FUTURE ATAVISMS

Why has theatre become so naked? “You can not undress any further”, an actor said yesterday on the glorious stage of Amsterdam 's Stadsschouwburg swinging his genitals in the air. I saw an Austrian play Babel based on Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jellinek's book and staged by one of the most renowned directors of the German-language theatre Nicolas Stemann. Featuring Abu Ghraib, the German cannibalism incident, the revolution of the image and other fashionable topics from two years ago, when the play was first created, it looked somewhat dated now, but the overall message it posed to deliver remained hot. “The consumers of today's media and art want nothing but tits, pricks and asses or blood, or a combination of all of the above”, the actors on stage continued. In my red velvet seat I could not get rid of the fleeting suspicion that the makers of Babel , too, employed exactly the same, forgive my being vulgar, tits-and-ass tricks to appeal to their audience.

To some, it may be comforting to hear that “you can't undress any further”. (Scarring and skinning in public have been suggested as the next step, but those definitely fall outside of the mainstream paradigm). Yet, I am afraid undressing further is sadly very possible, if we understand it figuratively.

A thin blouse only underlines the infinite pleasures the breast line may promise the attentive gazer, and in the same way, a simple human story underlines the complexity of philosophical theories the author hid behind it. When instead, the stark naked messages are paraded in your face like phalluses at an ancient Greek festival, when “what the author wanted to say” is already defined and there may be no further discussion about it, all we may still anticipate is that at least it would be said in an exciting manner. We no longer need to look for hidden messages, riddles and understatements. Media and art are undressing to their simplest carnival form and there is more room for nudity than ever, because nothing can portray an empty message better than a nude crowd.

A little over a week ago, such crowds filled the streets of Amsterdam as Spencer Tunick was creating yet another one of his city dreams. When you can't think of anything, undress. Undressing further and further is real, until thinking itself will become rudimentary.