MASARYK UNIVERSITY OF BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Bachelor thesis Brno 2014 Tomáš Kvítek Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and The Royal Hunt of the Sun Bachelor Thesis Brno 2014 Supervisor: Written by: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Tomáš Kvítek 2 Anotace Hlavním záměrem této bakalářské práce je analyzovat postavy Wolfganga Mozarta, Antonia Salieriho a Francisca Pizarra ve dvou divadelních hrách významného anglického dramatika a scénáristy Petera Shaffera, jehož díla Amadeus a Královský Hon na Slunce významně přispěly do britského kulturního dědictví. Úvodní část představuje Petera Shaffera v kontextu postmoderního britského divadla, a následně zmiňuje hry, které byly adaptovány pro české divadlo. Primárně však tato práce zkoumá osobnostní charakteristiky hlavních protagonistů, jejich postoje a myšlenky z hlediska jejich sociálního a kulturního zázemí. Práce také kriticky nahlíží na dobu imperialismu z hlediska postmodernismu v kontextu těchto her. Annotation The main objectives of this thesis is to analyse the characters of Wolfgang Mozart, Antonio Salieri and Fancisco Pizarro in two plays written by an eminent English playwright and screenwriter Peter Shaffer whose masterpieces Amadeus and The Royal Hunt of The Sun have significantly contributed to British cultural heritage. The introductory part places Peter Shaffer in the context of post-modern British theatre and subsequently, introduces those of his plays that have been adapted for Czech theatres. Primarily, however, it examines the protagonists’ personal characteristics, their attitudes and thoughts within a perception of their social and cultural background. It also conducts a critical look into the era of imperialism from the perspective of post-modernism within the context of the plays. Klíčová slova Divadlo postmodernismu, české divadlo, Amadeus, fikce, ironie, dialog, průměrnost, postava Salieriho, postava Mozarta, zrada, žárlivost, zavedená etiketa, rivalita, touha, společnost, individualismus, kolektivismus, význam Boha, kontext, kolonialismus, imperialismus Key words Postmodern theatre, Czech theatre, Amadeus, fiction, irony, dialogue, mediocrity, character of Salieri, character of Mozart, betrayal, jealousy, well-established etiquette, rivalry, desire, society, individualism, collectivism, meaning of God, context, colonialism, imperialism 3 Declaration Hereby I declare that I have compiled this thesis on my own and all the sources of information used in the thesis are listed in the references. Brno, 19 April 2014 ……………………………… Tomáš Kvítek 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank to my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for her valuable comments, inspiring and positive attitude. 5 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . 7 1.1. Introduction to Peter Shaffer . 7 1.2. The plays in the context of postmodern British theatre . 8 1.3. Peter Shaffer in the context of the Czech theatre . 12 2. Introduction to Amadeus . 14 2.1. Facts and fiction in Amadeus . 14 2.2. What the author says about the play . 15 3. The meaning of irony in Amadeus . 16 4. The role of dialogue in Amadeus . 18 5. The characters of Salieri and Mozart . 20 6. The role of dual male characters . 24 7. The social issue and religion . 28 7.1. The characters in the context of a modern society . 31 7.2. High and low-context society . 33 7.3. The setting into unfamiliar environment . 36 7.4. The meaning of God . 38 8. The plays in the context of postmodernism . 41 8.1. The postmodern view of cultural dominance . 41 8.2. The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Joseph Conrad’s Marlow . 42 8.3. The colonizers versus the colonized . 43 8.4. The role of the hero . 45 8.5. Shaffer’s plays in the context of Edward Said’s critical thinking . 46 9. Conclusion . 50 Notes . 53 Works cited . 54 Abstract . 55 6 1. Introduction This thesis tries to conduct a research into two plays by the British postmodern playwright Peter Shaffer Amadeus and The Royal Hunt of the Sun. It especially focuses on analysing the characteristic features and possible motifs of the main protagonists, and it further integrates the plays into the concept of postmodernism with the perspective of sovereignty and dominance of one culture over other cultures. Whereas many theatre-conscious people are familiar with the play Amadeus, which has gained popularity owing to the film adaptation by the director Milos Forman, only some know the name which stands behind this masterpiece. For the purpose of the contextual comprehension I have decided to include a brief biographical survey of the playwright’s life and career in my paper. 1.1. Introduction to Peter Shaffer Peter Shaffer is still an active English playwright and screenwriter of numerous award- winning plays, several of which have been filmed. He is an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed writer of contemporary British theatre. His work has been consistently performed over fifty years on commercial, metropolitan, professional and amateur stages worldwide. Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in 1926 in Liverpool as a twin to his brother, playwright Anthony Shaffer. Educated in Liverpool and later in London he subsequently gained a scholarship to Trinity College in Cambridge, where he studied history. During the Second World War he spent three years working at a coal mine and this experience gave him “enormous sympathy and feeling of outrage in contemplating how a lot of people had to spend their lives” (Kavanagh 5). Simultaneously he embarked on a commencing career as a writer of detective stories together with his brother, the first of the three novels The Woman in the Wardrobe, published in 1951 under a pseudonym ‘Peter Anthony’. Asked later why he was reluctant to publish the story under his real name Peter Shaffer responded: “I had a sense that I wasn't going to continue as a detective writer [...] I just felt that I would rather reserve whatever writing I did of a more serious nature for my own name” (Kavanagh 5). The following year Shaffer left England to live and work in New York where he seemed to be drifting from one job to another including a salesman in a department store, a bookseller and a librarian in the New York Public Library. Feeling a little hopelessly, Shaffer was gaining 7 courage to start a career as a full-time writer. He had to, however, overcome his father’s conviction that proper work involved a serious profession and writing was considered something like an interest. As a result Shaffer commented: “I denied myself the pleasure of writing plays for a very long time” (Kavanagh 5). Although in no interview has Shaffer admitted the resentment about his father’s attitude, it might be assumed that the motif of dominant fathers that impose their visions on their adolescent sons that appears in his plays (in the characters including Stanley Harrington, Frank Strang and Leopold Mozart) has its origins here. When he returned back to England in 1954 he began to work for the music publishers Boosey and Hawkes. By then he, however had realized that if did not commence a career as a writer immediately he would never do. He resigned his job and decided to “live now on my literary wits” (Kavanagh 6). Living on small money as a literary critic and allowance from his father, he began to write in earnest and soon was rewarded for his efforts by the sale of his television play The Salty Land to ITV. Within following two years he got his another detective novel published and sold his plays to BBC television and radio. This period in Shaffer’s life can be regarded as time when his career as a playwright was in progress. 1.2. The plays in the context of postmodern British theatre This part of my thesis introduces Peter Shaffer in the context of British post-modern theatre. A suitable source elaborating this topic appears to be the publication Peter Shaffer: Theatre and Drama by Madeleine MacMurraugh-Kavanagh who had the chance the meet the author personally in London in autumn 1996 and with whom she spared the time on series of interviews discussing his work (xiii). The author highlights Shaffer’s control over dramatic dialogue and a verbal skilfulness that remained one of his stylistic features. His dramatic plot “satisfies the hunger for crafted dialogue that leaves his audience craving for more” (Kavanagh1). According to the author, Shaffer’s contribution to the contemporary theatre lies mainly in his insistence to follow the principles of well-made play where structure and development are central concerns of the writer. His plays are, in addition, upgraded with an integration of musical sensibility, which the playwright reveals in a statement “I like plays to be like fugues – all the themes should come together in the end” (Kavanagh 2). 8 Another dramatic technique that pleases the audience in theatres is Shaffer’s ability to weave a convincing story that involves the audience in dramatic suspense, human identification and complexity of conflicts. The playwright is fully aware that story-telling is central to the dramatist's art, stating “It is my object to tell tales; to conjure up the spectres of horror and happiness [...] to perturb and make gasp: to please and make laugh: to surprise” (Kavanagh 2). It is, therefore, the grip of the audience that serves with the artistic experience of unforgettable performance. Furthermore, the integration of satire and irony appears natural to Shaffer’s style, which I develop later in my thesis. All these aspects of Shaffer’s dramatic narration seem to contribute to the fact that his writings move easily between theatre, paper edition, cinema and television as media the author respects automatically. Shaffer’s story-telling is, however, rejecting easy and comfortable expectations the audiences may have from his work and confuses their preconceptions. He takes a dramatic risk, and challenges their attitudes with unexpected dramatic moments or rather unfamiliar themes.