Howard Barker

Howard E. Barker (born 28 June 1946) is a British playwright.

The Theatre of Catastrophe

Barker has coined the term "Theatre of Catastrophe" to describe his work. His plays often explore violence, sexuality, the desire for power, and human motivation.

Rejecting the widespread notion that an audience should share a single response to the events onstage, Barker works to fragment response, forcing each viewer to wrestle with the play alone. "We must overcome the urge to do things in unison" he writes. "To chant together, to hum banal tunes together, is not collectivity." Where other playwrights might clarify a scene, Barker seeks to render it more complex, ambiguous, and unstable.

Only through a tragic renaissance, Barker argues, will beauty and poetry return to the stage. "Tragedy liberates language from banality" he asserts. "It returns poetry to speech."

Themes

Barker frequently turns to historical events for inspiration. His play Scenes from an Execution, for example, centers on the aftermath of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and a fictional female artist commissioned to create a commemorative painting of the Venetian victory over the Ottoman fleet. Scenes from an Execution, originally written for Radio 3 and starring Glenda Jackson in 1984, was later adapted for the stage. The short play Judith revolves around the Biblical story of Judith, the legendary heroine who decapitated the invading general Holofernes.

Barker

Barker may refer to:

Occupations

Barker (occupation), a person who attempts to attract patrons to entertainment events

Barker (coachbuilder), a builder of horse-drawn coaches and later of bodywork for prestige cars

a person who strips tanbark from trees to supply bark mills

People

Barker (surname), a list of people

Barker Burnell (1798–1843), U.S. Representative from Massachusetts

Barker Fairley (1887–1986), British-Canadian painter and scholar of German literature

Places

Antarctica

Barker Range, Victoria Land, a mountain range

Barker Peak, off the coast of Victoria Land

Barker Bank, Graham Land, a marine bank

Barker Nunatak, Palmer Land

Australia

Division of Barker, an Electoral Division in South Australia for the Australian House of Representatives

Mount Barker (South Australia)

Barker Inlet, South Australia

Barker River, Western Australia

Barker Passage, Western Australia, a water channel

United States

Barker, Broome County, New York, a town

Barker, Niagara County, New York, a village

Barker, Texas, an unincorporated community

Howard

Howard is a popular English given name originating from Old Norse Hávarðr, which means "high guard". A diminutive is "Howie" and its shortened form is "Ward" (most common in the 19th century). Between 1900-1960, Howard ranked in the U.S. Top 200; between 1960–1990, it ranked in the U.S. Top 400; between 1990–2004, it ranked in the U.S. Top 600. People with the given name Howard or its variants include:

Howard, given name

Howard Duane Allman (1946–1971), American guitar virtuoso

Howard Burnett (born 1961), Jamaican track and field athlete

Howard J. Burnett (born 1929), American president of Washington & Jefferson College

Howard Carter (1874–1939), English archaeologist and Egyptologist

Howard Carter (disambiguation), name of several other people

Howard Cosell (1918–1995), sports broadcaster

Howard Dean (born 1948), American politician

Howard Donald (born 1968), English singer

Howard Devoto (born Howard Trafford, 1952), English singer/songwriter

Howard Duff (1913–1990), American actor

The Wrestling

The Wrestling is a nonfiction book by Simon Garfield, a British journalist and non-fiction author. The book charts the rise and fall in popularity of British professional wrestling over the course of the twentieth century.

Overview

The book consists almost entirely of interviews with professional wrestlers (or those who knew them), including Mick McManus, Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki and female wrestler Klondyke Kate, often giving the appearance of a conversation between the interviewees and the author.

Garfield also interviews those involved in the promotion of professional wrestling, with a particular focus on the decision of LWT chief Greg Dyke to drop the sport from its schedules in 1988.

References

Glossary of professional wrestling terms

Professional wrestling has accrued a considerable nomenclature through its long existence. Much of it stems from the industry's origins in the days of carnivals and circuses, and the slang itself is often referred to as "carny talk." In the past, wrestlers used such terms in the presence of fans so as not to reveal the worked nature of the business. In recent years, widespread discussion on the Internet has popularized these terms. Many of the terms refer to the financial aspects of pro wrestling in addition to performance-related terms.

Notes

References

External links

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Notes

References

Beekman, Scott. Ringside: A history of professional wrestling in America (Greenwood, 2006)

Foley, Mick (2000). Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-103101-1.

Harley Race, Ricky Steamboat, Les Thatcher (2005). The Professional Wrestlers' Workout & Instructional Guide. Sports Publishing LLC. ISBN 1-58261-947-6.

Fullscreen pause

Barker, Howard Filmography

Play in Full Screen Refuse to Dance: The Theatre of Howard Barker

1986, role: actor , character name: Himself
Play in Full Screen Aces High

1976, role: writer
Play in Full Screen Made

1972, role: writer
Play in Full Screen Made

1972, role: writer

Barker, Howard Filmography

Play in Full Screen In Mid Wickedness

2013, role: writer
Play in Full Screen Christ's Dog

2011, role: writer

Barker, Howard Filmography

Play in Full Screen First Love, Last Rites

1997, role: actor , character name: Security Guard

Famous quotes by Howard Barker:

"I have plenty of political views and plenty of social and personal prejudices. I do not, however, value them."

"I never 'say' anything in my work. I invent a world. Let others decide what is being 'said'."

"I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is impossible not to be influenced by if you hold language to be the major element of theatre."

"When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behavior. Sometimes this is dangerous, but it should be. As I say often, theatre is a dark place and we should keep the light out of it."

"I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly."

"We are suffocated by writers who want to enlighten us with their truths. For me, the theatre is beautiful because it is a secret, and secrets seduce us, we all want to share secrets."

"The English (I cannot speak of the Scots) are moralistic, and have made moralizing their discipline since the reformation. They like to be told what to think, and their literary heroes are moralists."

"Certainly I never write for utilitarian reasons - to help others understand issues, to improve society and so on. I regard those as fatuous pretexts. Let us keep social work out of the theatre."

"Tragedy is the greatest art form of all. It gives us the courage to continue with our life by exposing us to the pain of life. It is unsentimental, it takes us seriously as human beings, it is not condescending. Paradoxically, by seeing pain we are made greater, it becomes a need."

"I am compelled to write because I have an artist's personality, it is a psychologically-determined thing, one best not explored perhaps. But I write because I must. And frequently I do not know what I am writing, and can talk of what I've written only a long time afterwards."

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