On History, Theatre & other bollocks
2 June, 2008 | 1 comment | Category: nostalgia.personal, peace & conflict, thinking...
I watched the play ‘the history boys‘ recently. This is what I kept thinking:
“theatre, history…tarik, teret…art, historic records.. history, literature…facts, stories”
hmmm….you hear the sound of the beats, the clashes? contradictions? cymbals? or trombones sounding in the history books?:)
Ah Well…Let me go off on a tangent!
Indeed there are…clashes between the vagaries within theater houses in addis ababa & the district of columbia! Though, one Thursday night these two geographic dimensions merged in my head as history echoed in the dupont theater halls resounding truth about Ethiopia. The remnant echoes: “history is always according to somebody’s perspective.”
…but wouldn’t that mean: history is based on some perspective and context, making fact arguable according to other perspectives and contexts …and History, Bollocks? 
(according to Posner in the play: History could be explained AWAY!)
Interruption from main bollocks (skip if uninterested): My renditions of Theatric settings: Dupont and Piassa
Act 1 setting: In the somewhat uppidy and trendy neighborhood of dupont, home of the most expensive real estate in dc (read as: white, gay males) there is a theater house with (raunchy?) zigzag red neon lights and montages of b&w portraits of white actors surrounded by beige wooden walls and frosted doors.
That is where i spent two hours on a Thursday evening with Abesha friends and droves of mostly white, seemingly liberal, artsy-fartsy types of various ages. At the end of the evening we left heads swimming with British boyish silliness, homosexual romance in a boys’ school, theorizing about history, poetry…and other such ‘bollocks’ spoken in rapid cockney english by “The History Boys” as we Abeshoch pleaded for subtitles.
Act 2 setting: An ocean away, the theatre houses of ‘Hager FiQir’ and ‘BehErawi Tiaytir’ serve their largely male crowds (most presumably homophobic) with long queues and ‘unofficial’ ticket sales (aka blackmarkettery, haggling, hustling…). Insistent vendors rummage up and down hallways of fading colors and outdated designs, hallways full of loud chatter. The vendors’ chest-kiosks stuffed with chewing gum and candy get push up under noses of oblivious passers-by; and colorful plastic bags swish by holding candle-sealed packs of oily home fried chips.
No matter. Moving onward: the two clashing worlds of theatre; the trendy posh of dupont and the liveliness of a middle-lower class past-time in piassa cannot escape a conclusion that historic truth is in the eye of the beholder. If ‘The History Boys’ was shown, even in Amharic, to a piassa audience the response could be acutly different, as would the response be of someone watching the same play next to me in dupont. It is a matter of perspective.
So, to say that one perspective of history is right, we would have to assert that some perspectives are ‘better than others’, more objective or rational and scientific according to a specific context. Rendering history according to other perspectives, bollocks….!
ok enough yadi-yada-ing from me…I’m simply highlighting the thin ‘arguable’ line between perspective and truth… Ethiopian tales and Ethiopian tarik, history and stories…
This is my take: Accounts of history should not be the main caveats for arguments about entitlement, political order, war… History should surely be within the discussion, but not take over as a basis for endless bickering, violence, the loss of many lives and livelihoods, especially given history’s fluidity!
I believe in a starting premise of a common goal – COEXISTENCE and common ground through individual understanding. For that, we need to start paying much closer attention to the personal stories that tie many across conflict lines in common humanity and stop the bickering about bollocks historic anecdotes!
Quotes from the play:
“history is based on perspective, so there are countless histories of one occurance…
1~But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained. And if it can be explained that it can be explained away.
Defining history: nonsense and men (oh my, these two words fit together so nicely! 
)
~How do I define history? Well it’s just one fucking thing after another.
~History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket. Can you, for a moment, imagine how depressing it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude?
The connection through written accounts…
~The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.”
Possibly Related Posts:
- The Graying of these here Pink Shades
- When I’m Back
- The Uncomfortable Truth: Nneka
- Flattery: Fast-tracking Success?
- Murky
1 comment to “On History, Theatre & other bollocks”
senduQ » an African Activist speaks!, December 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am:
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[...] for me, watching this video was like experiencing this from the history boys: [...]