¿Teatro para un mundo donde el propio teatro ha muerto? Crisis del drama e interpretación de la realidad: «Attempts on her life», de Martin Crimp

Abstract

In Attempts on her Life Martin Crimp addresses the problem of reconstructing identity and reconstructing history, casting doubt on the classical concepts of character and fable. The author’s 17 scenes for theatre are not arranged into chronological order, nor indeed do they have one single protagonist. There are no characters and the responses unfold with the mere cue being afforded by the script that precedes them; these “utterance entities” are consequently awaiting emergence on the stage once the director assigns them to a performer. This series of responses gradually nurtures information concerning a woman allegedly named Anne. However, the information is incomplete and oftentimes contradictory, meaning that it is impossible to determine whether Anne actually exists or who is being spoken about through the entire piece.

As a result, Crimp’s text appears to be paradigmatic in analysing a radical change in the view of the world, a change linked – to a certain degree – to postmodern philosophical currents: a world which no longer appears in its integrity, in its coherent state, but rather one which specifically manifests its disintegration and its difficulty in being perceived as a whole. This opens up a vision of reality that escapes a logical, rational conception and instead paves the way to the irrational and chaotic.