Anthropologists attempt to make sense of culture by observing what is taking place in front of them. Theatre is a cultural event that has been taking place for centuries and thus has a long cultural history that anthropologists can attempt to interpret. I feel that theatre is a cultural event that lends itself well to anthropological study and that many anthropologists would have much to say about theatre itself, for the purposes of this paper the ideas presented by: Emile Durkheim, Pierre Bourdieu and Eric Wolf will be examined. As theatre is a widely encompassing entity that exhibits great variation over space and time, the cultural event of theatre must be narrowed in order to allow for it to be most successfully examined. Although everything and everyone are interconnected (Moore, 2009; Wolf, 1982) it would be impossible to examine theatre as one cultural event. So in light of this, a singular event will be examined: the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production of West Side Story.
Introduction to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and West Side Story
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival was established in 1953, and was the first annual theatre festival to be established in Canada (Ouzounian, 2002; Historica Minutes, n.d.). The Festival has four stages where productions are preformed: the Festival Theatre, the Avon Theatre, the Tom Patterson Theatre, and the Studio Theatre (Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 2010 a). It is most famous for the Festival Theatre (see Figure 1), which is home to a unique and famed thrust stage (Ouzounian, 2002). The Stratford Shakespeare Festival is a classical theatre primarily concerned with presenting the works of Shakespeare. A non Shakespearean piece was not preformed until 1957 (Oedipus Rex) and no musicals (excluding operas, which began in 1960) were preformed until 1985, the first being The Pirates of Penzance (Stratford Shakespeare Festival, 2010 b). Some feel that musicals have no place in a classical theatre, as they are too appealing to the masses (Morrow, 2007). Thus, the 2009 production of West Side Story has a unique place in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s expansive history.
Figure 1: the Festival Theatre’s thrust Stage
West Side Story first appeared on Broadway in 1957, and was later recreated as a film in 1961 (Background Book, 2009). It is a musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet reset on the streets of New York (Background Book, 2009; Laurents, et al., 1957). West Side Story focuses on two gangs vying for power on the streets: the Jets, who are native New Yorkers and the Sharks, who are Puerto Rican immigrants (Background Book, 2009; Laurents, et al., 1957). Tony, a reluctant member of the Jets looking for more in life meets Maria, the sister of the Sharks leader at a dance and it is love at first sight (Background Book, 2009; Laurents, et al., 1957). Though Maria and Tony yearn to live in peace they are unable to escape the structure and violence around them resulting in tragic ends (Background Book, 2009; Laurents, et al., 1957). The 2009 production of West Side Story was enacted on the Festival Theatre’s stage (see Figure 1) and was considered to be one of the best musicals the Stratford Shakespeare Festival has ever produced (Ouzounian, 2009).
Theatre is Society Worshipping Itself
Emile Durkheim was a theorist concerned with creating a science of society (Hepburn, 2009). He wanted to understand the origins of religion, and the social nature of individuals (Moore, 2009). He saw religion as something that was eminently social, as religious events are community based events that bring people together to experience and reaffirm collective beliefs (Durkheim, 1915). Durkheim created two categories that relate to religion: sacred and profane. Profane is against societal norms, and people feeling profane go to a religious ritual to become sacred and feel as though they are a part of society. Feeling sacred continues once the ritual is over, but eventually people will feel profane and attend a ritual once more (Hepburn, 2009). To Durkheim, when people come together in ritual it is known as collective effervescence, and this coming together results in collective consciousness (Hepburn, 2009). Collective consciousness occurs because people feel that they are a part of society and thus religion can be seen as society worshipping itself (Hepburn, 2009).
Many parallels can be drawn between the ideas presented by Durkheim and theatre. Theatre has been compared to a religious experience by many involved with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Ouzounian, 2002). For example, actress Irene Worth stated on the Festival Theatre: “I came back…when the permanent building had just been done…with a friend and I took him… into this darkened theatre, with just the lights on the stage. And he said… “it’s like a church. Like being in church”. And I said…I’m glad you feel that because the theatre is a holy, a holy invention”. And originally it was, it was used to glorify life and the gods. And if art is not that, then there’s no point in having art” (Ouzounian, 2002: 58), demonstrating the religious nature of theatre. If Durkheim saw Stratford’s production of West Side Story, I believe that he would see it as an experience resulting in collective consciousness. As theatre is an experience shared by everyone in the audience along with all the actors on stage, in which people feel connected to something outside of themselves. Demonstrating that theatre creates a feeling of collective consciousness the artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare festival stated: “So potent is the electricity that flows through that live connection between artist and audience that it can change the way we think and feel about ourselves and the world we live in” (McAnuff, 2010). This connectedness allows for an individual to feel sacred and a part of society and this is a feeling that persists after the performance.
