None of his shows are more effective in putting across this point than Network. Adapted by Lee Hall from Paddy Chayefsky’s script for the 1976 movie that won Peter Finch a posthumous Academy Award for his role as anchorman Howard Beale, Network paints a bleak picture of a media-saturated culture where spectacle, ratings and profit trump truth, authenticity and traditional journalistic ethics.
2 comments:
The idea that we are living in a post-truth era is really interesting to me. At the dawn of the internet, suddenly truth was at our fingertips, but over time that has changed. It is true that our devices are inescapable. Technology is not inherently evil, but the fact that people now wield it as a weapon is incredibly dangerous because of how much we rely on them. These particular performances are clearly part of theater of cruelty with their representations of some shocking topics. This seeks to force a reaction out of the audience. I would have to see the shows for myself, but sometimes I feel that forcing a reaction by displaying such violent actions can be counter intuitive. Instead of distancing the audience, it forces them into the action, but this can cause the audience to leave with negative feelings towards the production instead of causing them to want to take action against the things the production is critiquing.
I think political theater is important, but it’s one of those things that is often done very ineffectively, and ineffective doesn’t always mean bad. You can go see a good show that had political undertones, but if the message of the play is political and the audience doesn’t receive that message, then was it an effective production?
I’ve never seen any of van Hove’s work, though I have heard plenty about it and would like to see a production one day. From what I can tell, I really appreciate van Hove’s approach to political theater, even in those less successful productions. I appreciate that he is telling the stories that he thinks need to be heard, and with the Network especially, I like that he is taking a piece of satire and showing us that what we once thought was impossible and therefore funny, is now happening and absolutely tragic.
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