Looking at the offerings of the 2018-19 Denver Center for the Performing Arts season, I was wondering when I last saw produced a Jacobean play or a Restoration comedy?
I understand the DCPA’s desire to appeal to diversity, a younger audience and multiculturalism, but this goal should not be at the expense of the dramatic gems — plays by the Greeks, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Miller, Shaw, O’Casey, et al. It is right that the DCPA be in tune with modern-day sensibilities, buts its neglect of the past is shameful. This past season saw a dumbing-down of its works, less than memorable or stellar productions, mediocre to poor writing with an emphasis on loud music, four-letter words (a substitute for imagination) and often tasteless dialogue.
I can understand why the classics are being abandoned. They often require large casts, and the language can sometimes feel alien. But then again, why are we doomed to live in the present? You cannot fully understand “Hamlet” without seeing the Elizabethan revenge tragedy Thomas Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy.” It’s not just our own English-speaking past we are ignoring; we are neglecting European, Latin American and World drama. I’m not pleading for these plays simply out of curiosity. I’m suggesting they are viable and relevant. It would be even better to see them set in their historical context (no hip-hop). Lastly, I see a danger in cutting ourselves off from history to assume egotistically every play is written about us. The past has a great deal to teach us.
Jenene Stookesberry, Denver
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