Theorists to think about Ms Leah Stewart Unit 3A/B Drama Year 12

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008)CHCBE

Harold Pinter  Playwright of The Homecoming  English playwright, actor, director, screenwriter, poet, author, and political activist.  Wrote The Homecoming in 1964 after mixed reviews for his second full play The Caretaker  Writer of what is known as comedies of menace but in reality his plays are difficult to define.

Harold Pinter – how did he write?  Plays are identifiable by pauses that are filled with rage and emotion  Dialogue is often small talk that hides, but hints at the ‘real’ meaning.  Situations and relationships often are highly charged and revolve around struggle – for identity, for power, for territory.

“Pinter refuses to provide rational justifications for action, but offers existential glimpses of bizarre or terrible moments in people's lives.”

Themes and issues in The Homecoming  Alienation and loneliness – family living in the same house yet could not be further from each other. Also the loneliness of Teddy and the active alienation except for a sexual role of Ruth.  Domination – While the males attempt to dominate and assert authority, it is Ruth using her sexuality to dominate over all others.

Themes and issues in The Homecoming  Appearances v reality – while the household appears to be “normal” there is an undercurrent of animalistic survival where if one is hurt, it is never shown.  Anger and hatred – there is a lot of dialogue that hints at the massive amount of seething anger in this family. For example conversations about Jessie and Mac which hint at an affair, but never say anything directly.

Change focus.

Augusto Boal  Useful theorist for issues based drama – FOR EXAMPLE YOUR ORIGINAL SOLO

Augusto Boal  Writer of Theatre of the Oppressed.  Brazilian director, writer and theorist.  Three different types of theatre that are part of his theory. –Image theatre –Invisible theatre –Forum theatre

Image Theatre  Spectators create a tableaux that shows a ‘real image’ or one of oppression of some kind.  Then spectators become ‘spect-actors’ and show an ideal picture, solving the oppression.  Spect-actors then discuss how to bridge these, coming up with a transitional image.  These images and transitions between oppression and freedom are then performed as a series of tableaux or are acted out.

Invisible Theatre  An issue of great importance to a group of people is decided on and then a script is prepared.  This script is performed in this group of people without the group realising they are an audience, and this is a performance.  They form an involuntary audience that watches the outcome of the issue that is important to them as spectators to action.

Forum Theatre  Extends on Invisible Theatre as audience members know they are part of an audience and are watching theatre. They are part of it.  The aim of this theatre is to promote discussion that actually gets somewhere.  Spectators observe the action and decide what is wrong with what they have seen. They view the action again but with the power to stop it when they want to change something.  Overall this theatre promotes the idea that oppression can be changed and overcome.

…to think about.  Start thinking about different approaches to theatre and how they are useful to you.  We are considering different ways of writing and different perspectives on issues.  Use these approaches to give direction to your solo writing but also consider their approaches when writing exam responses.  These theorists can inspire you for director questions and so on, but are not to be used as evidence for your essays in part 2 and 3.

Ms Leah Stewart Tel