S PRESS BEATLAND
      A U T H O R S 
      JULIAN BECK & JUDITH MALINA of the LIVING THEATER

      BIOGRAPH          Version   Links >

        French theorist Antonin Artaud called for "a theatre in which
        the actors are like victims burning at the stake, signalling thru
        the flames." For five decades, Julian Beck and his wife & part-
        ner Judith Malina have done just that with their tribal troupe,
        The Living Theatre.

        With their revolutionary art and passionate performances, they smashed the barriers between art and politics. They left an inde-
        lible mark on the form of theatre itself, pushing it off its com- fortable naturalistic pedestal and into experimental realms of
        radical confrontation, stirring ritual, and spectacle that was no
        less vivid for its frequent underfunding.

        They took their central theme of the world as prison to the the-
        atres and the streets across Europe, the United States and Brazil, questioning the authority of political power everywhere with
        stamina and commitment.

        The Living put on new and controversial plays of their own,
        produced works by the then-unseen new wave of European playwrights, explored a myriad of new forms pulled from the theatrical theories of Brecht & Artaud. Perhaps above all, they
        moved theatre squarely into the political arena, challenging qui-
        escent assumptions and cherished idealogies. Founded in 1947,
        the theatre began by producing the works of Picasso, T.S. Eliot,
        John Ashberry, W. H. Auden, Jean Cocteau, Paul Goodman, Strindberg and Pirandello.

        The theatre took on national prominence in 1959 when it pre-
        sented Jack Gelber's hyper-realistic view of drug pushers and
        addicts. "The Connection," complete with hazy jazz, needles
        shooting into arms and street language transferred to the stage,
        was explosive. The public was outraged.

        From 1959 to 1963, in a space that John Cage and Merce Cun-
        ningham helped to find, the Living Theatre became the center
        of New York's cultural avant-garde and the goad of its social conscience. This was not without consequences. Their produc-
        tion of "The Brig," Kenneth Brown's searing look at human de- basement in a Marine prison, led to calls for military reform.
        And may have provoked the government: The IRS moved in, demanding back taxes and eventually seized their theatre. After protests to save it failed, Beck and Malina locked themselves in
        the stage prison where they stayed until they were physically
        removed and taken to real jail.

        Smacked with a five-year suspended sentence, Beck and Malina
        left for Europe. There they developed their best-known works, "Frankenstein," "Mysteries," "Antigone," and "Paradise Now."
        They became known for confronting the audience with its pas-
        sivity, often dragging spectators into the aisles, inducing them
        into performances and inciting them to mass action.

        In 1968, they were involved in the Paris student riots. In 1970,
        they took their theatre into the streets with pieces developed for public places in Europe, the U.S., and Brazil. It was not until
        the late 70s that they returned to conventional venues, perform-
        ing Ernst Toller's 1920 Masse Mensch and their own new plays,
        Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, The Yellow
        Methuselah and Beck's last work, The Archaeology of Sleep.

        Their odyssey lasted nearly twenty years. In 1983 Beck, Mali-
        na and The Living returned to New York for a run at the Joyce
        Theater. The repertoire was met with critical hostility. Before
        they could find money for a space of their own, Julian was dia-
        gnosed with stomach cancer.

        Beck died in 1985. Not just a political and artistic iconoclast,
        he was also a pacifist, anarchist, feminist, vegetarian, theorist
        of gay- and bi-sexuality, and unflaggingly creative. His abstract paintings showed at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery & formed huge, scrolling backdrops for at least one Living Theatre production.
        His book, "Life of the Theatre", has appeared in more than one edition.

        Malina shared his passions & was prolific as well, publishing dia-
        ries and poems, teaching theater at New York University, and continuing to produce work with The Living after Beck's death.

        Beck and Malina were a uniquely ardent couple. Together they
        fought against the cold war and the folly of bomb shelters, Viet-
        nam, prison conditions, economic injustice and repression of all
        kinds. They and troupe members were jailed a dozen times in half
        as many countries. Their personal life was no less unconventional,
        and it was entirely consistent with their political principles. In
        his theory of freedom, Beck proposed that the erotic pattern is
        one on which we base our social structure. If the sexual pattern
        is rigid, our political and social lives will be rigid. It begins in
        the home and continues in Congress. The best way for the indivi-
        dual to break out of it is to break out of sexual cliches.

        Judith and Julian practiced what they preached. Beck had a long-
        time male lover in the company, Illion Troya. Judith too was in-
        volved with one of the troupe, Hannon Resnikov, a man decades
        her junior, whom she married after Julian's death.


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        last update june 98 | return >