, tbc
most intcrcs ting of tbcsc Greck projcc ts bas bccn Crimp 's Cniel
and Tender, which 1ike The Misant hrope was a radica l rcwrit ing
of a
prcvio us play, in this case tbc Trachiniae, Sopbo clcs' 'ancien t story
of marria ge and violen cc' .31 Also known as The Womm ofTrac his,
thc origina i Grcck traged y tells tbc lcgcnd of Dciancira and
Herak lcs (Hcrcu lcs), ber vaingl orious busban d. Hc sacks a city to
get his hands on tbc king's daugh tcr and scnds ber homc as booty-
To rcgain his affections, Deianc ira scnds him a shirt soaked in the
ccntau r Ncssu s's blood, but this tumS out to be &tally poisonous.
Crimp bcgan by collcct ing photog raphs of child soJdiers from
63
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp •privlleged Dlstance from Death and Dlsmembennent'

currc nt wars. Hc says: 'I coul dn't imag inc writi . lik.e thiS scory, bcca usc bere you also have onc wom
ng a play that bit an visit ed
wasn 't cut, linguistically, culturally, from tbc mate . h
by another who is cakin 1 ,, c. th first .
ria} of con- g er p ace. •34 W orking 1or e rune
tcmp orary lifc. [. . . ] As far tbc back grou nd of on an English-language prod uctio n, Bond y cast the
terro r, politica} New Zcal and
hypocrisy, and a city destr oycd far a lie, I didn 't have 6hn actor l{err y Fox as Arnclia. The prod uctio n, whic
to look very h open ed in
far to discovcr a cong rucn t univ ersc. ' 32 In May 2004 at the Youn g Vie bcfa rc its Euro pcan tour, was
Crim p's version nota ble .
Hera kles has bcco me tbe prese nt-da y Gene ra! fight forch e way in whic h Fox's pent -up angu ish and
ing a War 0 ~ hyste ria brok c
Terr or and his wife is calle d Amelia. Set in wha through ber worl dly cymc ism, and for its stage
t tbe stage picru re of thc
directions call 'tbc Gene ra! and Amc lia's temp orary rnuscular Generai, play cd by Joc Dixo n, with his
hom e dose to cathc ter, rubc s
an intem ation al airpo rt', tbc play start s witb Ame lia and unne bag, and bis skin blist ered by chemicals
talking to her , sragg ering
chorus: a hous ckce pcr, a phys iotbe rapis t and a bcau
tician . She's in onstage, ravag cd by gross injur ics and a ravin g mind
You also
trouble. The Genera!, who has been away far a year, rernember the smal l touc hcs: an illum inate d toy glob
has tried to e, a marb le
eradicate terro r but has over stepp ed tbe mark and relicf of Pan copu latin g with a goat , thc way the wom
is now unde r en acce pt the
investigation for war crimes. He scnd s hom e children into their hom e by strok ing thcir plait
tbc only two ed hair, Fox
SUIVivors of the siege of an African city, whic h he crush ing a wine glass in ber band . Desi gner
has redu ced to Rich ard Pedu zzi
dust. One of tbem , Laela , is thc daug hter of an Afric
an leader. As evoked cont empo rary icons - gym cqui pmc nt, stabi
lity hall, drinks
Ame lia soon discovers, from Rich ard (ajou mali cabinet, telcvision - whil c givin g the set thc colou
st) and dcspite the rs of an ancie nt
spin-doctoring of Jona than (a politician), she is
tbe General's site.
mist ress- and hc has destr oycd the city to possc
ss her. To gct him The cri.tics were genc rally positive. Whi le expr essin
g doub ts
back. Amelia sends wha t shc imag ines is a love potio n conc
caled in about Kerry Fox's perfo rman ce, dc Jong b poin ted
out bow thc
a pillow. In fàct, it's a smal l chcm ical weap on, and
whe n her son play was part of a trend : •Classical Grec k tragc dy is
all the rage just
James describcs its effects, Amelia comm its suicide. now in Lond on' - 'the barb arou s warf are and
The Generai murd ers, the
rctum s, scvercly disablcd, so Jame s takes over the f.unil
y' s affairs, terrorising and violc nce [ ...] now strik e familiar chor
ds.' Spen cer
givin g up his father to justice. In a final irony , was entbusiastic: 'Not hing I bave sccn in the theat
tbc soldi er who re to date so
makcs the arrcs t is tbc samc man who sc lifc tbc Gene
ra! once rcsonantly and prov ocati vely captu res our bewi lderi
ng post-9 / l l
hcroically save d world, with its alarm ingly am01:phous war against
terro rism and
Commissioncd by tbc Wien er Festw oche n, tbe tbc gbastly aftershocks com ing out of Iraq. ' And Billin
Chic heste r gton located
Festival and the Young Vie, Cruel and Tender was stage the play in a cenm ry-lo ng tradi tion, that includes Jean-
d by Swiss Paul Sartre
director Luc Bond y in a co-production bctwecn tbc
Youn g Vie, and Jean Coct eau, of rewo rking Grec k myth s: 'Crim
p shows that
Bouffes du Nord and Ruhrfestspiclc Recldinghauscn global tcrro rism is a reality: bis poin t is that it is
. Bond y had a hydr a-headcd
bccn tà.~n atcd by Sophocles' rarc1y pcrfo rmcd mon ster that cann ot be dcfea tcd by conv entio
tragc dy and nal mcans.'
encouraged Crimp to take 'thc originai subje ct Altb ough sccptical of the play's politics, John Gros
in a new s pointed out
dircc tion' .33 'Bchi nd my rcason far asking him how 'it's a forceful, carefully work ed-o ut play, and
to trans iate it has been
Sophocles was a desirc to provoke him into writi ng a given a brilliant, tigbt ly focused staging [. . .] your
ncw play. On nerves are so
the phon c hc said tome , "You know, I like the play wou nd up that every detail coun ts, dow n to the small
beca use the est gesnue
constellation of two wom en and one man in The Coun or grim ace' _3s Dire ctor Davi d Farr sums up: 'I loved 5
try is a little the rrange·
65
64
 The Theatre of Mar tin Crlmp
ness of Boyndy 's Vision - I tho wclJ. ' 36
.
ugh t it described our WorJd in a
cur iou s wa rea lly ext rem cly
tion of a Grcck 11-agedy
Crimp's subver.,;vc modcnJisa
and shot througb With
written in a hcightcncd stylc
inia"'!:;:'
Although tbcrc are nunic
violcnt, spiky, lyrica], shocking.
