political theatre essay- 80

Lee Rowland TH343 Autumn Essay

“There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false”

-Harold Pinter

Vinaver used texts from everyday life and extracts of verbatim speech to create the text for his play 11 September 2001 . How does he use this form to comment on

the notion of truth, when representing the events of September the 11 th 2001?

‘While political theatre changes, the established order that political theatre seeks to disrupt, changes too capitalism, for example, changes direction throughout the 1900s: sales orientation (profits drawn from sales volume) becomes market orientation (profits drawn from the satisfaction of the customer).’1

It is arguable that with regards to the quote from Pinter, that the reason there is such a fine

line between what is real and what is unreal is due to the way in which some events are

portrayed by the media. From looking at this quote, it is apparent that newspapers and the

media in general target their audiences by giving them stories and articles that they will find

interesting and want to buy so that they are able to optimise their sales profit. They are

motivated by money and therefore make their profit by publishing what the reader or

viewer wants to hear. With this idea in mind, it would be fair to say that the truth becomes

a lot less important to those creating the stories and articles, and those reading them.

This essay will explore some of the ways in which the media can be seen to often control

what the general public will perceive as ‘truth’. People pick up newspapers and watch the

news on an almost daily basis. From this, we take what we read or see as truth, however

when politics are involved, this idea of truth may be distorted or not fully explained in order

to achieve the highest possible amount of profit or political benefit. Vinaver uses his play as

a way in which to give a diverse perception of the truth regarding the 9/11 attacks. He does

1 Kevin Elstob, The plays of Michel Vinaver : Political Theatre in France (New York: Peter Lang Publishing inc, 1992) 4

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this through the use of juxtaposition in Bush and Bin Laden’s speeches, his use of the Chorus

and Verbatim theatre giving different perspectives of the event.

‘The duality that is the hallmark of Vinaver’s life is also a key to understanding his innovative use of dramatic techniques. His method is a juxtapositional one and his inspiration is drawn from poetry, painting and music rather than from other playwrights. The translation he made of T.S.Eliot’s The Waste Land at the age of twenty convinced him of the value of a method which brings together disparate elements, not integrating them, but challenging readers to relate them in their own imaginations’2

The use of juxtaposition features strongly in Vinaver’s work. Within September 11 2001, it is

clear to see that this piece is no exception with regards to juxtaposition. Towards the end of

the piece we come across the speeches from both US President George W Bush and former

al-Queada leader Osama Bin Laden. One feels that this is extremely revealing of the

playwright’s ideals and is used to convey the idea that the notion of truth that we, as

citizens of Western civilisation know and generally accept is not necessarily the only way of

thinking and is perhaps a little distorted. Prior to seeing the play, a Western audience would

be strongly inclined to support George W Bush and would be emotionally involved with the

play and would want justice for those who suffered, however when the play progresses to

the speeches a new perception can arguably be reached.

These speeches are both intertwined together; alternating between the two leaders after

each one has said a sentence. By intricately blending these alternate sentences and when

we look a little more in depth at what is actually being said, we can see that there is not a

great deal of difference in what the two men from the opposite ends of the political and

supposedly moral ‘spectrum’ are saying.

2 Michel Vinaver, Plays 1 ,ed. David Bradby (Great Britain: Methuen Drama, 1997) XVii

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It could be argued that what Bin Laden is stating is nothing more than logical. ‘These events

have divided the world’3. When this horrific event occurred, all countries in the western

world stood behind Bush and the US. With this came the worldwide chain of hate aimed at

Bin Laden, but by comparing the speeches it is by no means difficult to notice that Bin Laden

also speaks as a leader, but with different ideals and with another degree of rationality. It

could be heavily debated that a great deal of this comes down to the way in which the

media portrays these events.

It is clear to see that there are no hard distinctions between the real and unreal here

because both opponents view what they believe in is truth and they have implicit trust in

what they are doing, they have faith. So if they both believe they are right then they both

bound to believe the other is wrong, so the truth is only a matter of perception with regards

to the event in which Vinaver tries to give us an alternative perception.

