Discuss "ghosting" and heterotopia with reference to the dramaturgy of Follies

Work has taken up quite a lot of time recently and I cannot update my blog despite having some interesting new ideas. So I have decided to dig out another essay that I wrote for my MA and post it here just to keep this website active.This is a shortened academic essay about "ghosting" and heterotopia in theatre with reference to "Follies" (one of my favourite musicals). Hope you guys enjoy!

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'Follies' is about a reunion of the previous ‘Weismann’s Follies’ at a to-be-demolished theatre. The theatre conjures up these performers’ memories, which are physicalized as the ‘ghosts’ onstage. Oscillating between reality and their glorious past, the reunion forces them to reconcile with the various issues they face in life. I would like to discuss the significance of these ‘ghosts’ by using Marvin Carlson’s idea of ‘ghosting’ in his The Haunted Stage, proposing that 'Follies' might be a concept musical which embodies Carlson’s idea of ‘ghosting’.

Carlson believes history is intrinsic to theatrical productions, and drama is the retelling of stories from the past. As noted by him, ‘everything in the theatre, the bodies, the materials utilized, the language, the space itself, is now and has always been haunted, and that haunting has been an essential part of the theatre’s meaning to and reception by its audiences in all times and all places’ ( "The Haunted Stage" 15). In other words, ‘ghosting’ to Carlson is not about superstition. Rather, it is a conceptual framework established by him to show how the past and history enrich the complexity of meaning and the audience’s interpretation of a production. Therefore, everything in theatres can be considered as haunted, and the ideas of ‘ghosting’ and ‘haunting’ are metaphors which demonstrate the interconnected, interdependent relationship between history and theatre.

While Carlson’s idea of ‘ghosting’ is subtle, Follies dramatizes their ‘ghosts’ by physicalizing them onstage. As the characters enter the theatre in Act 1, they are always accompanied by their younger selves. Although it is obviously indicated that these ghosts belong to a different realm, they sometimes interfere with the actions onstage. For instance, ‘Waiting for the Girls Upstairs’ and ‘Who’s That Woman?’ are interrupted by the ‘ghosts’ halfway through the numbers. Occasionally, these ghosts may even interact with the characters, creating a dialogue between the past and the present. After Ben and Sally finish singing ‘Too Many Mornings’ in Act 1, Ben, Sally and their younger selves converse as if the present and the past merge. The interaction can be seen as embodying the intertextuality in theatre, performing the idea that theatre can be an environment where temporal boundaries are blurred.

Having demonstrated the co-existence of the past and present in 'Follies', I would like to apply Foucault’s concept of heterotopia here. Heterotopia describes a physical space where dualities coexist, and Follies portrays a heterotopia of time where the past and the present are presented simultaneously onstage. In Foucault’s eyes, heterotopia is ‘a space that is other, another real space, as perfect, as meticulous, as well arranged as ours is messy, ill constructed, and jumbled’ (Foucault 8). In other words, this heterotopic space is isolated from reality, a realm which is not subject to any heteronomous structure. This idea of heterotopia is embodied by “Loveland” in Act 2, a suddenly, absurdly interjected number, which is sung when the characters are transported to the realm of Loveland.

Time stops

Hearts are young

Only serenades are sung

In Loveland

Where everybody lives to love

Raindrops

Never rain

Every road is Lovers Lane

In Loveland

Where everybody loves to live

(Sondheim)

The song creates a peaceful, almost unearthly imagery of Loveland where the concept of time does not exist. This imagery resonates with the idea of heterotopia, and it is plausible to argue Loveland is a creative imagination of a heterotopia.

Despite this paradisiac imagery, heterotopia is not a means of escapism. Rather it serves as a site for reconciliation. During the protagonists’ stay in Loveland, each character has an opportunity to voice their problems through an autobiographical follies act. For example: Phyllis sings about her dilemma of wanting to be younger when, ironically, she used to want to be older; Sally sings about her frustration of loving Ben, as if she is losing her mind. Their follies acts are the heterotopic ‘theatres’ where these characters are not entitled to an identity, and thus able to have their own articulation; where no one can dismiss their desire and claim. After these four protagonists sing about their problems, they are all transported back to the theatre the next morning and get back to their ordinary lives. Their performances therefore are a means to displace their frustrations and true selves, in order to negotiate and reconcile their issues. This creates an interesting parallel with the audience who are watching the performance, as the audience, like the characters onstage, also experience the heterotopic, almost cathartic, quality in theatre. It is as if the Follies is a musical that comments on the theatrical form itself.

As mentioned above, Follies, or any sort of theatrical conventions, are haunted, ghosted and heterotopic.If so, the ghosts then can be seen as the theatrical symbol that represents the past whereas Loveland is a hyperbolized concept of ‘theatre’. And 'Follies' is a concept musical which resonates with Carlson’s theory and comments on itself.