Religious, Psychological and Sociological Features of Theatre - Essay Example

Introduction: In the history of literature, theatre has always served to address contemporary social, political issues, sometimes encouraging social change. It had been true that theatre had largely influenced public opinion over various periods. For example, the fools and comedians in the early plays drew the audience to a critical perspective of social or political flaws. Some of them draw on the class struggles in the later period after industrialism. Though meant for entertainment, it had been used by many as a tool to evoke social consciousness. However, plays with such exclusive motive had been classified as political theatre, which is no more the case, as “in one way or another all performance and theatre can be seen as involved in discourses of power” (Baz Kershaw, The Radical in Performance, 1999, p63). As any work of art needs to hold up a faithful mirror to nature (Aristotle, Poetics), and political theatre in general aims at representing social, political, cultural problems to the audience, political theatre in the modern period does not only represent but politicizes the representations, by either breaking the traditional representations or reinforcing them. They are sometimes known as experimental theatre or post-modern theatre (Auslander, 1987). In a way, they are part of any representations in any theatre and there is no more a separate political theatre. This is true in the modern and post-modern context after the rise of radical thinking and modern theories which politicize the dichotomies in the society. Each theory focuses on specific aspects of dichotomies; for example, Feminism politicizes body, gender identities and the otherness of women, while Post-colonialism focuses on the problem of cultural identity and politics. However, each one of them is concerned about power relations in the society and focuses more on the differences than on the similarities, unlike Modernism. In this context, any representation and use of language is no more a narrative but becomes a part of discourse making any theatre a political theatre. According to Baz Kershaw, as a consequence of the radical change in the literary theory, there is no more exclusive political theatre but all performances are political discourses in some way (Baz Kershaw, The Radical in Performance, 1999). To trace the history of literary theory of drama, Aristotle’s Poetics offers the actors power to think and act on behalf of the audience enacting them thereby enabling catharsis; however, the radical change has empowered the audience and involved them into action, creating “poetics of the oppressed” making the audience think, participate and the theatrical performance is no more a spectacle but becomes a discourse politicizing representations by diminishing the differences (). An example of an early theatre practitioner of political theatre is Brecht who was the playwright, producer and director of his plays and has written theories on theatre as well. How can theatre be entertaining and instructive at the same time? How can it be taken out of the hands of intellectual drug traffic and become a place of offering real experiences rather than illusions? How can the unliberated and unknowing man of our century with his thirst for knowledge and freedom, the tortured and heroic, misused and inventive man of our terrible and great century, himself changeable and yet unable to change the world, how can he be given a theatre which will help him be master of his world? (Brecht, p. 80). Though Brecht’s questions takes its readers back to the age old disagreement on the purpose of art: art for art’s sake or art as a didactic medium, on the whole it emphasizes that theatre can be both at the same time. It also stresses on the reality than on illusion or the imagination. Both these tend to bring the audience down to earth, pinning them to reality, making them think and act, which is political. His Epic Theatre was not designed to be a finished spectacle but an unfinished product in a way that the play extended into the audience to create the impact it aimed at. In a way, politicizing the representations, the plays made the audience think of the problems posed by the play. The actors themselves are alienated from the characters and are encouraged to develop an attitude or critical perspective towards the character they play. “The attitude which he adopts is a socially critical one. In his exposition of the incidents and in his characterization of the person he tries to bring out those features which come within society’s sphere. In this way his performance becomes a discussion (about social conditions) with the audience he is addressing. He prompts the spectator to justify or abolish these conditions according to what class he belongs to (Brecht, p. 13). In fact, the purpose of this alienation effect is to make the usual social themes and relationships more evident and remarkable. By doing this, the play engages in discourse attempting to use language and representation for a definite purpose. It is more than a social theatre like that of Shaw’s. But it goes further to engage the audience, and critically involve them using by moving the represented action closer to the audience. Though original political theatre concerned itself with class differences and problems in the society, modern performances have characteristics adopted by political discourses of Feminism, Post-Colonialism and Marxism. “The distinction between expression and performativeness is quite crucial, for if gender attributes and