r - suc h as tbc Generai·,
rcfcrcnccs to tbc Wa r on Tc rro r Writer Kills Him sel f, hc tells
dra : 'for cvc iy bca d I bave eve
com par iso n of tcITOr to a Hy
ir pla ce • (p. 58) - the play aJso tilts
scv ere d / two bav e gro wn in the ation fur
itut ing an Afncan loc
tbc global am ofWOdd politics, SU bst ne
thril.lingJy of the mo me nt. Ato
the wa r in Iraq. Yct it rem ain s
t T m sta nin g to find the way you
poi nt, Amelia tells Jon ath an tha secrn
kes CUtting a ma n's bea n out /
spc ak / an atro city wh ich ma es. The rc are
'alm ost ' spcaks volum
almost bum ane ' (p. 21) . Th at
the dyi ng Genera} sces Laela, be
ma ny politica} refcrenccs: wb en
' (p. 62) , the ten n used for Tutsis
says: 'Sbc thinks I'm a coc kro ach the
gen oci dc of the mid- l 990s. At
by Hu tus during tbc Rw and an thc r wil l
sio d's Works and Days: 'Fa
end ofplay, Laela rca ds fro m He
l despisc bis fath er and hw t bis
not rcspcct son and tbc son wil g is
. As she doc s, an African son
fathcr wit h cruel wo rds ' (p. 70)
sung, and an aircraft passcs ovcrhead.
As Crimp says, em pba sisi ng bis
•ow n privilcgcd distancc from
bon ific cvc nts wc bea r about
dcath and dis mc mb cnn ent ', tbc
s of ou r ow n anxicty. Tb c darkcr
from distant lands are 'reflection tbc mo re it
it gcts outsidc, the bla cker a win dow bcc om cs, and
37
mc tap bor suggcsts, Cri mp was
tum s into a lllUTor.' As this t thr ee unn am cd characters. Thi
ofh is ability to articulatc CUITCn
bcconùng incrcasingly conscious g s, 'An d ho w are things going? 40
t hc' d bcc n rcadin
2005, he told3•an int cm cw cr tba
ilIUicties. InMu.slim Miftds:
~ War for
Even tbc SO-calJcd 'ncw tcrrons
m· has at its root p1ain oJd-
rcading for cnm pJe how the
fashi~ncd SOcial. Ìnjusticc. l'vc bcen
(or Salaftsm - a kind of stri·ct
Saudis 6rst encouragcd Wahhab:_i.sm
lcttcr-of..thc-Iawfun,1__ ...,.1
cst m
a SOcicty With SUch~cn .._
111 ) as a way ofsupprcssing unr
w can
ti cs of. poveny and wealth. Ho
cxtrczn
thca trc copc? By constan
gs are
Y l'Cnùnding us that human bcin
66
th and Dlsmemberment'
'Privileged Dlstance from Dea
1
---- more con ua
,.._.dictory and strange than any
idcologue could ever
. J9
unaguie.
I mp ·s col lec ted plays carne out .
In 5, tbc sec ond vol um e of Cri
200 ', he ret um ed,
In his introductio n, 'Fo ur Un wc lco me Th oug hts
tbe
jcc t of Sar ah Kane. In 'W hen
among oth er things, to the sub ht' s
a sto ry abo ut ho w a pla yw rig
the
. Alt hou gh the wr ite r is ma le,
suicide affccts bis fellow wri ters
nc: 'Tb c tc.xts are sho rt and few
conunents obviously app ly to Ka y of
in num ber - afte r all, the wr
itc r wa s ver y you ng, so tbc bod
tbe
ir sup por t for thc dca d wri ter ,
work is small' (p. xi). Dc spi tc the get
o of Atk mp ts on Ha Lift - to
playwrights beg in - in an ceb . This
is get tin g on the ir ner vcs
annoyed: 'Th c dea d wr itc r nd a
xii) . In the end , tbe y ane
mo nsu ous self-promotion!' (p. h oth er
rk bu t can 't hel p eye ing eac
celcbration oft he suicidc's wo is
w tha t tbe gen ius is dea d, 'th at
as competitors, and thin ldn g, no tba t
It's bo th a sat ire on tbe pie tics
no longa any compmtion' (p. xii.t). t
lt cxp res sio n ofa wri ter 's fierces
follow a real sor row , and a hea rtfc en
thc unc ert ain ten ito ry bet we
instincts. Typically, it crosses
ling.
public appearance and sec ret fee
Fewer Emergencies
cies,
is pub lish ed wit h Fe wa Emagm
Th e pla ytc n of Fact to the Wa ll s
ano thc r sho rt pla y wh ich has ', to
time, the y chat: cha rac tcr 2 ask .
ll things are imp rov ing ' (p. 41)
which cha rac ter 1 replies, Wc ,
bri ght cr we ath cr, ben er boating
Thcse imp rov em ent s inc lud e d. Th en,
a cle ane r nei ghb our hoo
mo re con fid ent smiles and on.
int rod ucc d int o the convcrsati
suddeniy a boy callcd Bo bby is ies,
things to cop c wit h emcxgenc
He has a cup boa rd full of useful
es of the wo rld in min iatu re, tiny
and hizarrcly this includcs thc citi ned
bou gh Bobby mig ht be threare
trces and a mo unt ain lake. Alt
ind oor s. Still, cven if things a.re
by riots and civil unr cst , he is safe
67
The ThNtre of Martin Crfmp
improving. and 'thcre are fewcr cmcrgcncics' (p. 46), this safcty is
illusory: Bobby is woundcd by a stray bullct. Tbc originai playtcn
was datcd 10 Scptcmbcr 2001, thc day bcfore 9/11. 41
Ftwer Emngenci~: says Crimp, 'was writtcn on onc oftbosc vcry
rare days when wnnng secms cffonlcss. I was renting a room, and
in thc distance I had a glimpse bctween thc buildings oppositc of
thc rivcr, whcre boats were gliding by . .. Tbc folloWing day tbc
twin towcrs in New York were destroyed. ' 42 Tbc shon play
reccivcd its first productions in 2004, at the Théatre National du
Chaillot and the Schaubiihne in Bcrlin. A year latcr, botb plays,
plus a third - Whok Bliu Sky (written in order to makc this a
theatrical outing of acceptablc length) - wcre staged at thc Coun.
