Style and Its Origins

Howard Barker's alter-ego Eduardo Houth first materialised as the photographer of publicity images for Barker's theatre company The Wrestling School one of many fictional identities assumed by the playwright to screen a range of his activities including set and costume design.<br/><br/>Writing of himself in the third person and in the historic tense Barker/Houth achieves a fluency and an uncommon measure of objectivity though objectivity is scarcely the sole intention. The result is a unique exercise in self-description partisan but without the shrill self-justification so common in a mere autobiography. Barker/Houth's A Style and its Origins is very much a literary creation; it is also a totally original document and a rich history of the dramatist and his aesthetic.<br/>