Popular Culture Review Vol. 2, No. 2, July 1991 | Página 37

Lessons From Hollywood

29

sexism; they are not challenges to the deeper social
structures that allow these manners to endure.(9)
Such a stance is extremely simplistic. It assumes that the
commercial and the shallow are synonymous (and that the comedy of
manners can have little ideological impact), which are inaccurate
generalizations. Keyssar also implies that she, herself, knows in
some concrete manner the only methodology by which theatre can
challenge the deeper social structures of society. Given the lack of
knowledge about the nature of the impact of the political theatre on
an audience, such information seems unlikely to be in Keyssar's hands.
Her position can be construed as the embodiment of an unsubstantiated
bias against the commercial theatre.
She is not alone in that bias. Karen Malpede states her
position clearly and succinctly in her preface to her book, Women in
Theatre. The implication here is that feminist work and the
commercial theatre are mutually exclusive entities:
I wanted to make a volume of theoretical writings
by women who, no matter what their partic ular craft,
had created or envisioned entire theatres which, for
the most part, existed outside a commercial main
stream. I have been more interested in aspiration and
persistence than in fame and profit. I wanted a
volume that would speak to young women of a brave
heritage, reminding each of us that theatre must be
created anew by each generation.(lO)
Whilst there is certainly a case for foregrounding the work of
women from outside of the commercial theatre, the omission of the
mainstream—apparently on some kind of moral or political grounds—
makes the book pointlessly incomplete. Ironically, there is actually
no shortage of work celebrating the feminist fringe. Yet relatively
little has been said about women who enjoy or work within the
commercial theatre.
Contrary to Malpede’s implications, it could be cogently argued
that there is no branch of the theatre that requires more aspiration
and persistence than the commercial theatre. Moreover, her use of
the word ’’profit” suggests (unfairly) that those who choose to work