THE HISTORY OF THEATRE3

Today, two groups, Tristan and Hugo and Silvana and James, performed their interpretation of the first few pages of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Each group contextualised the play and made it relevant for contemporary youth.

In today's lesson, we split into groups of 2, to work on duologue from Waiting for Godot. Tristan and Hugo worked together, while Silvana and James worked on theirs. Each group were tasked with contextualising the play and to make it relevant for contemporary youth.

Tristan and Hugo

Tristan and Hugo experimented with accents and stuck to the Russian accent at the end. This portrayed a sense of comradeship and I interpreted it as two brothers in the army together. There were specific lines that stuck out which anchored this, such as, "crawling around in the mud". This is relevant to today as there are wars going on in the world.

Silvana and James

Silvana and James were initially looking at doing the play in the style of Steven Berkoff but eventually went to the style of Stanislavski but they kept the East London accent which they were using with Berkoff. This made the piece appear to be set in the cobbled streets of London outside a bar or pub. I interpreted that Godot was the bar owner who they were waiting for. This also lead to the idea of poverty and homelessness which is more relevant than ever right now due to the high unemployment rate from the global pandemic.

THE HISTORY OF THEATRE2

SAMUEL BECKETT (1906 - 1989)

Novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet.

Irish, resident of Paris for most of his life, wrote in both English and French

Style: black comedy (tragicomedy)

Brought up in Dublin, Beckett was brought with a sports influence (later inspiring him to play first-class cricket for his university). His family were involved with the Anglican Church of Ireland. He studied modern literature at Trinity College, Dublin. He then went on to study French, Italian and English (at the same college) between 1923 and 1927. Beckett graduated with a BA and, after teaching briefly at Campbell College in Belfast, took up the post of 'lecteur d'anglaisat' (English Lecturer) at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris from November 1928 to 1930. While there, he was introduced to renowned Irish author James Joyce by Thomas MacGreevy, a poet and close confidant of Beckett who also worked there. His first work was with this writer, assisting him on writing 'Finnegans Wake'. In 1929, Beckett published his first work, a critical essay entitled "Dante... Bruno. Vico.. Joyce". 

THEATRE OF THE ABSURD

The theatre of the absurd was a short-lived yet significant theatrical movement, centred in Paris in the 1950s. Unusual in this instance was the absence of a single practitioner spearheading the form. Largely based on the philosophy of existentialism, absurdism was implemented by a small number of European playwrights. Common elements included illogical plots inhabited by characters who appeared out of harmony with their own existence. The typical playgoer had never seen anything like this on the stage before. The theatre of the absurd will be remembered in history for many things, the most significant of these being Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot, one of the great plays of the 20th century. Absurdism is commonly studied in senior high school and university drama and theatre courses. Below are the main conventions of the theatre of the absurd.

WAITING FOR GODOT

En attendant Godot was composed between 1947 and 1949. The French version, whose title actually means “while waiting for Godot,” was published in 1952 and opened in Paris on 5 January 1953, for a run of more than 300 performances. The English version was published in New York in 1954, played at the Arts Theatre in London the following year, and had its American première at Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami on 3 January 1956.

But almost every opening night of Godot has been marked by extreme reactions. The Paris production was hailed by many critics as a major dramatic breakthrough.

Godot is a masterpiece that will cause despair for men in general and playwrights in particular.

En attendant Godot was first performed in the small auditorium of the Théâtre de Babylone in Paris in February 1952. It was directed by Roger Blin, a respected French director in the years after World War II, who also played Pozzo.

"Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet near a tree. They converse on various topics and reveal that they are waiting there for a man named Godot. While they wait, two other men enter. Pozzo is on his way to the market to sell his slave, Lucky. He pauses for a while to converse with Vladimir and Estragon. Lucky entertains them by dancing and thinking, and Pozzo and Lucky leave.

After Pozzo and Lucky leave, a boy enters and tells Vladimir that he is a messenger from Godot. He tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming tonight, but that he will surely come tomorrow. Vladimir asks him some questions about Godot and the boy departs. After his departure, Vladimir and Estragon decide to leave, but they do not move as the curtain falls.