Ali three plays - an hour-long trilogy under the title Fewer
Emngmries - havc the same theme, a radical scepticism about tbc
'culture of contentment' that pervades the middle classes, making
them indifferent not only to the suffering of those in distant lands,
but also to the poor oftheir own country. Although two ofthem
wcrc written bcfore 9 I 11, they predict the states of emergency
that have grippcd Western nations during the War on Terror, and
their British premiere carne two months after the 7 I 7 terrorist
bomb attacks in London.
Director James Macdonald and designer Tom Pye rumcd tbc
black box Thcatrc Upstairs into a whitc box, with white seats, and
furthcr subverted expcctations by putting the house lights up at
the Start of thc show. Performed by Tanya Moodie, Neil Dudgeon,
Paul Hickcy and Rachael Blakc, the production was very stili, with
tbc actors coolly changing position for each scenario. At one point,
Moodic doodlcd; at anothcr, Blakc played with a pen. Each speech
had tbe hcsitancy of a thought fonning in the air. Critic Sam
~ar~owe Praised tbc production as 'very elegant' and the writing's
mtncate 1:'7crberations of its imagery, its tinder-dry humour and
abovc all its OVerriding sense of acute anxiety', while John Peter
got thc sense that '"-rhap e . . dram r. elin
.
you sometimes r- tha s nmp 1S
bave atising the eerie 1e
1,r. • dO . . t somcone out therc is imagining your
wc • an omuuc Cavcndish d "be
escn d tbc show 'as theatre for the
61
'Privileged Dfstance from Death and Dlsmemberment'
. . Most reviewers found the cvening botb
iPod generanon . . 43
. us and oddly compelling.
\ rnysteno ks to avoid tbc obvious, a process which be
e . p aiways see . •
run ....:.c..n in thesc textS, which suggest how thc wnter s
rcveals beauwuuY .onal scenario .As wc11 as be"mg ab out h ow
rnind tbinks up a fico .. . . .
I . r. d off tbc cmcrgcnaes taking piace m tbc widcr
suburbanitcs 1en
. th laylets are also about how narratives are created, and
sooety, e p d did tb . .
be intetpretcd - as Macdonal - as e v01ces m
the text can . . .
· head 44 They could also be about different s1tuanons,
one person s •
a script meeting pcrhaps, or a rehcarsal. or a party game, or an
) acting workshop or a publisher' s brainstonning scssion. Thcy
show how ideas morph out of cach otbcr, out of control - in tbc
words ofBcckett, 'always going. always on'. Bach story has a twist
~ in tbc tail: the first subverts tbc idea of tbc voicc in Bobby' s brain;
the second, undcr the pressure of horror, slidcs from tbc pctpe-
trator of tbc massacre to tbc violent frustrations of his postman;
I and tbc third follows Bobby into tbc wondcrland ofhis possessions
- which include 'a shclf full of oak trces', 'a wardrobc full of
uranium' and 'souvenir life-size Parthenons' (p. 45) - before
wounding him in a frcak shooting. In Whok Bliu S'lty, Crimp plays
I
l with the audiencc's cxpcctations about how much a writer knows
about their own character; part of Face to the Wall is talccn up witb
I negating tbc obvious psychological cxplanations of violence; and
Fewer EmeJimcies takes tbe thcatrical innovations of Atumpts on
Hn- Lift and recreates them in a minor key. Thesc playlcts not only
seek to makc fonn and content one, but are a sustained satirical
attack on some of tbc platitudes of lifc at tbc rum of the new
ccntury. Together, tbcy confirm Crimp's position as a radical
innovator who articulates some of tbe centrai anxicties of British
suburban lifc: a strand of drcad - about violence towards women
and childrcn, international terrorism, war - runs through his work
likc a dark stain.
g
69
 ~ 'My Plays Emlt Critlcism•

8 'MY PLAYS EMIT e of P

, ronouncing a serics of moral judgemcnts' h d
~ f. , e oes
seflS . essly exposc tbc ~~11Y o a number of clearly rccognisablc
CRITICISM' 111ercil rary attitudcs .
11tet1lPo f . . ·c1cy .
co tb politics o sattre lS tn tcmtory. Por while sa-.;- . th
sut e . . .... " 1S e
CriJnp's tempcramcnt, so is 1rony. As he points out, 'Iran
Satirical Stance, Ironie Distance, Powcr Ganics M ""Y
,.... tO d in hand W1"tb saure. . •S And tbere.s surely a contradi,...; y
Consumerism and tbc Culture of Contcntmcnt ' aie G~c, es han . . .....on
go n a satirica! outlook and an 1roruc tane. Satire is Warml
i,etWCC ' be . . if d . y
d -you can t a sannst you on t care - while irony is a
engage . If . . ode .
killd of detached knowmgness. . sanre 1S m mlSt, tben irony is
5
odernist• Crimp has certainly been aware of this problem: ·1
Po:nmber reading one of Koltès's little notes stating that ali
Crirnpland has ics own politics. But just as stage language is not the re11l
dialogue is ironie. I'm s t i ltrytn~
i . to work. out cxactly what that
language of everyday spee~, an~ stage characters are not ordin
erhaps what he means lS that seemg anything frarncd in
people, so the politics of Cnmp s plays are not those of thc sta~ 111eans. P

of.the-nation play, but tbe po~tic~ of -~e cv~ryday. And their
political energy comes from Cnmp s cnncal pomt of view. As he
says, 'My plays emit criticism in tbe same way that uraniuni Clllits
radioactivity: but uranium has otber properties - and so do these
plays.'1 Còmp's politics are tbe politics of discomfort, criticising
assumptions and questioning norms. Because he is not enslaved to
any political ideology, tbere is no rest from criticism, no comfort
zone of certainty. His writing challenges not only the values of
socicty, but also his own values. As Paul Taylor once said about
Atttntpt.s on Her Life: 'The play would not be so disturbing if it did
not honourably risk a confusion between its own values and those
depictcd.' 2 Although Crimp's plays are neither didactic nor
preachy, thcy clearly have a political point of view. During his
career, he has witnessed tbe upsurge in feminist theatre in tbc
1980s, the decline of political tbeatre in the 1990s, and its revival,
in tbe fonn of verbatim tbeatre, after 9 I 11. Crimp's work has
developed both as a reflection of and in opposition to these trends.
But its politics can be best understood as those of a criticai
modemist, someone who believes that art can make a difference,
someone who once summed up his position succinctly as: Tm a
satirist, nota moralist.'3 Por although he's not a moralist in tbc
~wnte-- oftbc tbeatre implies that you havc a distancc from it.•6
lt's certainlY true tbat, in the theatre, both satire and irony depend
on audience complicity. But because both are indirect ways of
saying what you mean, the risk is that some audicnces might not
t the messagc. Still, when they do, tbc rcsult is a collective
~litical knowing, a shared understanding.
satirica! Stance
Satire is a mirror in which you see everyone's face but your own.
