The Third Wheel

He begins on a sane note, describing how in his boyhood a visit from Les Ballets Russes to Tulsa amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime event because the US had no professional ballet companies. He then notes that this has completely changed for most of the performing arts, given that every state has a ballet and that at least half of the world’s top orchestras are American.

Randall turns darkly pensive at this point, observing that “we are simultaneously seeing the frightening shrinking of the theatre. The United States today has no classical repertory theatre.” Huh? Does that dearth include American Repertory Theatre, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, Milwaukee Rep, etc.? The quality of these and similar institutions may vary, but they do stage classics, operate more or less on the repertory model, hire some of the nation’s top artists, and have high production values (which is not one of my standards for great theater, by the way). Acknowledging their existence strikes me as reasonable, given the innumerable, barely remunerative hours people pour into them.

So what exactly is Randall bemoaning?

Maybe it’s the absence of a federally subsidized behemoth like Britain’s National Theatre or Royal Shakespeare Company:

Every civilized country but ours has a classical repertory theatre which is the pride of its nation. France has the Comedie Française, founded by Louis XIV for Molière 400 years ago; Israel, the Habima; Japan, the Kabuki; Ireland, the Abbey Theatre in Dublin; Russia has the Moscow Art Theatre, and the list goes on. Yet the United States has none. This, in my opinion, is not only a crime, but a scandal.

Randall doesn’t explain why American dance is doing fine without its own version of the Royal Danish Ballet. Presumably, he thinks theater is somehow a special case. This would be in keeping with how seriously people in our industry take themselves, but the lament still makes no sense. The countries Randall names as exemplary could almost all fit snugly in Texas. In a country as vast as the US, no city is central to enough of its citizens to host a theater that could reasonably be called “national.”

Which is why Russia’s great theaters are thought of as regional entities rather than national ones, at least within Russia. The Moscow Art Theater may be the most celebrated internationally, but the Maly in St. Petersburg and the Altai State Drama in Siberia understandably have more importance to people living less than half a day’s drive from them.

In that sense, we do have a national theater, made up of regional giants such as ACT in San Francisco, the Guthrie in Minneapolis, the Alley in Houston, and so on. They don’t all meet Randall’s demand that shows be done in repertory, but they produce large seasons comprised of classics and (at least supposedly) groundbreaking new works, and they attract the nation’s best talent. Many receive a chunk of NEA money for their funding, but the strength of each resides in the committed, local elites who are willing to donate large sums and buy subscriptions. I wouldn’t go so far as to compare the Guthrie favorably with the RSC, but in a country with a comparatively brief theatrical history, I can’t help thinking we’re off to a decent start.