Theatre can be seen as society worshipping itself. Both the best and worst of the human condition are presented on stage, and audiences gather to view and understand themselves. Society is presented on the stage in all forms. In West Side Story, many characters exist, yet none are one dimensional they all have positive and negative qualities, and through the production we grow to understand and love each of them, despite their flawed nature. People can recognize parts of themselves in each of the characters and grow to accept their flaws themselves. Thus, theatre at its core creates an understanding of oneself and the society we live in, allowing for people to develop a deeper relationship with society itself.
The thrust stage (see Figure 1) that West Side Story is presented on also allows for audience members to gain a deeper connection with society, because it allows for the audience to be closer to the actors and experience what is taking place all around them. Festival actor Hume Croynon demonstrates this point in stating: “Tony Guthrie [the Festival's first artistic director] always felt that if you had that kind of a theatre with the audience wrapped around it, it created more of a sense of communion. And you could all be in the same church together. And Tony was right. The thrust stage gets rid of any artificial division between you and the people watching you” (Ouzounian, 2002: 221). Thus, the Festival Theatre’s thrust stage creates an almost religious feeling, in which audience members are able to feel closer to society, and more connected to a collective consciousness.
Legitimate Taste in a Classical Theatre
Pierre Bourdieu is concerned with how people work within structures, and the role of agency in structure (Moore, 2009). He believes that people have four different kinds of capital: social, economic, cultural and symbolic; and the amount of capital they possess, plays a role in what they have access to in life, although people also have the agency to control how they operate within different structures (Hepburn, 2010; Moore, 2009). He also speaks on legitimate tastes, which are tastes viewed by a group of people to be acceptable and vary depending on the field being studied (Hepburn, 2010). The ideas presented by Bourdieu relate back to musical theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, as well as to the musical West Side Story itself.
To many theatre patrons having legitimate taste is extremely important. They feel that Shakespeare is the finest of the playwrights, and that those who only see Shakespearean theatre have the most cultural capital because they view it as something members of high culture should do. Members of high culture view musicals as something that attract popular culture and thus are below the legitimate tastes that should be held by high culture (Morrow, 2007). Demonstrating this point, in the introduction to a book containing both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, Norris Houghton states: “What glorious verse falls from the lips of Shakespeare’s boys and girls! True, there is a rollicking jazzy vigour in such songs of West Side Story…but it pales alongside the pyrotechnical display of Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech…” (1965: 13). Throughout this introduction Houghton continually restates his believe that a musical could never surpass the brilliance of Shakespeare, which has a timeless appeal that anyone of high class would recognize (1965). The addition of multiple musicals to the festival has disappointed some who feel that the Stratford Shakespeare Festival is becoming too preoccupied with showcasing musicals (which they make more money off of) at the expense of Shakespearean pieces (Morrow, 2007).
The plot and characters in West Side Story also directly relate to Bourdieu’s ideas on structure and agency. The characters Maria and Tony find themselves lacking the agency to live as they want to, as the structure of the gangs they each are involved with has created a situation they are unable to escape from, illustrating this at one point Maria states: “But it’s not us! It’s everything around us!” (Laurents, et al., 1957: 70). The idea that structure controls the lives of the players in West Side Story goes against Bourdieu’s idea that individuals are able to work within structures, because although society has rules, individuals are able to act within these rules using individual behaviour and strategy to exert their agency (Moore, 2009). In West Side Story the characters are unable to exert agency on the structure that has been built around them resulting in disastrous consequences. Thus, West Side Story does not subscribe to Bourdieu idea that people can act within structures to change their surroundings, but rather takes more of a determinist approach in which the structure determines the end result.
In West Side Story the members of the two gangs: the American Jets and Puerto Rican Sharks are a part of a structure in which the Sharks have less cultural capital than the Jets, and both have less capital than the adults in the story: notably Lieutenant Shrank and Officer Krupke. The Puerto Rican Sharks lack social capital because they do not have connections in America to gain adequate jobs; lack economic capital because they are paid less to work than 2nd generation American workers in similar positions; lack cultural capital because they have a different culture than other American ‘blue collar workers’, and are not considered a part of American culture; and lastly lack symbolic capital because they are not considered to be true Americans because of they way they look and speak, and because of this are put down by everyone around them. The American Jet gang lacks social capital because they do not have the connections needed to break away from their gang lifestyle; lacks economic capital because they are unable to make enough money to exert power on the world; lack cultural capital because they are not the children of professionals and thus, lack the knowledge required to succeed in the schooling system; and lastly lack symbolic capital because they are viewed as lowly hoodlums (Laurents, et al., 1957; Moore, 2009). But again, what West Side Story does not take into account is the ability of characters to use their agency to gain cultural capital and exert force on their surrounding structure.