Satire attacks human vice, folly or stupidity by using irony,
dcrision, ridicule, sarcasm, parody or caustic wit. It aims to cxpose
bad faith in ali its guises-hypocrisy, pretension, vanity, pcdantry,
idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality. And, by such exposure, to
cncourage change. Satire puts ideas and attitudcs under thc gaudy
ligbt of humour, and enjoys seeing them squirm. It articulates
cultural anxieties, and is tbe most politica! of comic forms. But
whercas Horatian satire is gentle, exposing tbc trutb witb a faint
smilc, amused but not scomful, Juvenalian satire roars witb savage
1 indignation, splashing vitriol, laccrating witb bitter invectivc.
Whcn satire is purely playful it takes the guise of parody. When it

142 143
 ~ 'My Plays Em1t Crttidsm'
The Theatre of Martin ertmp
. . d tCS a,1dty to a political art. Cri.tnp 1. __ biS fasdnation with the slippcrincss of thc sign' _11 Meaning,
. dc dly scnous it cva ~
IS by'
a_ ed both tbc Horatian satire of Shakespeare and diSJ'1:owabilit y, come undcr intolcrable strain. At its bcst,
bccn influenc . aJl~ , satire is both joyfully playful and intcnscly criticai: 'Even
wift's uvenalian outpounng s: 'One of my faVOUri.tc 5
Jonathan S of its mix of angcr and th criJtlP . a paint, he will then suggcst that tberc isn't, and question
. f ·ang,·~ he says , 'L-causc
'-"" ,, there IS
p1cces o wn . . . swift's Modtst Proposal,. in which S . e 1J thcrc isn't.' 10 It's a high-risk strategy, but a compelling onc.
bcauty of tbc wnong, 15 · '1Vift
. b bieS would be a so1unon to ovcrpopulation . ~y . 's writing has a political edge, but as well as bcing criticai
argues that eaang a imil' • in
r in England. 7 A s ar nunurc of rage and cr::i it is a1so sceptical about radical politics. In Tht Trtat1ntnt,
Ircland. and hungc . ates for cxarnplc, Cnmp · •s Alceste. ofl'°, gcntle satire on 1960s activism when John rcmembcrs
dcgancc moov ' . ·caJ . ulsc L. . thefC sa . .
CrirnP had a sann unp : tvutg .Rtmains . andJcnnifer uscd to lie down m the strect to protcst: W e
From the start, fh .
.
borh a sanre on a ,.. ..-.arriage and a catalogue o umorous asidclS bO"" he ur
actions might tramform the world. Wc fclt that if our
. , s, fclt that O .
rnildly describcs Mr Cook as havmg a housc in the rdationships wcrc free of the tens10ns of race, sex, money
one of w hich __ ... __ ds d h ·
hc an#'J: thcrc at wccu;u an s oots animals With own the world itself would alter.' As Crimp makcs clcar, John
COUDtry [ . •'J t:,-- eh o--10 ••L ,
bis gun' (p. S). Thcn, in plays su as cuung wtui Clatr, Crimp•s th
: hs at tltt naivtty' of such ideas (p. 325). In Play with &peats,
. ·ca1 glance ranges ovcr thc lifestyle of thc newly rich and 'la g
Heather talks about her pro-fcminis. t rutor m · a spot-on parody
of
sa~.....11 mobile yuppies such as Mike and Llz, showing how the
upWlllU1Y good . ·right-on' attitudcs to wo~en. (p. 237), ~~ th~ ~erc·s a lengthy
to - A is pavcd with prctcnnons.
pa rh ~........ ·
burlesque on catastrophist views of avilisanon m the guise of
In Attcnpts on Her Lift, the scenano 1Jnn·t1ed (100 Words)', ber rutor's book. A World in Decay (pp. 45-7). This is ali good-
where the critics discusS tbc artist Anne's work, shows Crimp at bis naturcd stuff comparcd to Crimp's exasperated condcmnation, in
satirical best. Clcarly, it's 'a satire of those mind-numbing Lau Tht Misanthropt, of political playwrights who · "workshop" a
RevitW-typc convcrsations', but one which mocks not only the revolution': 'The politica! complexities / of scveral centuries / are
work of conremporary artists, but also both the commentary of thorougbly investigated for about ten days' (p. 138). Explicitly
critics and, even more sclf-aitically, the way a playwright might political thcatrc, he implies, is just too easy. And, in CTKtl and
go about staging this satire. 8 Whcn Crimp writes lines such as Tender, radical srudcnt politics gct an even shatper tongue-lashing,
'tbcatre -tbat's right-for a world in which theatrc itselfhas died' especially thc squatters who mouth slogans: "'Overthrow thc
(p. 254), be is clearly mocking himsclf as wcll as prc-cmpting state" / "kill thc pigs" blah blah blah / "liberate" - by wbich thcy
criticism of bis own work. At its bcst, political satire is a rcstlcss meant fuck- / women' (p. 36). Hcre, Crimp givcs voicc to both a
questioning quest. In tbe much-quoted paragraph when Crimp right-wing military wife and to a female scepticism about the
riffs on tbe idea that 'it's surely the point that thc point that's being politica! posturing of men.
made is not tbc point and never has in fact bem thc point' (p. 251), In Tht Misanthrope, the joy of its verbal high jinks lies in its
this at first fcels likc a manifesto for what the play is about - and Iampooning of vice. But although Alceste mocks, with dcadly
many critics rcad it likc tbat. But Crimp is more savvy than that, sarcasm and wit, the follies of the media scene, be is himsclf
and tbc passage is also a parody ofpostmodcmism and a skit on bis undennined in the end. No one escapcs thc taint of mora!
own play. At moments like this, Crimpian satire rclentlessly culpability, not even Crimp. He is awarc ofthe implications of a
resernbJes an exhilarating and infinite hall of mirrors, where, as satirica! stance. So much so that, sometirnes, he clearly thinks that
RoyaJ Court literary manager Graham Whybrow says, 'Crimp satire is not enough. When, in No Ont Sees the Video, Nigel bchavcs

144
145
 The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
, 'My Plays Emlt Critlclsm•
like a scxist, bis words might be a parody of traditionaJ i cters and to theatre as an art. A good ex"' ....ple
attitudes to women, but Crimp underlincs tbc point thea _lllalc c1tara . f th ...., occurs
JiiS uple of mmutcs o e start of Play With I?-..
when Liz suddenly 'throws her drink in his /ace' (p. 69 ) trically ·cJijrl a co W . , ·-l"'ats, when
· For <J/1 , • Jfriend tclls Tony: e re actors , while Tony ob. tha
moment, one action spcaks louder than words. a ·cJc sgir dds 'An . ~Ccts t
actor tS repeating a part b this .
