Howard Barker (and « the Art of Theatre »)
Résumé
This chapter discusses the biographical landmarks of Howard Baker and his career in theatre. A poet at heart, Barker places language at the centre of a new dramatic form better adapted to express the complexity of the modern man: the Theatre of Catastrophe. Barker's early plays could at first sight be compared to sociopolitical theatre and manifest a clear Brechtian influence, a testimony to the long-lasting impact of the Berliner Ensemble's visit to England in 1956. Barker deprives the audience of every reference they could cling to: an identifiable space, a recognizable temporality, psychologically defined characters. What characterizes the end of the millennium and a third phase in Barker's manner of writing is precisely that the Theatre of Catastrophe shifts from the historical epic focus to a more intimate form of theatre. Catastrophe focuses on the crisis of the subject proper inasmuch as the subject crystallizes the anxieties of the age.