As Culture is not Static, How can Theatre Remain Relevant?
The anthropologist Eric Wolf is concerned with the interconnections between diverse locations throughout the world. He advocates that any view of culture as coherent, static or isolated is incorrect because they do not recognize the connections between different societies, which shape cultural change (Moore, 2002; Wolf, 1982). In West Side Story, the gang culture of the Sharks and Jets has been created as a result of globalization allowing for the interconnections between 2nd generation Americans and newly immigrated Puerto Ricans to take place. West Side Story demonstrates that individual cultures are never isolated, but are impacted and altered by there relation to other cultural groups. In West Side Story ‘blue collar’ American culture is impacted by the immigration of Puerto Ricans, which causes Americans to lose jobs and makes them disdainful towards the other. The Puerto Rican culture is changed as a result of the immigration of Puerto Ricans to America. In America they see a world of opportunities that they are unable to access and this makes them resentful of native New Yorkers who are given more opportunities than them.
Any view of culture as static and unchanging is incorrect (Wolf, 1982), and yet theatre is only able to tell the tale of a culture or cultures at one moment in history. Classic pieces of theatre (including West Side Story) are retold through time, how is it that they are able to remain relevant throughout time and not simply become a relic of a past era? I believe that the best musicals as well as other classical theatrical pieces (including the works of Shakespeare) are able to transcend time and remain relevant not because of the stories they tell, but because of the themes they present. In West Side Story the themes of hate, love, violence and passion are portrayed, these are universal themes that all humans can and will continue to be able to connect with (Background Book, 2009).
Conclusions
The anthropologists Pierre Bourdieu, Emile Durkheim and Eric Wolf all have theories that can be applied to the cultural event of theatre, specifically to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production of West Side Story. Theatre is something that people attend to experience a collective consciousness and feel sacred, and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s thrust stage helps in allowing for people to do this. People that attend musical theatre may have a different level of cultural capital than those who will only view what is considered classical theatre. In West Side Story, different characters have different levels of cultural capital that affect what they can and cannot do, and the structure around them limits how they can act in their lives. The characters in West Side Story are affected by global interconnections and cultural collisions resulting in cultural change. Lastly, although cultures are not static, and the stories presented in theatre only show one moment in time, the tales told in theatre are able to remain relevant because the themes that are presented transcend time as they speak about the human condition, and themes in humanity that never change but affect us all.
References
Background Book. 2009. West Side Story: pp 7-11. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/uploadedFiles/Stratford/Watch_and_Listen/Publications/Backgrounder/09_background_book.pdf/. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
Durkheim, E. 1915. Introduction to Elementary Forms of Religious Life. pp 66-79. In: Erickson, P. A., and Murphy, L. D. (eds.). Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory.
Hepburn, S. 2009, November 16th. Lecture Notes: Durkheim’s Sociology.
Hepburn, S. 2010, February 22nd. Lecture Notes: Bourdieu: culture, power, practice and cultural forms.
Houghton, N. 1965. Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story. Dell Publishing Co., Inc.
Historica Minutes. The Arts: Stratford. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10221. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
Laurents, A., Bernstein, L., Sondheim, S., and Robbins, J. 1957. West Side Story. Random House Inc.
MacAnuff, 2010, March 27th. Statement from Des McAnuff, Artistic Director
Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/uploadedFiles/Stratford/media/2010_Press_Releases/WorldTheatreDaystatemen.pdf. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
Moore, J.D. 2009. Visions of Culture: an Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. AltaMira Press.
Morrow, M. 2007, August 22nd. Richard’s Run: a 2007 interview with Stratford legend Richard Monette. CBC News. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/monette.html. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
Ouzounian, R. 2002. Stratford Gold: 50 Years, 50 Starts, 50 Conversations. McArthur and Company.
Ouzounian, R. 2009, June 8th. This Story Achieves Greatness. The Toronto Star. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/647048. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
a) Stratford Shakespeare Festival. 2010. Four Distinct Stages. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/about/theatre.aspx?id=1198. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
b) Stratford Shakespeare Festival. 2010. Production History. Retrieved from the World Wide Web at: http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/about/history.aspx?id=1178. Last Accessed: April 16th 2010.
Wolf, E. R. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. pp 370-386. In: In: Erickson, P. A., and Murphy, L. D. (eds.). Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory.
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