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The Darkroom of Damocles, by Willem Frederik Hermans, has been named one of the ten finalists for the Best Translated Book of the Year by Three Percent. This classic novel is widely considered one of the great masterpieces of post-war literature, and Hermans (1921-1995) is also the author of Beyond Sleep, also published for the first time in the U.S. by Overlook. Before devoting his entire life to writing, Hermans had been teaching Physical Geography at the University of Groningen for many years. He had already started writing and publishing in magazines at a young age. His polemic and provocative style led to a court case as early as 1952. In his novels and stories, Hermans places his characters in a world of certainty for themselves but equivocal for the reader. It is in this field of tension that the intrigue in De tranen der acacia’s (Acacia’s Tears, 1949) and in De donkere kamer van Damocles (The Darkroom of Damocles, 1958) develops. Although stories such as Moedwil en misverstand (Malice and Misunderstanding) and Paranoia have a surrealistic tendency, Hermans’ novels The Darkroom Of Damocles, Nooit meer slapen (Beyond Sleep), Uit talloos veel miljoenen (From Countless Millions) are more realistic or satirical and everything in his rich oeuvre is subordinate to the author’s pessimistic philosophy."

Announced today on the Three Percent website, the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year Fiction Longlist includes Overlook's The Darkroom of Damocles by W. F. Hermans. The list features authors from all over the world, including Nobel Prize winners and first-time novelists, and published by presses of all sizes, this longlist will be narrowed down to ten finalists on January 27th, with a winner being announced at a reception on February 19th at the Melville House offices in Brooklyn, NY. This award, started last year in reaction to the lack of international titles on “best of the year” lists, was created to bring attention to the great works of international literature being published in the United States. Criteria used in selecting these titles include the quality of the work itself, along with the quality of the translation. It is the only award in America honoring international literature that is given to the book itself.

Considered one of the most important Western European authors to emerge from the postwar period, Willem Frederik Hermans was born in Amsterdam in 1921. Hermans’s older sister and cousin committed suicide following the German invasion of Amsterdam in 1940. World War II left a strong impression on Hermans, serving as the backdrop for many of his novels. Appointed as a lecturer on physical geography at the Groningen University, Hermans was forced to resign in 1958 after a parliamentary committee discovered he was using university stationary for his own writing. Hermans later published Among Professors, a fictionalized and biting account of his time at the university, which he’d written entirely on the backs of university letters. After visiting South Africa in 1983, the Mayor and City Council of Amsterdam declared Hermans persona non grata for disregarding the cultural boycott on the country because of its Apartheid policy. Hermans was thus exiled from his home city until he returned in 1993 for a book presentation, insisting that the City Council revoke the imposition. Hermans’s unique style of existential satire has been compared to the likes of Heller, Vonnegut, and Kafka. Despite his critical success in Europe, his writing is only now becoming available in the States. His most acclaimed novels, Beyond Sleep and The Darkroom of Damocles are now finally available in English from Overlook.

In The Empty Space, director Peter Brook outlines his theories on the theater by exploring four different meanings of the word theater - Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate.

Deadly Theatre is the theatre of commerce set up to make money for its producers. It's the theatre of imitation, trying to mimic the box office successes of the past. This affects all aspects, permeates every level. The Directors rely on the old clichés and gimmicks of the past without exploring the texts for their deeper meanings. The Actors do not move past the emotional facades of the roles, playing the surface knee-jerk reactions that they get from text, resulting in stereotypical portrayals. The Audience accepts this Deadly Theatre because they have sought out an honest experience, and rather than accept the disappointment of the less than authentic encounter, they feign excitement and appreciation. Brooks posits that the Audience would rather acquiesce here in order to avoid feeling left out of a cultural loop designed by an elite who have embraced Deadly Theatre. The Critics play the society column game of declaring the big budget shows as overwhelming hits without any true critical analysis. Deadly Theatre is the theatre of repetition.

Holy Theatre is "The Theatre of the Invisible - Made - Visible."

This is what theater and all art making should be addressing- the bringing to light the dark recesses of the human experience; to perform rituals that ask the questions about why we are the way we are; how can we change or accept the less damaged aspects of human nature; what does being in community with others mean.

Religious teaching - including Zen - asserts that this invisible-visible cannot be seen automatically - it can only be seen given certain conditions. Holy art is an aid to this, and so we arrive at at definition of Holy Theatre. A Holy Theatre not only presents the invisible but also offers conditions that make its perceptions possible, according to Brook.

The strengths of a Holy Theatre are also what limit its appeal - the desire to answer the truly personal needs of those who are in the process of creating it. This is not the theatre of mass appeal. Brook explains the processes of three artists who are engaged in the creation of holy theatre - Merce Cunningham, Jerzy Grotowski and Samuel Beckett. All three are well known in their respected disciplines, but have limited visibility in popular culture.

To underscore this, read Brook on the three:

"They each start from their hunger, each works to lessen his own need. And yet the very purity of their resolve, the high and serious nature of their activity inevitably brings a colour to their choices and a limitation to their field. They are unable to be both esoteric and popular at one and the same time."

Rough Theatre could be seen as the antithesis of Holy Theatre by misinterpreting it as anti-intellectual. It is cruder, more popular and doesn’t require any "great study."

Brook again:

"It is always the Popular Theatre that saves the day. Through the ages it has taken many forms, and there is only one factor that they all have in common - A roughness. ...theatre that is not in a theatre, ...on carts, on wagons, on trestles, audiences standing, drinking, ... joining in, answering back."

Or perhaps El Teatro Campesino or Culture Clash. Ultimately, Rough Theater is indeed intelligent in its grasp of social interaction and the community at large, unerring in its ability to lay bare social issues. I would say "Real" is the key word here, rather than "Rough."

In the last chapter, Brook discusses his personal experiences in creating theater. He describes this as Immediate Theatre because theatrical "common reality" exists only in the moment of performance and is lost once the lights go out. It then becomes something different in the minds of each who experienced it. It is this immediacy that draws people to the theater, the liveness, the closeness to reality. Immediacy is the quality that makes theater unique.

ISBN-10: 0684829576
ISBN-13: 978-0684829579