acts, the various ways in which a body shows or produces its cultural signification, are performative…that gender reality is created through sustained social performance (Huxley, M., & Witts, Noel. (1996, p.129). Political theatre empowers people and helps them voice issues and bring them to public discussion in the arena of theatre. Politically conscious individuals and communities utilized theatre as a public place to explore socio, cultural issues. Caryl Churchill is one such a theatre practitioner who is involved with exploring the political nature of theatre performances. Caryl Churchill She adopts feminist themes and sexual politics in her plays. Research compares her theatrical techniques with Brechtian Epic theatre to politicize gender and sexuality unlike Brecht who presented social issues in the Marxist context. She even uses the elements of the Theatre of Cruelty of Antonin Artaud and combines the features of dance and other performance arts to her theatre. Moreover, she uses Post-modern techniques like fragmentation to problematize the themes. An example of a political discourse in her theatre is the play “Cloud Nine” (1979), which was subtitled as “a farce about sexual politics” to make the motive obvious. Gender relationships are explored in a critical perspective and presented to the audience for examination. Her “Top Girls” is yet another play that “deals with women’s losing their humanity in order to attain power in a male-dominated environment"(Britannica, p.1). It not only had a feminist theme but also had an all female-cast, and a technical representation of these characters to problematize gender roles. Performance was an effect used to establish the discourse and make gender representations subversive. As feminism explores the relationship between gender, power, language and discourse, performance is a more effective means of doing it and enacting identities, thereby taking on the political features. ““… What I feel is quite strongly a feminist position and that inevitably comes in to what I write. However, that’s quite different from somebody who is a feminist using writing to advance that position” (Churchill, p.10). Feminism has been defined as an “organized movement which promotes equality for men and women in political, economic and social spheres. Feminists believe that women are oppressed simple due to their sex based on the dominant ideology of patriarchy” and Churchill believed in this. An example of this is her play Mad Forest, an effort to capture the effects of the Romanian Revolution on the oppressed people. The play was based on a real study conducted using a group of students from the London School of Drama to Bucharest to study the effects of the revolution of the Romanian people; the play presents the chaotic aftermath of the Romanian Revolution and the endurance suffered by the oppressed or the powerless sections of the society. Churchill has used theatre as a media rather than a work of art, weakening the border line between artistic and political representations. The play also aims at empowering people to rise against oppression, which is nothing but politicizing the issue. The political discourse that the play engages in encourages radical change in society Conclusion: Art had donned didactic roles ever since its early period having had debates on its purpose and use. Some supported its aesthetic end and others highlighted its moral responsibility towards society. Literary theory over the ages has captured the shift in ideas and approaches to literature. Theatre being one of the foremost components of art, also had never been free of such disputes. It has been of various uses to people according to their ideologies and requirement. Religious, psychological and sociological features of theatre had been explored by many and its political version has been researched of recent. Political theatre, an exclusive form of its political version, is used to express opinions and influence public opinion on political and social issues of contemporary importance. For example, street theatre is used as a means of propaganda by many and there are certainly evidence that these have played a crucial role in creating awareness and in making nations politically free. However, with the rise of modern theories, politicizing issues has become a part of any modern literature and art, not offering any exemptions to theatre. In fact, the latter is the one which had been more powerful in its political form. Each performance is political as it engages in discourse on one or the other issue of social, cultural, political significance. Practitioners use theatre performances to make the audience think and act. Theatre has become a public forum for discussion and the practitioners use various techniques to make this possible. Language has become political and the performances are no more just for art but are into social arena and reality. After all, theatres are the extensions of the society in miniature, where language is used to explore issues. References Brecht, B. (1940, 1964). Short description of a new technique of acting which produces an alienation effect. In J.Willett (Ed.). Brecht on theatre: the development of an aesthetic, (pp. 136-147). New York: Hill & Wang. Britannica (2009). Caryl Churchill. Retrieved 04 December, 2009, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/117251/Caryl-Churchill Huxley, M., & Witts, Noel. (1996). The twentieth-century performance reader. London: Routledge. Auslander, P. (1987). Toward a concept of the political in postmodern theatre. Theatre Journal, 39 (1), pp. 20-34. Read More