A PLAYWRIGHT IS NOT AN AUTHOR...YOU POOP-HEAD!!

I was recently forced to read a load of academia about ‘The Death of the Author.’ (I’m not a literature academic because the only people who read critical essays are critical essay writers, and I’m not going to elbow my way into such a vicious cycle.) It was interesting that whilst the academics would quote Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht at will – because quoting famous people makes you intelligent – Beckett and Brecht were not authors. They were playwrights. 

OK, authoring and playwriting may seem interchangeable…and they are to an extent. Both a play and a novel are written, and it usually begins with one person sitting down and banging away at a keyboard whilst longing for death. The creative spark for a novel and the creative spark for a play are usually the same spark; often I’ve begun to devise a play only to realise it would be better suited as a novel – and vice-versa. 

But this is where the similarities end, because once a novel is completed then the story is completed. The characters and setting are locked within the plot, bound within the pages and the novelist can go and drink him/herself to death. When a playscript is completed, then the torment truly begins. 

First you have to find a theatre-company, unless your already part of one. Once you get to the company, you’ll realise that they only have two female actors – so there goes your female ensemble cast. Then you get to the theatre the plays going to be performed at to find it’s bloody tiny, so you’ll have to cut out your golden fortress. Then you begin rehearsal to find that the director wants to have everyone perform naked – meaning the costume department basically gets a free pay check. Then you find that your lead actor can’t be naked without also doing a little dance, so that’s another re-write. Then the lighting technician says it’s impossible to simulate rain, so there goes your tribute to Singing in the Rain. 

Your script now looks completely different, re-written by both the company and circumstance. Whilst this often means that the material is actually stronger, sometimes it can ruin the piece. Either way, the playwright cannot be considered the author because the play is not the sole voice of one person. 

Does that mean a playwright can still be an auteur? Well of course. Beckett and Brecht are immediately recognisable in their work. But even Brecht and Beckett had to undertake large re-writes during the rehearsal period. They would have had input during the creative process, and would have had to deal with the biggest obstacle a writer faces: Compromise. 

Even Shakespeare would have collaborated very closely with his actors and directors, tailoring his plays to suit the place it was being performed and the people performing it – which is why Shakespeare obviously wrote all his plays and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand how theatre works. 

Yes, Shakespeare is not an author. The works you were forced to study at school were probably re-written by the actors that worked on them. So, in a weird way, Shakespeare didn’t write his plays…except he so obviously did.