Well Shakespeare gets re-performed every year as d...

Well Shakespeare gets re-performed every year as do other plays and pieces. Poetry gets reread. Paintings get re-hung...and there sometimes has to be room for re-interpretation of a piece, a play. Becket. We read James Joyce aloud without Joyce although I have a tape of him reading one of his works which isn't great. I'm beginning to think that maybe these pieces weren't that great to begin with and so are even weaker in re-performance. Or they are one woman shows (not like the Vagina Monologues!) that can't (shouldn't) be tried, done again...and Nina Simone re-sung all of her songs, over and over and we loved it...at different stages of her life. "Mississippi Goddam" worked when she was younger, middle aged, and older. So what's with performance art?