JS
rJi. iS not an act. He a , . , ut
)ife t' (p- !85) - the double u-ony here is that the cxchange.
lronical Distance ~by actors and that Ton~ is about to rc-enacr cpisodcs fro;
sp0 .,... In Tht Country thcre 1S a constant sliding bctw th
i.;c 11!"· ecn e
Il"' ers' irOnic uttcranccs, and thosc of Crimp hims lf
Irony is a language game. It means saying the op~site ofWhat You cbaf3ct durin th I ' · e ·
mean. So more is meant chan meets the ear. As a literary deVic . ·cJiard's dialoguc g e p ay s opcrung scene sounds ironi
. . becaUseC.tt RI acruallY he's simply lying. But Corinne's 'It's your job to b . e,
lovcs artfu1 double meanings. It tS it
. inherend y cnttcaI
bU[ . h . th nng
draws attention to che gap between the act of saying and What . a srrange wonw_i mto our ouse m e middle of the nightr
actually said. And, by playing with meaning, it qucstions what wts 292) is full-on irony.
take for granted. At times, irony implies a nostalgia for a tun: (p-In Dealing with Clair or The Treatmen.t, Crimp porrrays not only
when everything was as true as it appears, even if such a Utopian tbe ridiculousness of some contemporary ways of thinking but
time has never existed. At its worst, irony means hav:ing it both a]so boW, under the vcnecr of pious good intcntions, therc lurk
ways, an English speciality. Allergie to literalism - its Words sorne deeply unpleasant realities. When Mike describcs raising the
express something different from their literal mean.ing _ irony rice of the house and selling propcrty as 'a hatcful business'
conveys incongruity, humour and sarcasm. The UScr of irony ~ - 42), he is being both s~cere and insincere at the same time. Jf
assumes chat cheir real meaning will be undcrstood. Dr.unatic he rcally meanrwhat he said, he probably wouldn't act as hc does.
irony occurs when the audience .knows 1àcts of which the He aimS to disann criticism and defend himself from the truth _ it
characters in che play are ignorant. In fact, irony postulates a is a hateful business; Thc blind taxi driver in The Treatment is both
double audience, some hearing without understanding, while an entertaining 'ironical comment on the notion of the blind scer'
ochers understand boch the meaning and the bafflement of those and a sratement about 'the moral hankruptcy' of the city. 12 In Play
who don't. Crimp's irony could be described as a sceptic's irony. with Reptats, Lawrence complains that he fìnds bis pupils bave 'a
Having once said, 'Irony is just me,' he values scepticism because calm acceprance ofthe past' - 'there was no outrage' (pp. 247, 248).
Jt's both bis character' s point of view and a Crimpian comm.ent on
it's not the sazne as postmodemism, because postmodemism - it politics in the Thatcher era.
seems tome - is an embrace of the strange contradictions and even Examples of dramatic irony abound in Crimp's work. One
injustices which are so deeply part of our culture, both Jocally and occurs in Act m of'The Country. By then, the audience surely knows
globally, whereas scepticism is quite different because it does impJy what Corinne only barely suspects, that Rebecca is her husband' s
a moral position - not an ideological posi~on, but a position of lover. Another occurs in Scene 2 of No Ont Set5 the Video, whcn
what you rnight think is right or wrong. That's whar my irony is Colin meets John in a pub. Both men treat us to their opinionated
about. u views abour politics: the Fall of the Berlin W all- 'a new dawn' plus
'unrest, ethnic violence, disintegration' (p. 16); nature versus
Typically, Crimp's irony is complex, refening both to the fate of
nwture- 'no one's going to tell me that l'm made ofthese things
146
147
 The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
[gencs] and that bccausc of thcsc things, thcsc adds, I ani in some
way progra mmcd ' (p. 17); anti-Muslim andan ti-gay prejud ice _ 'to
me thesc things [Muslims and gays] are a menta l illness' (p. l?)·
fear of Aids- 'thc dreadcd' (p. 18); and mindlcss vandal ism _ 'h~
sprays thc lcttcrs C-U-N -T' (p. 19). Thc dialoguc not only satiriscs
popular attitudcs to contcmporary issues in the early 1990s, but is
also an ironie comment on both men. Neithe r realiscs that the
playwright and audience are mocking them. The humo ur comes
from our distance from their drunken attcmp ts to talk. Both are
shown as prcdatory males, circling cach other. Havin g a sniff.
PowerGames
Politics are about power. And Crimp is fascina ted by power
games, and by the question of whcth er thc urge to contra i is a sign
of strcngth, or weakness. Livin.g Remain.s is about thc politics of
powcr in persona! rclationships . Evcn Woma n's paralysed
husband can exercisc control. And does so. Power is also exprcssed
through cruelty: Cook 'had to grind fricnd and cncmy alikc with
fist and hccl to gct whcrc be is now' (p. 8). In FO'Ur Attmtpted Acts,
tbc dcntist is deliciously crucl. Hc uses his power ovcr paticn ts to
withhold injcctions bccause hc thinks his patien ts are already
numb: 'The truth is they couldn 't suffcr if they tried,' hc rasps
(p. 22). And thc play's rape story shows Crimp 's satirical bite -
it
parodies clichés about rape victims deserv ing their trcatm cnt.
Then, in Yvonne's monologue, her key line- 'Please don't teli mc
what I should do' (p. 32) - is an attemp t to reasse rt her power .
Which she does. But by lying, a tactic used by the wealc.
Unlike tbc simple Bnglish realists, Crimp did not at :6rst respon d
directly to the domestic social and political events of the 1980s. His
early plays do not dwell on tbe proble ms of Thatch erism, but have
a wider global agenda , starting witb Lovt Ga~ and its explicit
interes t in Bastem Buropean politi.es. By thc time of Defin.itely thL
Bahamas, Crimp is more concem ed witb how fascisti.e attitud cs are
148
'My Plays Emlt Crltlclsm'
. est in evcryd ay life as well as in _his~ory. Typically, wome n
r11anifith receiving end of cruelty , which ts perpet rated by bullies
are at Max e
and Michael. Poppy and Irene have botb had forced
such as ctonues: 'She [Irene ] said there's hardly any scar' (p. 63) is
byst: of Poppy 's 'And there's hardly any scar' (p. 13). Botb
0
an e powerfullY sugges t the menta l scars of disempowcred
pbrases
,wornen .
