Mark Lawson: why don't more visual artists do theatre?

Why aren't collaborations between visual and performance art more common?

Alberto Giacometti (left) with a sculpted tree for Samuel Beckett's (right) Waiting for Godot

From The Guardian: 'Stage design is clearly a form of art, but full-time painters and sculptors have only rarely become involved in theatre – although two current exhibitions demonstrate the potential when they do. The thrilling Edvard Munch exhibition at Tate Modern in London includes a room devoted to the Norwegian artist's work in theatre, and the sculptor Antony Gormley has on show at Castle Coole in Enniskillen a work called Godot Tree – Gormley's interpretation of the opening stage direction ("A country road. A tree. Evening.") in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. The tree, which is required to grow four or five leaves during the interval, will be used in a world-touring production that begins in Australia later this year.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Kafka's Metamorphosis as Dance Theatre
• Rivane Neuenschwander adapts Beckett's First Love as Art Installation

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye

Tate Modern: Exhibition · 28 June – 14 October 2012

Edvard Munch, New Snow in the Avenue, 1906. Photo: Photograph: Munch Museum/Munch-EllingsendGroup/DACS 2012

Adrian Searle (The Guardian) reviews Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye, an upcoming Tate retrospective of Munch's work: 'Even the paintings that are misconceived or a mess are fascinating records of a struggle. To be between greatness and inarticulacy, and to not care either way, takes a perverse sort of courage. At times Munch's paintings show great daring; at others, they become incoherent. Munch was extremely good at doing nasty. You could say he savoured it, and so do we: all those vampires and ruined relationships, horror, illness and death. His appetite for the sanguine is shared by most of us who watch thrillers and crime dramas and read murder stories. How Scandinavian of him, as Björk might sing.' [Read More]