Reflection Journal 1 (13/8/12)

Reflection Journal 1 (13 Aug 2012)

Introductory lesson of the 20th Century Theatre. (1900-2000). Theatre of the 20th century was heavily influenced by global events that happened even before the 1900, probably in the late 1800s. 'ism's include Communism, Marxism, Nationalism, Imperialism, Impressionism, surrealism, Inter-culturalism, dadaism, etc. Perhaps the biggest event that triggers these 'ism's might be the world wars. Therefore, there was a development or dynamic shifts in the theatre scene. There was a raised awareness of individualism, which moved away from collective thinking, that resulted in change of values spiritually, culturally, socially and politically. People started to develop their own personal ideas and perspectives and brought it into theatre life.


Avant Garde (French for Advance Guard)
More than just a term for using in battle, it is now used in the arts, politics and culture. It not only taps on human consciousness but also the unconscious mind. The undiscovered, unknown human psyche. New thinkers such as Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski. They wanted to deviate from the mainstream cultural and philosophical ideas, hence a change in their perspective and practice in theatre.


Antonin Artaud - one of the prominent theatre directors who saw that theatre should not be theatre itself, and instead be lived out. Cast out the barrier, veil of the real life and theatrical life.

Antonin Artaud wrote, ‘I have not become a poet or an actor in order to write or recite poems, but to live them. I read a poem not to milk applause but to feel the bodies of men and women – and I mean their bodies – throb and quiver in harmony with mine.’ – (1976, vol 173)

It was interesting but yet contradicting to read this because how can a poet not write and recite poems? How can theatre be anti-theatre of itself? He loves to write but he says writing is filth (Pg xxiii) This great theatre director, poet or whatever you may call him as, impacted many dramatists and theatre directors such as Beckett, Weiss, Barrault, Brook, Grotowski etc. Some of the theatre companies such as Living theatre, Open theatre, Bread and Puppet theatre, Theatre du soleil all had taces of Artaudian influences.

Grotowski - Was initially interested in oriental theatre, especially in the techniques of Indian theatre, Yoga and Kathakali. But he came to realise that the techniques of indian theatre were useless and even affected his performer's performance. His idea of theatre is laboratory, not conservatory and it was never about virtuosity. He felt that the perfect moment of signs and actions on stage is not a practiced one, in fact, it should be spontaneous and improvised. This is one of the reasons why he dispose the concepts of Indian theatre. 

Bertolt Brecht - developed theatre to counter fascism, feminism and Marxism. He loved to listen and use Chinese opera as the basis of his theatrical practice. Back then, Mandarin language in Chinese opera were used in the Mongol's reign in China to spread political messages, which the Mongols do not understand. In the end, the Mongols were overthrown. It was where asian culture and the theatre impacted on the western. Brecht, like Artaud, also have this concept of the magic 'IF' taken away and live out the theatre.

Other than that, defamiliarization is another central concept of 20th century theatre. It attempts to make speech or actions unfamiliar, or foreign to the audience. They may be once familiar with these things but the reason behind defamiliarization is to create some sort of curiosity, alertness, awareness, stir up emotions, activate the spirit of energy.

'Future of Theatre is in Philosophical' (Brecht, 1929)      

I agree with Brecht simply because when we are doing theatre, we are free to become who we want, what we want, and how we want. Life is real and has many deep meanings that we want to exlpore freely and this is where theatre plays a huge part. Real life has its own boundaries but theatre provides a platform for us to safely imagine and be free in our thoughts. When great events such as the World Wars happen, we are restricted to say many things. But because theatre is a tool for us to express our thinking, it engages us into deep thoughts. Deep draws out the deep within and we need not suppress it. It is not just acting skills, staging, techniques or history of theatre, but it is now about hard truths, challenging conventions, discovering the unknown, personal growth and making the world a better place to live in. Because we want a better place to live in, we need philosophy to enter into the realms of the imaginary world and in theatre.

Hence, the 'ism' in theatre today has to be on a constant debate. The implications have constructed what theatre is today and it is at its highest point. Craig indicated that we (as in dramatists, performers etc.) are in submission to our superiors, who takes control of the whole political system. We are not 'thinking for ourselves but under the commands of our government and not of our masters.' (Pg 20, 1993) Colonialism plays a part in this thinking. Rather than continuing the spirit of their ancestors or historical line, artists are now being 'forced' to think under this new compulsion (nationalism, colonialism, imperialism etc.)

Bibliography

van Dijk, M., ed. (2001) New essays on Brecht = Neue Versuche über BrechtRetrieved from http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/German/German-idx?type=turn&entity=German.BrechtYearbook026.p0289&id=German.BrechtYearbook026&isize=text

Bharuch, R. (1993) Theatre and the World: Performances and the Politics of culture. London & New York: Routledge.