No Ont Stts tht Vidto has a clear gende r politi.es. And it's about
, ... first appcar s as a harass cd shopp er who is classifìcd as
pawe r- ~
bclonging to socio- econo mie group A on tbe streng th of ber
busband's job as a writer , which is doubly ironic -her husban d has
left ber, and a sclf-conscious writer is makin g tbe point. Crimp
then chartS Liz' s increa sing indcpe ndenc e up unti.I tbe time shc can
play the role of a travell ing busine ss execut ive as well as any man,
picking up young er sexual partne rs in hotels. Her transfonnation
from unwilling interv iewce to compe tent intervi ewer illustrates
the way tbat roles can be swapp ed in any system ofpow er. The
woman is tbe protag onist, but she's not abovc criticism.
The satirical bitc of Cnttl and Tmdtr comcs from Crimp's
understanding of how politic ians and the media maintain power
by manipulating the truth. For examp le, in a deliberate echo of No
Ont Stts tht Vidto, Richar d says, 'You know what jouma lists
are
like - probe probe probe - why do wc always assume we're
being / lied to?' (p. 9). The irony is immed iatcly appare nt to tbc
audience. And when Jonath an the politi.clan arrives, bis frank
admission tbat the goven unent told the Gener ai 'to forget tbe
convcntional rules of engag ement ' (p. 13) is in stark contra st to bis
lie that tbc Gener ai has saved Laela' s life 'to remin d cach one of us
- of our comm on - I hope - human ity' (p. 14). And when Richard
accuses Jonatb an of being econo mical with the trutb, Amclia's
response is: 'Of coursc he's lying - it's war it's bis job I to lie'
(p. 17). But as well as thc clash betwe en truth and lies, Crimp
also unders tands - perhap s as a result of Mame t' s influence - how
tbc use of langua gc itself is a wcapo n, an instru mcnt of powcr .
He says, 'Litera ture and violen ce bave had a long, perverse
149
 .,......
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp 'My Plays Emlt Crlticism'

and extremely fruitful relationship. You might say that at the
moment of "denouncing" violence, the writer uses language to re-
enact it.' 13
Male Gaze
Crimpland is pro-feminist in its politics. Time and time again,
Crimp's protagonists are women, and-whe n they are victims-
our sympathies are clearly being enlisted on thcir side. But this is
feminism under an ironie male gaze. Thc plays are full ofknowin g
jokes about the women's ~ovemen t. Whenjam es calls Clair a girl
instead of a woman, he corrects himself: 'It' s one of those dreadful
words men use to belittle women. lt's funny isn't it. how you are
terribly aware of everybody else's faults, and then you fìnd you
share them too' (p. 29). Instead of making Clair a conscious
feminist who objects to being patronised , Crimp shows her as
coolly detached. It is the verbose James who tramples his way
through clichés and solicits audience sympathy for his faux-
reasonable intellectual points.
In Play with Rq,tats, there is a typically Crimpian inversion when
feminism is advocated by a man. Heather says that her tutor,
Lawrence, believes that a woman 'shouldn't let herself -
historically speaking - be defìned in terms of her sexual role i.e.
wife, mistress, mother. He says it's degrading ', and adds, 'a woman
can't turn her back on her sexuality any more than a man can. She
can't become neutral. Because isn't that neutrality equally
degrading? You can't ignore what you biologically are' (p. 237).
Once again, the clichés of social discourse about feminism are
questioned, inverted.
Crimp's narratives end up 'often revolving around violence to
women' .14 Clair remains a victim; Liz is a victim of her own
success. Crimp himself has stated that 'There is a certain
objectifìcation of women in those plays; the woman is the victirn
and I don't really escape from that' .15 In a more complicat ed way,
in Getting Atttntion is both_ a victim and a perpetrator of
1
caro
•olence.
In Play with Rq,eats, Cnmp shows how Tony Div
, o- en a
\'I d chance to talk to Heather, ends up by attacking hcr
seco~ .As she resists, he says, 'I love you. I' m in control' (p. 243 ).
~o!n·t, and he isn't. Here the politics of a masculinity in crisis
}-{e • 1 ·
. licitly argue that vio ence 1S
· always an unmancnt thrcat.
JJllP Tltt Trt:atment, says Paul Taylor, 'control, rather than truth,
In . .
tbc namc of the game.. 16 Anne rru"ght be a victun, but she's a
was lex one. At one script conferenc e, Nicky asks Anne if shc
col11P . •
sauggics when her h~band nes her ~~- Inw~r~y I ~ e ; is thc
ly. Nicky then vo1ces the fcrrurust positton: I objcct vety
rcp f . .
str0ngly to the idea o woman as victun, woman as dcad meat'
(p. 346). But the ironie thrust of the ar~ent soon emerges: just
because you've lived through an expcnence , says Nicky, docsn't
mean you know all about it. Nicky points at Annc and says:
ibis is not my idea of Anne: passive? humiliated? victim? -Shc's
''lived'' it. Haven't wc also lived?' (p. 347). Nicky imposes her
feminist interpretat ion of Anne's experiencc, negating Annc
herself, and thrusting herself ambitious ly into a central role in a
project which will inevitably obliterate Annc's real life by
imposing John's fantasy of it. But, as always, tbc satire is evcn-
handcd: an ideology is being mocked, but so are the personalitics
of thosc who espouse it.
Likewise, Atttmpt.s on Her Lift is more than a simple account of
the objcctifìcation of women. 'The woman is still scen as an
object,' says Crimp, 'but in a very different way, because thc irony
of it is much more extreme and it is precisely about how womcn
are viewcd within our culture.' 17 In this play, the primary target of
the satire is global capitalism. At one point, Crimp tumS Annc into
a make of car, showing how capitalism personifìes the commodity
~ a woman so that the male consumer is encouragc d to buy. As
tn porn,, the woman comcs across as always available, always
liane ·
nng the male ego. The fcmale body and fcmalc sexuality sen
gOods·" At the same ..
time, Crimp parodies the feminist a1aquc
. A ..
" hieh Uses bodY art to erase
the difference between cu• and lifc.

