The bead diagram

Eugenio Barba, in his article “The Deep Order Called Turbulence: The Three Faces of Dramaturgy,” likens the process of working on a theatrical production to navigating a route between Scylla and Charybdis:

On the one hand there is Scylla, representing the risk of straightening out the route, thus transforming the intricacy of the many paths into one direct line running in the right direction. Everything then becomes clear, even though it does not correspond to our experience. Within the reality of work, creativity is like a stormy sky. It is perceived as disorientation, doubt, frustration, discomfort. … On the other hand, there is Charybdis, with the risk of speaking only of storms and forgetting about the geometry of the compass and the sextant, which make the route possible. It is the risk of becoming anecdote or confession. ¹

Barba’s metaphor underscores both the dangers and the necessity of these two opposing forces. The productive tension Barba describes is one of avoiding, on the one hand, making everything so clear and easy for the audience to apprehend that what is represented loses its immediacy and relevance to lived experience and, on the other, making the work so specific and idiosyncratic that it has relevance only to its creators. How can you successfully navigate this route? With tools that help theatrical collaborators track patterns in their work without squelching creative forces. The bead diagram can be used to reveal patterns in a script or a performance and aid creators in shaping theatrical pieces, both those that use unconventional structures and those that follow established tradition. A particular strength of the bead diagram is that it reflects the priorities of the person who applies it, so it is possible to reveal existing patterns without forcing the play into a particular structure.