Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 311
production hold our attention throughout? Did our
involvement with the action increase during the play,
or did we feel a letdown after the intermission? Did we
accept the actors as the characters they were playing, or
were we uncomfortably aware they were simply “acting”
their parts rather than embodying their roles?
We do not need to be in a theatre to engage deeply
with a play. The printed text can also prompt important
questions. That play the teacher or director asked you to
read yesterday: Did it “get to” you? Could you follow the
story? Were you interested in the characters? Did it move
you emotionally or stimulate you intellectually? Did it
move you to tears or laughter? Did it make you want to
take action politically? Why? Why not? Could you visualize
its actions, its settings, its impact on a theatre audience?
Could you imagine casting it with actors you have
seen on stage or screen? Were there aspects of the play
you thought could be changed for the better?
When you address any of those sorts of questions
about a performance or a play text, you are engaging in
dramatic analysis. Some people do this for a living. A
person who does so publicly, explaining to readers or
listeners his or her reactions to a play or a play performance,
is a creator of dramatic criticism and is called a
drama critic.
Dramatic analysis is the informed, articulate, and communicative
response of the critic or reviewer to what he or
she has seen in the theatre. It can appear as a production
review in a newspaper, blog, periodical, or on the radio; as
a feature newspaper or magazine article about individual
theatre artists or companies; as an essay in a scholarly book
about dramatic literature, history, or theory; or simply as a
class discussion or chat at a social gathering in a home or
restaurant after the show. Sharing your post-performance
responses to a theatre experience can provide, in fact,
some of the most illuminating discussions life can offer.
Critical Perspectives
What makes a play particularly successful? What gives a
theatrical production significance and impact, and what
makes it unforgettable? What should we be looking for
when we read a play or see a dramatic production?
Of course, we have complete freedom in making up
our minds. As audience members, we have the privilege
of thinking what we wish and responding as we will. But
five perspectives can be particularly useful in helping
us focus our response to any individual theatrical event:
the play’s social significance, human or personal significance,
artistic quality, theatrical expression, and capacity
to entertain.
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
Theatre, as we have seen throughout this book, is always
tied to its culture. Sometimes this relationship is very
direct, as when a theatre has been directly created or sustained
by governments and ruling elites. The Greek theatre
of the fifth century B.C. was a creation of the state;
the medieval theatre was generated by the church, the
township, and the municipal craft guilds; and the theatre
of the Royal era was a direct extension of monarchical
power. Even in modern times, government often serves
as sponsor or silent benefactor of the theatre.
But the intellectual ties between a theatre and its culture
extend well beyond politics. Thematically, the theatre
has at one time or another served as an arena for the
discussion of every social issue imaginable. In modern
times, the theatre has approached issues such as alcoholism,
gay rights, overseas labor, venereal disease, prostitution,
public education, racial prejudice, health care
reform, capital punishment, overseas labor, thought control,
prison reform, political assassination, civil equality,
political corruption, police brutality, and war crimes.
The best of these productions have presented the issues
in all of their complexity and have proffered solutions
not as dogma but as food for thought. Great theatre has
never sought to purvey pure propaganda, after all. It asks
profound questions rather than gives pat answers.
The playwright is not necessarily brighter than the
audience or even better informed. The playwright and
her or his collaborators, however, may be able to focus
public debate, stimulate dialogue, and turn public attention
and compassion toward social injustices. The theatre
artist traditionally is something of a nonconformist;
the artist’s point of view is generally out of the social
mainstream, and her or his perspective is of necessity
somewhat unusual. Therefore, the theatre is in a strong
position to force and focus public confrontation with
social issues, and at its best it succeeds in putting members
of the audience in touch with their own thoughts and
feelings about those issues.
HUMAN SIGNIFICANCE
While cultural and political themes help give the theatre
its power, more personal qualities characterize a great
play as well. The theatre is a highly individual art, in
part because it stems from the unique perspectives of its
artists. The greatest plays, in fact, transcend social and
political issues to confront the hopes, concerns, and conflicts
faced by all humankind: personal identity, courage,
compassion, fantasy versus practicality, kindness versus