150 151
 The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
The result of this even-handed cnnasm , which allows the
spectator no complacent certainty, is an 'anti-ideological' politics
as urgcnt and topical as that of any political play. 1!i> Of course, no~
everyone agrees with this: freelance writer Keith Miller once
argued that Crimp's theatre 'implies a view of esscntial hurnan
decency corrupted only by media overkill which is sentimenta11y
inaccurate' .20
If Crimp might be accused by feminists of appropri ating their
critica! viewpoint, he is on safer ground when he examine s
voyeurism, a recurring thcme in his work. Voyeuri sm is literally
the male gazc. In No On, Sw tM Vidto, the only way that the man,
Colin, can realisc his fantasies about the woman, Liz, is to kcep and
replay his videotapcs of her intcrview. His voycuris m is a more
literal counterpart of Tony's desire to replay bis encount cr with
Heather in real life. Tony comes unstuck. and Colin is hardly the
embodimcnt of happiness. Gating .Atttntion is also about voyeur-
ism. Bob is a father who has lost custody of bis own childrcn, but
his unhcalthy obscssion with Carol, and bis voyeuris tic attcntion
to the sounds ofher lovemak ing- 'there uscd to be a lot of, yes,
scxual noise' (p. 154)-ha s blinded him to the evidence of Sharon's
abuse. In T1tt Traitmtnt, Crimp shows 'thc interdep endence of
voyeurism and exhibitionism' by junapos ing Clifford' s screenplay
of Brookc - a voyeuristic artist who paints a complici t couple
mak:ing love - with Anne' s relationship to Andrew and Jennifer. 21
Anne then says she has bcen more humiliat ed by Clifford watching
ber being fucked by Andrcw than she's ever bcen by her husband.
Art is a product of voyeurism and cxhibitionism, but not only is
Anne fìnally excluded from the film of her life, but so is Clifford, its
writer. And, ultimately, from those producti ons in which he
doesn't participate, so is Crimp.
Not all of Crimp's work sees women as victims. In Criul and
Tender, for example, the play starts with a modem cliché, just as
the originai bcgins with a Greek proverb. Amelia says: 'There are
women who believe / all men are rapists. / I don't bclieve that I
because if I did believe that / how - as a woman - could I go on
152
'My Plays Emlt Crltlclsm•
.. I with the label "victim"?' (p. 1). Once again the politics are
1iV1Ilg .. . .. .
pclitiCS of radieal cnnosm , r.usmg a pomt and then under-
~ g complacency through ~~Y· Finally, having shown
rncn as victimS, whether complia t or complex, Crimp wrote
; Country, which implies the apposite view. As hc says: 'It's a
la in which a man is punished by two very strong women
~:ghttr).'22 In thc scxual politics of Crimp's plays, the male gaze
bas 6nally rorned in on itself.
consumerlsm and the Culture of Contentment
CrirnP resetves some of bis fìercest criticism for consumcrism and
tbc culture of contentm cnt. As the word implies, consumerism
can sometimes destr0y both thosc who sell and those who buy.
Writing about Dtaling with Clair, Michael Coveney pointed out 'its
1
scnse of unchallcnged materialism, smirking doublc-cross, and
free market bargaining masked in a thin veneer of hollow social
intcrcoursc', and Jack Tinker said, 'Whcthc r Mr Crimp is saying
tbat tbc tragic disappearance of Suzy Lamplug h is a direct rcsult of
tbc evils of market forces, is dcbatable. But the cvils of human
nature are nevcr far away when forces of greed are unlcashed.' 23
Amid Jamcs's crcepy confidences, therc's a moment whcn the
autbor allows him to make an unironic political point: Clair and
hcr estate agcnt colleagues 'do feel soiled after a day of buying and
selling, selling and buying' (p. 85). Similarly, Tony in Play with
~ats can surcly be seen as 'a casualty of competit ive valucs· .~
Ncolibcral market economi cs don't smcll of roses.
In No
°"' Sus tht Vid,o, the critiquc of consume rism is cxpliàt.
Crimp comments that 'Market Rescarch appears neutral because it
presents itsclf to the public as such- 'We just want your vicws, wc
just want your opinions" - so that wc can sell you something.
Advenisers always say that people will only buy products if they
are good. In fact, this is not rcally the case becausc the market
researcher· s job is to go out and fìnd how you can actUally scll the
153
 The Theatre of Martin Crlmp
a2rdless of wbat it is.' Por Crimp, this politica! position
product, reb- . • •
is rooted in persona! ethics. T~g ~~ut _ t ranscnbmg markct-
earch tapes at bome, be said, I didn t like it very much. lt fclt a
: srrange wben I found myselfdealing with ~~s about cigarcttcs
d thin that I don't acrually approve of. The play is also
an
sprinkledgswitb refcrences to alienanon
· ma· machine wo rld
ofvideo
images and consumer goods. a point first made when Liz rcveals
tbat ber busband deserted ber by leaving a mcssage on her answer
machine. Politically, tbe play sbows tbat capitalism •cannot live up
to tbe ideologica! promise of dispelling the customers' fcclings of
• • 26
empnncss. . when hc said, We lllust condemn a littlc more, and understand a
A politica! reading ofA.tumpt.s on H~ Lift would see Anne less as
a total enigma and more as a woman forced to assume diffcrcnt
roles by the constraints and expectations of a consumer society.
Aftcr ali. in this play, 'Everywhcre thc languagc of consumcrum is
dcnrously interwoven witb images of atrocity and apocalypsc:21
Por ex.ampie, in an carly scenario, 'Tragedy of Love and Ideology·,
botb consumer capitalism and its discontents are mercilcssly
satirised whcn Anne, 'in ber ruuve and passionate opinion', attacks
the leaders who bave destroyed
cvcrything shc valucs in tbc namc (a) ofbusincss and (b) ofl~-
f.tirc.
- In tbc namc (a) of rationalization and (b) / of cntcrprisc.
- In the namc of (a) so-callcd individualism and (b) / of so-callcd
choicc. (p. 212)
Crimp's politics are about qucstioning and understanding,
rathcr than preaching or cxplaining. He emphasiscs the way thc
culture of contentment - those sociaJ dasscs which enjoy the
bencfits of materiai abundance - see the poor and the mar-
ginaliscd. Gttting A.ttmtion, for example, was writtcn as a reaction
to the tabloid joumalism tbat dcnounccs abuscrs as 'monsters'
instead of trying to undcrstand thcm. Crimp portrays Nick as a
strict disciplinarian, 'finn with children and not giving children
154
'My Plays Emlt Crltldsm'
attcntion becausc they will only want more and takc more'. And
adds, 'I don't suppose l've offcred any cxplanations cxcept pcrhaps
in tbc isolation of the characters.' Since Nick and Carol are not in
abjcct poverty, the play is ·a mattcr of charactcr ratbcr than a
rnattcr of socia! forccs and cnvironmcnt'. 21 Thc play rcflects
mounting socia! atllictics and moral panie about child abuse, but
by secking to undcrstand what John in anotber play calls
·nundlessncss', whether vandalism or violcnce, Crimp was making
an implicit politica! point. Two ycars later, whcn tbc Jamie Bulgcr
case hit thc ncws, John Major took cxactly tbc oppositc stancc
}ittle less.' 29
Of course, thc grcatcst disturbancc of contcntmcnt is tcrrorism.