The next night, Vladimir and Estragon again meet near the tree to wait for Godot. Lucky and Pozzo enter again, but this time Pozzo is blind and Lucky is dumb. Pozzo does not remember meeting the two men the night before. They leave and Vladimir and Estragon continue to wait.

Shortly after, the boy enters and once again tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming. He insists that he did not speak to Vladimir yesterday. After he leaves, Estragon and Vladimir decide to leave, but again they do not move as the curtain falls, ending the play." (reference)

Like most of his work, Samuel Beckett originally composed Waiting for Godot in French. After studying the language as a student at Trinity College, Dublin, Beckett moved to Paris in 1928 at the age of 22, where he lived for much of his life. En attendant Godot premiered at Paris's tiny Théâtre de Babylone on 5 January 1953. Directed by Roger Blin, who also played Pozzo, the production starred Lucien Raimbourg as Vladimir, Pierre Latour as Estragon and Jean Martin as Lucky. (source)

Beckett's English language version of the play, which he translated himself, premiered at the Arts Theatre in London in 1955, directed by Peter Hall.

EXISTENTIALISM

Existentialism is a philosophical theory that people are free agents who have control over their choices and actions. Existentialists believe that society should not restrict an individual's life or actions and that these restrictions inhibit free will and the development of that person's potential.

Here are examples:

• You identify yourself as an athlete and have a promising career. Then you have a severe injury and your career is over. At that point, you would have an existential crisis because you have defined yourself as an athlete.
• If you are raised to believe that God rewards good people and punishes bad people, you may have a problem coping with injustice or cruel acts inflicted by bad people on good people.
• You see yourself as a parent so when the children leave the home, you are faced with a crisis in how you perceive yourself.
• You are a soldier and you have been told that you will be considered a hero by people you are trying to help. Then you find out that they hate you.
• You fall in love and want to live with that person forever. Then you discover that person does not feel the same way. (source)

THE HISTORY OF THEATRE

 GREEK THEATRE

• Created to celebrate religious festivals
• Chorus used to sing or chant a script
• Unkown if Thespis was a playwright, an actor or priest, but he has been credited for creating the "first actor" who broke away from the chorus, speaking to the chorus as an individual character. (THESPIANS)
• lead to the creation of character
• Masks were used

CREATION OF CHARACTER

• Aeschylus introduced the idea of using a second or third actor which allowed for interactions between characters
• Sophocles continued, using chorus less + creating more dialogue

ROMAN THEATRE

• Romans were influenced by Greek theatre
• "Play" comes from the Latin word "Ludus"
• Roman playwright Terence introduced subplots
• Less influenced by religion than greek theatre
• The audience was loud and rude
• Much of the plays were repetitive
• Actors developed a code which would tell the audience about a character just by looking at them

E.G.

• A black wig (the character was a young man)
• A red wig (the character was a slave)
• A yellow robe (the character was a woman)
• Yellow tassel (the character was a god)

MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN THEATRE

• After the fall of the roman empire, cities were abandoned, Europe became increasingly more agricultural
• Towns re-emerged
• Roman Catholic Church dominated religion, education and politics
• Theatre was "reborn" as "liturgical dramas" which were written in Latin and performed by priests or church members.
• Plots were taken from the Bible
• Performances held to celebrate religious festivals
• Later "vernacular dramas" were written in common language
• Plays were performed in town squares on wagon stages

Vernacular dramas were

• Mystery plays 0 based on the Old and new testament
• Miracle Plays - based on the lives of the saints
• Morality plays - taught a lesson through symbolic characters representing virtues or faults

COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE ITALY'S CONTRIBUTION

• required few props and no sets
• Didn't come from scripts but by scenarios which were an outline of a plot
• Actors improvised the dialogue with comedic stunts (called LAZZI)
• Actors wore half masks which indicated to the audience which character they were playing
• A Commedia troupe typically consisted of 10 to 12 members
• Plays were based on stock characters
• Pantalone, an elderly Venetian merchant (Mr Burns)
• Arlecchino, a servant who was a trouble maker (Bart)

RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION

• Italy - Further contributions to Theatre were made by Italians through the development of the proscenium.
• England - "apron stages" were used
• Audience members surrounded the stage, sometimes on the stage
• The emphasis in plays was on the dialogue.
• Later religious themes were replaced by themes of loyalty to the government
• Performers were organized into troupes or companies who developed a repertory of plays that they could perform
• The 16th century, England government swung back and forth from Catholicism to Protestantism
• Playwrights working to revive plays in Latin were believed to be supporting the Catholic church
• Playwrights working to revive Greek plays were seen at Protestants
• Depending on who was in power at the time, a playwright could be put to death for reviving the wrong play
• Many playwrights began to avoid the revival of classic work and wrote non-political and non-religious plays
• political problems in England made theatre dangerous
• Civil unrest could be inspired by performances
• Associated with the temptation to spend time watching performances
• Theatres were also associated with prostitution
• Added to the political problems, fear of the plague closed theatre
• These conditions lead to the licensing of acting companies which lead to more government control of theatre by state

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

• Shakespeare is the most notorious playwright in the history of theatre
• + Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson
• Shakespeare and his contemporaries encouraged a more natural style of speaking and acting. They also explored the theme of "good government"
• Shakespeare's characters were also more "human" with both positive and negative aspects of their character being explored
• During this time, players were still presented in open-air theatres or at times, presented in court

THE REPUBLIC AND THE RESTORATION

• In 1642, the English Parliament closed all English theatres
• English actors fled to France
• Theatre focused on the scenery
• Plays now included costume, dance and clever scenery
• Theatres also used proscenium style of theatre
• The french allowed women to perform on stage. (When theatre returned to England in 1660, women were allowed on stage there too. 

18th CENTURY THEATRE

• Became popular pastime
• During the first half of the 18th century, actors assumed poses and performed their lines in a 'sing-song' manner
• Dressed in modern fashionable clothes
• The rivalry between actresses at to who would wear the finest dress
• The pantomime was popular and promoted the development of spectacular staging, slapstick and SFX
• David Garrick - one of Britain's greatest actors. 1741 to 1776 - actor, producer and theatre manager. He wrote more than 20 plays and adapted many more
• Emphasized a more natural form of speaking and acting
• Naturalism 
• Banished the audience from the stage
• Plays began to be written about ordinary people
• Theatre became more commercial

19th CENTURY

• Gaslighting was first introduced in 1817 in London's Drury Lane Theatre
• By the end of the century, electrical lighting made its appearance on stage
• Elaborate mechanisms for changing scenery were developed, including fly-lofts, elevators, and revolving stages.
• MELODRAMA  - poor quality lighting + advances of set design lead to theatre-style emphasising action.
• Comes from "music drama" music created emotions on stage
• Actors performed their characters using gestures and body poses
• Simplified moral universe
• SFX was part of the performance: fires, explosions, and or earthquakes
• The villain poses a threat, the hero escapes, end with a happy ending
• During the first half of the century, playwrights were poorly paid
• THE ERA OF THEATRE GREATS - later half of the 19th century, 3 incredible playwrights changed theatre
• Began "realism"
• Would be as if the audience were watching a film (fourth wall)
• Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, Anton Chekho
• The serious and realistic drama that was being created in the second half of the 19th century challenged actors to learn new method of acting
• Stanislavski wrote several works on the art of acting, such as "An Actor Prepares"
• Following actors include Jack Nicholson, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Benicio Del Toro, Johnny Depp

20th CENTURY THEATRE

• The world changed (2 world wars, and much social and political upheaval)
• Realism movement in theatre. and the creation of naturalistic acting style developed)
• Many other theatre movements also began; one such theatre style was Theatre of the Absurd
• Theatre of the Absurd, which grew out of the post-modern movement which believed that life has no meaning, and there is no god
• This style of theatre grew out of Europe in the later 1940s

THE END

• the craft of acting is constantly changing in reaction to audiences' tastes, political and social movements, and advances in technology