On the contrary, it appears that Vinaver has tried to produce a piece of theatre that gives

many more perceptions of what actually happened during the September 11 th attacks. The

playwright has tried to show more than the media outlets, and give an interpretation of

both sides of the events that took place. It is therefore evident that he isn’t merely trying to

convey what the public want to see, but also giving across elements that would not be

shown in the media. These other elements are the different perceptions of truth that

encompass the event itself. Good examples of this are the speeches of Bush and Osama Bin

Laden as the average Westerner would not want to see the similarities between the two

men which are highlighted through the juxtaposition of the two speeches. ‘Good afternoon

3 Michel Vinaver, 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002) 68.

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on my orders the United States military has begun strikes’4 If Osama Bin Laden is capable of

organising these atrocities, then there is no reason why our side is not able to. ‘Here is

America struck by God almighty in one of its vital organs’5. In addition, Vinaver is possibly

challenging the capitalist nature of the media by isolating these articles in their displayed

context and by placing them in this play, is able to create a new perception of truth. By

trying to deny the fact that the two men are similar, we are trying to deny that we have the

capability to commit such an atrocity our self. We find it easier to comprehend such a tragic

event by viewing the person behind it is a monster rather than a rational man. We find it

hard to make a distinction between what is real and unreal because if we admit that there

are no real distinctions between Bin Laden and Bush, then it would mean that there are no

distinctions between ourselves and Bin Laden. However, we cannot admit that we have the

same capability to bring about the deaths of hundreds of innocent people. Consequently,

we are unable to admit that there are no hard distinctions between the truth and what we

want to believe.

Immediately after the September 11th attacks, media outlets across the United States of

America released some pictures and video footage of the event. Arguably one of the most

memorable images shown were of people in the north and south towers falling to their

deaths from the top floors of the buildings. Almost instantly, these pictures were removed

from all newspapers and news websites, never to be predominantly heard of until a

documentary ‘The Falling Man’6 was released some years later detailing the tragedy of the

situation. One wholeheartedly agrees that it would be insensitive and wrong to show these

4 Michel Vinaver, 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002) 60.5 Michel Vinaver, 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002) 60.6 The Falling Man, dir. Henry Singer, feat. Steven Mackintosh. (Darlow Smithson Productions: 2006)

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appalling pictures so soon after, but to remove this picture from a newspaper denies the

general public to seek the truth with regards to what really happened that day. This picture

was removed due to the harsh criticism the paper received from its readers. Additionally,

rather than focussing on the event itself, the media chose to spend vast amounts of time

pummelling the public with images of the attackers rather than showing the grim images of

the attacked. This supports the idea that the media are more eager to run with stories that

the general public wish to see so that they can profit, rather than to show the truth in its

barest form.

It could also be argued that these images were removed because they showed the true fear

caused by the attack. The images displayed the fact that these civilians were willing to jump

to their deaths instead of facing the horror of the infernos that were raging within the

buildings. Rather than wanting to show the fear suffered by thousands on the day, the

media decided to turn its head towards the plotters of 9/11. ‘Now the Taliban will pay a

price initially the terrorists will burrow deeper into caves’7. Furthermore, this would not

give those who helped undertake the terrorist plot any further satisfaction. The same sort

of idea can be seen in more modern media events. For instance, when Saddam Hussein and

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi were executed, their final moments, and in one case death can

still be widely seen and accessed on the internet. It is debatable that this is the case

because there is no fear in doing so and that there is no one who will retaliate for showing

the humiliating final moments of two world leaders to the rest of mankind. However, when

Osama Bin Laden was killed in a surprise raid in Pakistan, the US government refused to


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publish images of his corpse knowing it would provoke some sort of response from al-Qaeda

who are still at large throughout a great deal of the world.

‘The contemporary prose of the chorus contrasts with the verse of the main

characters...Vinaver saw the montage of contrasting elements as a way to undermining

accepted ideas without attacking the spectator... In his own plays Vinaver uses this type of

composition to bring together government politics, daily life, industrial capitalism, and

echoes of a classical past in a montage of fragmented plot, dialogue, and sometimes stage

space’8

There are also elements of Brechtian and ancient Greek theatre embedded in this piece. A

chorus is present throughout the piece, with gives the play a feel that is reminiscent of the

works of Sophocles and Euripides. However, rather than guiding the piece through from

start to finish, it would appear that Michel Vinaver has employed the use of a Chorus for a

slightly different reason. Within classical plays, the Chorus are often used as a form of

grounding point and are there to bring the audience or reader back to the story and to set

them up for what will happen in the next scene or for the remainder of the entire play. In

