The Becks’ Living Theatre

Extract

In the opening scene of Jack Gelber's The Apple an action painter is flicking large globs of pigment at a piece of celluloid, commenting as he works, “No design is a grand design,” and, “Art is precision.” He takes a rolling pin and smears the paint over the celluloid, creating an arresting pastiche of brilliant colors, chaotic patterns, intriguing textures, and—if you look at it in just the right way—some sort of artistic expression. Then Julian Beck enters and asks, “Whose wet dream is that?” This jarring punch-line sets the tone of the Living Theatre's preoccupation with illusion and reality, a theatrical pair of dice that are constantly tumbled about and spilled into the audience. And the audience pays for it: the night I was there, the painting was auctioned off for $6.50.