THEATRE STUDIES THE BASICS This is an essential read for anyone setting out to consider the thrilling world of live theatre, in-depth and for the first time. Introducing you to all the aspects of drama and theatrical perfor- mance from the theoretical to the practical, you will be guided through the following topics and more: dramatic genres, from tragedy to political documentary theories of performance the history of the theatre in the West acting, directing and scenography the audience. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyr- annus to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s controversial Behzti, and including chapter summaries and pointers to further reading, Theatre Studies: The Basics has all you need to get your studies off to a flying start. Robert Leach is the Drama Pathway Leader at the University of Cumbria. He has published widely and his books include Makers of Modern Theatre (Routledge, 2004) and Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre (2006). Also available from Routledge FIFTY KEY THEATRE DIRECTORS EDITED BY SHOMIT MITTER AND MARIA SHEVTSOVA 0-415-18732-X FIFTY CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS (2ND EDITION) EDITED BY MARTHA BREMSER AND IAN BRAMLEY 0-415-10364-9 WHO’S WHO IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD THEATRE EDITED BY DANIEL MEYER-DINKEGRA¨FE 0-415-14162-1 THEATRE STUDIES THE BASICS robert leach First published 2008 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada byRoutledge 270MadisonAve,NewYork,NY10016 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” #2008RobertLeach All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Theatre studies : the basics / Robert Leach. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Drama. 2. Theater. I. Title. PN1655.L352008 792–dc22 2007047893 ISBN 0-203-92694-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10:0-415-42638-3(hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-42639-1 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-92694-3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-42638-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-42639-8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-92694-9 (ebk) CONTENTS List of boxes viii Preface ix 1 Performance 1 Playing Performance, performative, performativity All the world’s a stage Reading performance Performance and identity Summary Further reading 2 The text 18 Text and texts Playwrights and writers of plays The playtext Dramatic structures Devising Summary Further reading vi contents 3 Dramatic form 38 Tragedy Comedy Tragicomedy Epic Documentary and agitprop Farce Melodrama The well-made play Dramatic form deconstructed Summary Further reading 4 Theatre and history 65 The necessity of history Historical evidence Drama and society Summary Further reading 5 Acting 93 A body in space The paradox of acting Realism in acting Creativity and tradition Alienation Acting in the holy theatre The mastery of movement Speaking a text Summary Further reading 6 Directing 118 Historical The great directors The contemporary director First tasks Before rehearsals Rehearsals contents vii The last lap Summary Further reading 7 Scenography 146 Theatre architecture Stage design On stage LX – stage lighting Running the show Theatre beyond theatre Summary Further reading 8 The audience 165 The drama’s patrons The horizon of expectation The theatrical event Conventions Audience and performance Summary Further reading Glossary 180 Bibliography 185 Index 187 BOXES 1.1 Performance studies 1.2 Appearance and reality 2.1 The play within the play 3.1 Two Oedipuses 3.2 Ritual and ceremony 4.1 King Johan: rewriting history 4.2 Twelfth Night: Shakespeare and gender 4.3 Cathleen ni Houlihan: theatre and nation 4.4 The Mahabharata: intercultural performance 4.5 Bezhti: dishonour 5.1 Clothes and costumes 5.2 The psychological gesture 5.3 The street scene 6.1 The Storming of the Winter Palace 6.2 Film director, stage director 7.1 Total theatres 7.2 The box set 7.3 A rough guide to running a theatre performance 8.1 Hiss the villain 8.2 Forum theatre 8.3 The gaze PREFACE In the age of iPods and mobile phone cameras, downloads and broadband, when certainly cinema and perhaps even television are beginning to seem passe´, what business has that old impostor, live theatre, doing clamouring for our attention? It’s alive, that’s what! Perhaps the theatre has never been more necessary than today, when it stands so firmly against the rush into recorded media. It is true that more and more students want to study it, to do it, to present it. An informal festival like the Edinburgh Fringe exhibits many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of groups of people wanting to make live theatre. Which is justification enough for a book like this. This book tries to treat the basics of modern theatre, to raise at least some contemporary ideas, problems, concerns, but the subject is so colossal it cannot claim the last word even on the basics. Some of its limitations are obvious. It only attempts to address issues in the theatre of the West. There is a vast theatre culture beyond the West, in India, China, Indonesia, all over Africa and among all sorts of people, which is not even mentioned in this book. A line had to be drawn somewhere. The book aims to air ideas about Western modern theatre, to explain, to illustrate, to stimulate. Its basic premise is that theatre and drama offer a unique combination of thinking and doing, and that anybody who tries to practise it, at however simple a level, x preface will gain by it. This book tries to suggest the links between theory and practice (which explains why some chapters move from the very theoretical suddenly into the absolutely hands-on practical). There is an implicit belief in the integration of theory and practice which underlies everything that is written here. Perhaps the link is in the explorations and references to theatre practitioners – actors, playwrights, stage designers, directors – from the past and the present, whose thoughts and achievements this book so frequently draws on. It is the author’s hope that the book may open a few doors, perhaps suggest ways to think about its subject, and stir the reader to go out and get involved. That would be a mark of its success. Finally, I would like to thank Rosie Waters, David Avital and Aimee Foy, challenging and supportive editors, John Topping, a challenging and supportive colleague; all my students, past and present, who have endlessly challenged and supported me; and Joy Parker, whose steadfastness and friendliness has kept me going through it all. R. L. 1 PERFORMANCE PLAYING Peter Brook (b. 1925) ends his well-known book, The Empty Space, with the enigmatic sentence: ‘A play is play.’ And ‘play’ is a good place to begin (as well as end) any consideration of perfor- mance, for play is something we have all experienced, and it has surprising affinities with drama and theatre. Perhaps the first thing to say about play is that it is the opposite of work. Whereas work takes place at specified times, in a parti- cular place, and the worker’s identity is fixed – she or he is a plumber, a librarian, a politician – play takes place at any time, anywhere, and enables the person playing to be whoever they want to be – a fireman, a footballer, a king or a queen. Their identity is not fixed. Moreover, at work, one has tools – a compu- ter, a screwdriver, a notebook and pencil – whereas one can play with anything – mud, a saucepan lid, mummy’s shoes. Indeed, one may ask: are toys really necessary? Play has been divided into three ‘types’ – active play (running about, tumbling over, etc.), playing with things (mud, saucepan lids, etc.), and playing with others (chasing, playing schools or hospitals, etc.). Each of these is a kind of performance because each involves a measure of pretending, a ‘magic if’ which enables the player to 2 performance enter a world of make-believe. And though she is only ‘play-acting’ here, the play-acting is still absorbing enough to arouse genuine emotions. Children playing in a playground may be seen laughing ‘for real’, crying ‘for real’, really losing their tempers – in play. Play opens up possibilities, and enables us to explore situations of difficulty, without any ‘real life’ consequences. It is perhaps a training for the imagination. When we have to cope with cops or robbers, or mummies or daddies, in play, we are practising life, learning how to survive. We experience deep emotions and the reality of relationships in play, but at the back of our minds, we know we are safe. We can escape – stop the game – when we want to. We don’t play ‘in order to’ do anything, such as increase our productivity, impress our bank manager, placate our parent. We play ‘for fun’. And therein lies the problem of play, for many in authority see playing as frivolous, a waste of time and energy, even wicked. ‘The devil makes work for idle hands,’ says the old saw. Plato (427–347 BCE) wanted to ban play – and the theatre – from his ideal Republic. The seventeenth-century Puritans can- celled Christmas and closed the theatres.