A Trip to the Theatre - Essay Example

Client An Assessment of Four Plays The way in which theatre is created can be a fascinating study of emotional context as compared to production value. In seeing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Warhorse in the West End, and Billy Elliot, I had the opportunity to see a variety of different theatres utilized in differing production structures. As well, the variety of films allowed me to explore various emotional, political, and philosophical concepts that inspired further thought after the plays were done. A play is a wonderful thing, and during the course of these four productions, I found myself thinking about the nature of that form of literature and the overall intent of theatre. On February 13th, 2010, I attended a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Rose Theatre in London. The cast included Dame Judi Dentch, someone I was familiar with from her role in Casino Royale as the supervisor of James Bond. Her portrayal of Titania was as expected as she is considered a great actress on an international level. The play was a complex romp of interwoven stories that all lead to a feeling of a “moral to the story” type of ending where all ends well as is common in the comedies of Shakespeare. This production was exceptional and the historic venue gave a greater ambiance to the overall experience. However, the play as I understand it is about being young and in love. This version seems heavy in the way that it has been portrayed, giving a younger audience little to relate to within the Client Last Name 2 story. The portrayal of Puck was charming, and I loved how he got himself in trouble all the time, but it was difficult to see the interactions of the humor with the production style. As I listened intently to the now difficult language of Shakespearian theatre, I found that the plot was as well difficult to follow since it did not come across as light hearted. As I watched the interactions and worked to follow the storyline, I found that this heavy, dramatic production of a play that was intended to not hold such depth weighed the story down so that I could not connect easily to the characters. On an intellectual level, I found that the play was interesting in the commentary it made on the nature of love and the many aspects that help to define the emotion. As the characters interacted with one another, I found that from a practical point of view the nature of jealousy and obsession were clearly shown as having an adverse consequence. The manipulations of the characters revealed the way in which love subverts the ethical standards of an individual. I found that I understood some of my own experiences as they were shown through the eyes of the characters from this play. The philosophy of love was suggested to be something that can change the very nature of an individual, as seen by the metaphorical transformation of Bottom into a donkey. Love is an emotion that creates change. The play was held in the round, with the audience seated around the stage. This allowed for a variety of experiences that would not be the same for each member of the audience. Actions and reactions are seen from different vantage points. However, it also allowed for a more natural way for the actors to move as they were not locked to the concept of a front and back of the stage. All angles of the stage could be used to create a different type of experience to the traditional type of theatre setting. I enjoyed this type of setting very much, as it took the theatre into a more Client Last Name 3 casual atmosphere, while maintaining the dignity and production quality. The audience becomes integrated in a different way as the veil between the audience and the actors is somewhat lifted. The production of Every Good Boy Deserves Favour was both impressive and moving. I found the story of the mental hospital with the oppression of the Soviet Government interesting and engaging. I felt for the main character as he struggled with the moral dilemma of admitting a lie in order to gain his freedom. The lie of his own mental disability causing his dissidence would give him freedom from his constraint, but the question that plagued him was whether he should give this lie that would then trap him into going against his conscience. The subject of truth and freedom was explored even as it contrasted with Alexander’s roommate who was truly mentally diseased with schizophrenia. I felt the pain of wanting to go home, but not wanting to live the lie poignantly portrayed and I understood something of this opposing emotional balance. The political commentary of the play was interesting to watch as the players worked to balance their ethical beliefs against the obvious oppressions that they faced. The moral question of how one goes along with a ruse in order to gain freedom, compared to the honor that is attached to not giving in provides a fertile literary source for a philosophical discussion within the play. I found myself questioning how I would handle such an incarceration and choice, and whether I could withstand the pressure that was put on me. I felt very engaged in the moral questions that were asked by the play. As the contrast was made between the roommates, as the one struggled with pressure from the government, and the other struggled with real mental illness, I could feel a similarity in their plights. They were both under an oppressive force that they were trying to resist. The theatre production of the play was lavish with a great deal of modern technical Client Last Name 4 aspects. The National Theater in London is very large and has speakers to amplify the sound to the audience. The audience sits at three levels and the theatre holds a very large audience making such enhancements necessary. The play uses a full orchestra