Shakespeare and war
Let slip the dawgs
Sep 9th 2004 | CHICAGO AND WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition
A few bloody and unnatural acts to motivate the troops
WHEN the curtain rises at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama this weekend, troops in the audience won't be eyeing the usual leggy morale-boosting blondes; instead, they will be confronted by men in kilts. The strange alliance of the Pentagon and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is sending a “very earthy” production of “Macbeth” to tour 13 bases.
Although the blood-splattered Scottish play is not known for its morale-inducing qualities, the touring Alabama Shakespeare Festival hopes for an effect “like Braveheart”. The Pentagon has coughed up $1m (under special congressional authorisation) to bring the Bard to the troops. The actors will also do workshops for them.
Dana Gioia, the NEA's chairman, insists that the choice of “Macbeth” reflects no underlying message; it is just a short, well-known and portable play with a small (and rapidly diminishing) cast. Besides, he adds, it's a play about soldiers. Well, yes, they do appear occasionally, sometimes as trees.
The military outreach is very much Mr Gioia's brainchild. A businessman turned poet, he has been using NEA money to bring Shakespeare to rural and inner-city America. He had the idea of ringing up the Pentagon when his younger sister was called up for active duty.
David Chu, the under-secretary of defence who oversees social programmes for troops, admits he was “surprised that the NEA noticed us”. Now he's a keen supporter. He bristles at suggestions that Shakespeare is too highbrow for troops, noting they are better educated and older than in the past. The Pentagon and the NEA have started a series of writing workshops at military bases led by the likes of Tom Clancy and Tobias Wolff: “Operation Homecoming” encourages soldiers who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan to put their stories on paper.
If this was meant to charm the hard men of the Bush administration, it seems to be working. The White House has requested a hefty increase in the organisation's funding this year. What about overseas bases? The Pentagon-NEA alliance has just tried out a literary workshop for troops at Camp Ederle in Vicenze, Italy. Surely “Henry V” could work wonders in Baghdad, especially if “Texan” replaced “English” throughout? Alas, for the moment they will have to make do with Robin Williams, Drew Carey, some NFL cheerleaders and Miss Universe. Fie, fie, for shame.