11 September 2001, it can be seen that the Chorus are not providing any real form of

narrative, but are there in order to bring in an overlaying theme of the media. Although

some of what they say is not at all relevant to the attacks on the day, they are voicing some

of the newspaper headlines from the day almost in the form of the news updates that you

would receive when watching one of the mainstream news television channels. When a

man named Todd is talking, recounting in detail what happened to him on the day; it is

8 Kevin Elstob, The plays of Michel Vinaver : political theatre in France.( New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 1992) 8-9

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needless to say that it is an incredibly moving story for anyone to hear, the audience

especially. “Please Lisa relay a message to Lisa my wife tell her I love her and the boys” 9.

However, in between him retelling his heroic tale, the Chorus are placed, delivering news

headlines in order to break up his piece. It would be fair to say that this breaks up the

‘emotional’ with politics and allows the audience to become emotionally affected by it

before being hit with the political side of the day. One finds it particularly uncomfortable to

listen to. The way in which this is structured suggests that Vinaver is trying to force the

audience to stop his audience from purely focussing on the emotional result of the situation,

and arguably draw their attention to the cause. By personifying the faceless victims that

featured in the media coverage surrounding the event, the playwright has potentially gained

a more heightened reaction from those watching by building upon an already connected

emotional attachment. Therefore, the likelihood of the audience gaining a new perception

of the event and finding a new truth is greater.

11 September 2001 is piece of Verbatim theatre, largely written in the weeks following 9/11

and was first performed in Los Angeles in 2006, directed by Robert Cantorella. Verbatim

theatre is a form of documentary theatre where plays are created with the use of exact

words that have been documented by real-life people in interviews and conversations.

Usually within a piece of verbatim theatre, the interviews given by people are about a

specific subject. This would suggest that within this play, there is nothing but truth. One

generally agrees that this is the case, but the text has evidently been edited to gain a form

of reaction from the audience. Good examples of this are the comparison and contrast

between the two speeches at the end of the play.


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Within the piece, there is also evidence to suggest Vinaver wishes to convey the idea that

those not wishing to seek the truth, or those who are completely unaware of it will pay

dearly. From accounts given in the play from the people who worked in the towers, there

were officials with megaphones stating that everything was alright and that they were able

to go back to work in the tower that hadn’t been hit, “[g]o back up you’re safe here”10. With

these people being completely unaware of the truth and spreading what would now be

seen as false information, those who took their advice paid for it with their lives. “Decisions

made during those sixty minutes helped determine if people perished or lived”11.

Furthermore, it is just to claim that this idea completely supports the idea mentioned in the

quote from Harold Pinter.

Also, the play does feature conversations from the Air Traffic Control officers and clippings

taken from the newspapers, which include interviews. Within the press, interviews are

edited to simply get across the main point of the story in a way that supports the article that

is being written and all forms of utterances are removed from the final copy. It is therefore

clear to say that this piece isn’t one hundred percent verbatim. It is also just to state that

within this piece, the elements of truth have been filtered down and have been used by

Vinaver to create new ones.

This essay mainly focuses on the way in which the media has portrayed the events that took

place on 9/11. One has shown how the media will only show certain aspects of the truth in

a way which will benefit them with regards to profit and customer satisfaction. They will

not show anything that the reader does not want to hear. By editing the text into a fairly

fluid piece of theatre, Michel Vinaver has been able to give a new spin on the event, by

10 Michel Vinaver, 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002) 3211 Michel Vinaver, 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002) 34

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allowing those watching to feel a great deal more unsettled and maybe even question

whether what they thought before the piece was the real truth. By juxtaposing the

speeches of Bush and Bin Laden, the playwright has managed to comment on the notion of

truth in a way that suggests there are two sides to every argument and we have simply not

been able to see the truth from the eyes of the man who organised the attack himself.

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Bibliography

Elstob, Kevin. The plays of Michel Vinaver : Political Theatre in France (New York: Peter Lang

Publishing inc, 1992)

Vinaver, Michel. Plays 1 get year ,ed. David Bradby (Great Britain: Methuen Drama, 1997)

Vinaver, Michel. 11 September 2001 (Paris: L’Arche, 2002)

Filmography

The Falling Man, dir. Henry Singer, feat. Steven Mackintosh. (Darlow Smithson Productions:

2006)

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