as the schizophrenic character believes himself to be conducting during his delusions, which requires a huge amount of production in order to put on the play. I was impressed by how much effort was put into the technical aspects of the production and how this large venue could have such a large audience, but still provide a quality theatre experience. The third play that I wish to discuss is based on a children’s book and required innovative and fascinating concepts of staging to bring it to life. Warhorse in the West End is a unique journey of a horse and the child owner who wishes to reunite with his beloved animal. I felt the highly charged emotions of this play more keenly than I did in any of the other plays. The basic love of a child connects on a deep level to most people, and I was certainly not immune to this emotional exploration. As a child I had a pet that I had to give up, so I know the pain and the yearning that was felt by Albert as he wishes for his horse, Joey, to back with him. The complexity of events that happen to create a hero’s journey for both the horse and for Albert is a reminder of childhood journeys of the mind that can create epic tales that last throughout a day of play. The context of the war and the effect it has on children is a central theme to the play. I understood this conflict of innocence with corruption and felt that the play gave a solid foundation for the theme. Children find playgrounds in any scenario, and to see the hard issue of war addressed from a loss that is more keenly understood from a child’s point of view. This allows adults to relate to the narrowed down consequences of the action of war. I found myself Client Last Name 5 conducting an internal debate on the nature of war and its necessity. The charm of the created puppet horse also lent itself to examining the industrialization of war as compared to the emotional impact. This play had a wealth of conflicts that could be brought into the examination of the political and philosophical natures of war. The play was conducted in a traditional stage to audience setting, but with no speakers. The setting was more intimate than was found in the National Theater. The New London Theater allowed for the audience to immerse itself in the production, without technical distractions, despite the puppeteering aspect. I found the arrangement of the theatre to have no distracting influences that knocked my experience out of the universe that was created by the production. Billy Elliot is an amazing story that discusses the concept of family expectations when balanced against personal desires. As Billy discovers that he has a passion for dance, he finds that he has to face the conflict that this will bring to his already struggling family. The relationship that he has with his father is challenged when he uses the money he is given for boxing for a pursuit that his father does not deem appropriate. The story reflects the classic conflict between a father and son. As the son finds a path that the father didn’t follow, the father feels both threatened and fearful of what that path will yield. This is back dropped by the harsh setting of a working class family in the middle of a strike during the 1980’s. A strike can be a dangerous situation for a family as they struggle to maintain their lives while trying to assert they political views into their employment situation. As reflected by the scab worker that finally gives Billy enough money to go to his audition, his final step in his journey that will lead to the next journey beyond the frame of the play, the unity of the issue of survival balanced against belief is explored. Client Last Name 6 In comparing the movie Billy Elliot to the play, one can see how film has the advantage of creating larger settings that evoke more realism into the work. However, the emotional context of the play is more prevalent when it is seen in that format. As the reality of the scenery is broken into stage sets, the turmoil of the characters becomes the center of the literary context. A film can show more than a play, but the intimacy of a play revolves around the ability of the harmony of the words and the skill of the actors to convey the emotions. The characters in Billy Elliot are not supported by reality of the set, so they must have more context to the way in which they give over to their message. The production of Billy Elliot successfully gave to its audience the central themes that were intended to evoke the responses that seemed to be intended by the writer. While the setting of the turmoil of the political environment became very present in the movie, this presence did not overtake the same thrust in the play. The experiences of the actors was more at the fore front. According to Alter (1991), “The comedian is the all there is in theater. A performance can do away with everything else. The actor is the flesh of the show, the pleasure of the audience” (p. 41). While this is not strictly the case, it does suggest the strength of the work in a play is in the performance of the actor, not in the production of the play as a whole. It is the emotional connection and the intellectual commentary that is the star of the play as it is given over to the audience by the actor. In the process of developing this literary form, the emotional context of the theme is at the forefront and a clear, if sometimes shadowed message, is relayed by the writer through his words as they are performed by the actor. In the four plays I have discussed here, I saw how clearly good acting and quality production can profoundly affect an audience. I was changed from the journey I took in discovering these plays. Client Last Name 7 Works Cited Alter, Jean. A Sociosemiotic Theory of Theatre. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990. Read More