Just as A.ttanpts on Ha Lift givcs a fragrncntcd vicw of identity tbat
reflects thc violcncc of the post-Cold War world, so it also shows
bow contemporary global power politics mean that tbc girl ncxt
door has an equal chance of becoming a tcrrorist - or a victim of
tcrror. Only slightly less disturbing is thc moment, in ~ Country,
whcn Rebecca mcntions her ·crazy' fricnds who livc in tbc city and
are too 'tcrrified to leave· (p. 325). Hcre tbcir tcrror is a rcsult not
of bombcrs but simply of living a highly strcssful lifc; it's thc
tcrrorism of the systcm itsclf. Both Crul attd Ttttd~ and Fnva
Bmagmcùs also articulatc, whilc simultancously criticising, the
politics of the W ar on Terror. The irony of Crul attd Tenda is that
tbc Generai, whose actions can only appai a liberal audience, tums
out - because of his honesty as much as his physical ruin - to be
oddly sympathetic: a victim ofbotb politicians and ofhis son. Tbc
play explorcs not only politica! manipulation, but also the gendcr
politics of war, implicitly arguing that men's warlike nature is
socially constructcd and that women are complicit in this bccausc
thcy create thc domcstic environmcnt that men imagine they are
protccting. In Fewa Eme,gmcw, thc fears engcndcrcd in the wake
of 9111 are prophetically shown to impact on every aspcct of
domcstic lifc. In both plays, thc anxietics of an agc of global
terrorism are always rcfractcd through thc dark glass of a writcr' s
155
 .....
The Theatre of Martin Crlmp

. . and thus cast darker shadows

nnagmanon, . than
. thosc thro-
........ by
thc wcak candlcs of vcrbatim thcatre. Cnmp is more a Visionary
than an idcologuc.
Crimp's plays all cany a politica! chargc, bu~ thcy are mcant to
provoke rathcr than console. Instcad of offcnng an e~ politica}
slogan or a clcar right-on mcssage, as so much English rcalism
docs, tbcy constantly suggcst a rcccding corridor of ncvcr-cnding
aitiàsm, in which tbc playwright is as sccptical of himsclf, and of
tbc autbority of bis work, as of tbc pcoplc hc is cri.ticising. In this
Crimp is a modcrnist. somcthing ofan ironie utopian, cxposmg th~
miseri.es of cvcryday lifc whilc taking a gamblc on thc possibility of
bcttcr timcs, a bcttcr world. Thcrc rcmains a constant tcnsion
bctwccn bis satirica! conccption of bis charactcrs and thcir basic
hwnanity, bctwccn bis tcndcncy to ridiculc cvcrything and his
own dccply hcld bclicfs. Typically, you can cxpcct Crimp to say: 'I
would stresS that tbcsc are tbcatre-works, not political tracts, cvcn
if tbcy havc bccn dclibcratcly consnuctcd on cultura} fault-lincs.'30
Of coursc, tbc paradox of satire is that you bave to love as wcll as
hatc tbc objcct of your gazc. And, in thc English tradition, satire is
botb an unrnasking of power and an admission of the inability to
do anything cxcept laugh at it. But if this mcans it' s a form of
passivity, tbcrc is also cvidcncc that this cvcr-rcstlcss writcr wants
to movc on, and that mcans subvcrting bis rolc as a satirist - an
idcntity which has scrvcd him wcll for a quattcr of a ccntury: 'I
want to avoid tbc trap of bcingjust a satirist. I think that my work.
is characteriscd by divcrsity of output.' 31 Or maybc this is just
anotbcr stratcgy of cvasion.
Finally, it's worth rcmarking that therc is somcthing inhcrcntly
politica! in tbe difficulty tbat charactcriscs Crimp's work. Easy
tcxts, including playtcxts, tcnd to support thc status quo. Tbc
difficult tcn, bccausc it forccs audicnccs to rc-cxaminc thcir
bcliefs, whetbcr political or acsthetic, always cmbodies a critica!
point of view.
coNCLUSION:
'LOOKING FOR
coNSTRAINTS'
Whcn British subwbia drcams collcctivcly, it drcams housc priccs,
tbc costs of living, thc schools for its kids, and what to buy whcn
shopping. Whcn thc drcam tums into a nightmarc, it sucks in
unagcs of violcncc, thc smcll of burning, flashcs of pom, and a
choking scnsc of fcar. Crimpland is British suburbia sccn through
tbc cycs of a satirist and a sccptical modcmist. Suburban subjccts
are Crimp's dramatic univcrsc. In a handful of mastcrworks, such
as Dtaling witk Clair, Atkmpts on Htr Lift and ~ COWttry, Crimp
stagcs an idea of suburban lifc as a piace of vivid contrasts: thc
contradiction betwccn homc as a piace of safety and thc outsidc
world as a piace of fear; betwcen thc family as a havcn and as a hcll;
bctwccn childrcn as innocents and as tcrrors. Thcsc contrasts run
through bis work.. For cxamplc, in Dealingwitk Clair, therc is a brief
momcnt whcn Liz and Mikc instruct Clair: 'just malte surc no onc
sccs tbc stain' (pp. 1~17). At fi.rst, Clair doesn't know what tbey'rc
talking about, but thcn shc rcaliscs shc's standing on a carpet stain.
In tbc end, tbc worry is in vain - Jamcs spots it anyway. But, as wcll
as bcing a humorous moment, thc stain on the carpet is typical, a
symbol of thc hiddcn shamc, thc secret dcsircs and thc spoilt
promise of a suburbia that is constantly put into qucstion.
Somctimcs Crimp articulatcs this thcmc cxplicitly. In 'Four
lmaginary Charactcrs', an 'immaculate' Austrian suburb faccs 'a
disuscd conccntration camp' (p. x). In No Ont Sus tkt Video, the
tccnage Jo rcacts with horror to her parcnts' split: 'This is so

156 157