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A recent essay by Hunter College theater professor, Jonathan Kalb, entitled "What is Theater's Outer Limit of Great Length?" discusses the idea of whether "length matters" in an artistic endeavor. He starts:

Length is...one of those quantitative measures that cultivated people tend to think of as secondary in assessing artworks. We easily accept that size matters in other areas of human endeavor, but with works of the imagination that acceptance is contingent. Surely all questions of content are more urgent and important than the question of how long a play is, or a film, an orchestral work, or a novel. A fundamental tenet of Western creativity since Romanticism has been that art legislates for itself: good works are as long as they need to be, no more, no less. What is more, we children of the era of big-screen "epics" and marketing campaigns wielding "marathon" as an empty gimmick are all too aware that length alone guarantees nothing.

But it's the idea of the "marathon theater" and how it can build community that is quite interesting:

My interest in marathon theater -- by which I simply mean any production longer than four hours or so -- dates back to summer 2000. Sitting on a concrete bench at a world's fair in Hanover, Germany, eating Asian-fusion fast food with some remarkably sociable Germans I had just met during one of the ten intermissions for Peter Stein's twenty-one-hour Faust I + II, I was struck with deja vu. I had been here before, I felt -- an international pilgrim to a theater event of extraordinary length and gargantuan ambition, breaking bread with normally reticent strangers turned gregarious comrades merely because our prolonged exposure to one another and common interest in a play had melded us into an impromptu community.

Sitting through Stein's 21 hour extravaganza must be intense and makes you wonder how much these marathon playwrights have been influenced by the greatest marathon opera-man of all time: Richard Wagner.

None of Wagner's 13 completed operas are less than three hours long, with The Ring of the Niebelung stretching over four nights with more than 15 hours of music! It seems clear, though, that part of Wagner's intent was to create a special community of die-hard fans:

I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas, preceded by a lengthy Prelude (Vorspiel). At a specially-appointed Festival, I propose, some future time, to produce those three Dramas with their Prelude, in the course of three days and a fore-evening. The object of this production I shall consider thoroughly attained, if I and my artistic comrades, the actual performers, shall within these four evenings succeed in artistically conveying my purpose to the true Emotional (not the Critical) understanding of spectators who shall have gathered together expressly to learn it.

There are certainly artistic implications of marathon opera & marathon theater - i.e. how does the creator avoid repeating him or herself over the course of 15 or 20 hours. But in addition to that fascinating hurdle, you have the wonderful concept of community building. In fact, it's a very special bond that must occur after the fourth hour of the production, or after the 10th hour, and most certainly after 15+ hours of sitting in the same room with the same people hearing and seeing the same thing! Wow!

Perhaps this reporter's account of a performance of "The Ring" from two years ago in Seattle will give you an idea:

You know you're in startling proximity to a "Ring" cycle fan when you find yourself leaning slightly away from him, fearful that his pronunciation of "gesamtkunstwerk" might have a tendency to spray. But I'm not close to one such person, I'm close to hundreds, many of whom would nod knowingly if you uttered that German word in passing conversation. (It means "complete work of art," by the way, as in what Richard Wagner was shooting for in "Der Ring des Nibelungen.") It's after midnight one night last August, and we're all sitting in an auditorium at the Seattle Opera for a Q. & A. with the opera's affable, Johnny Carson-like general director, Speight Jenkins.

We've just come from the theater upstairs, where we have witnessed the five hours of fiery musical apocalypse that is the "Ring's" fourth opera, "Gotterdammerung." During the week, we've partaken of 16 hours of live, gorgeously realized Norse mythology and blond braids; 20 hours of "Ring"-related talks and symposiums; and countless opportunities to practice our spitty, throat-clearing glottal fricatives.

Ahhhh...those whacky Wagnerites!

We wonder if the equivalent exists in the marathon theater world.

Professor Kalb?

My thanks to Vinson Valega for this interesting post, which raises terrific questions, many of which I take up in my book Great Lengths (due out in October from Univ. of Michigan Press). I'll offer one Wagner observation here that isn't in my book. I've seen one complete Ring cycle, in NYC, and it didn't generate quite the same communal atmosphere that I've witnessed at marathon plays such as "Nicholas Nickleby," "The Mahabharata" and "Angels in America." The composition of the audience changed over the four operas, and though a core group did attend the whole cycle as a marathon, it wasn't as gregarious or openly curious about one another as the audiences I've seen at other plays where spectators were mostly experiencing the staged work for the first time. I have been to the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, and there is certainly a communal atmosphere there, but it's very snobbish and feels exclusive. I'm afraid that Wagner has become a special case where marathon theater is concerned. The cultish aroma that lingers around him too easily spoils the quality of the communal gathering he wanted to foster.

Interesting comments, Jonathan...especially about the Bayreuth Festival...a goal of mine to attend, for sure!

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