Political Theatre- Lesson 1

What is political theatre?

Political theatre is a type of theatre that challenges issues in society in order to make a statement about the world around us to the audience by exploring and challenging current political affairs. It aims to make a point and make audiences question the performance and message behind it rather than merely enjoying the experience of seeing a piece of theatre.  It is described as theatre that comments on political issues, political action or protest that has a theatrical quality to it. Political theatre can be thought provoking, relevant and educational towards the audience.

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a theatre practicioner. Brecht believed "Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality but a hammer with which to shape it."  This means that we shouldn’t just experience theatre and then move on with our normal everyday lives. Theatre should have a major impact on us that will enable us to make a beneficial change in society instead of showing us a naturalistic version of occurrences and events that we already know and can easily relate to.  Theatre can easily influence us and the way in which we lives our lives. Brecht wanted us to take advantage of this. He created a version of theatre called epic theatre, hence how the V-effekt came across. He shaped theatre in a way that had a huge impact upon its development. Before Brecht, naturalistic theatre was very popular and appeared to mirror society. Brecht believed that theatre should be used as a force for change.  We also learned about  Verfremdungseffekt or 'The V-Effekt.' This can also be know as alienation or distancing. It is a term Brecht used to describe the way in which actors created characters in Epic Theatre. This aims to use techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through reminding them of the artificiality of the piece of theatre being performed. By discourging the audience to identify with the character or create an emotional attatchment to them by making the performance strange or alien. This enables political theatre to make the differences between political theatre and other forms of theatre clear as it establishes that it is a show. This helps make a clear answer to the question ‘Is all theatre political?’ All theatre can have political aspects but most theatre has political context or undertones within the play. Gestus is an acting technique developed by Brecht. It is a combination of physical gestures and "gist" or attitude. It is a clear character gesture or movement used by an actor that captures a moment or attitude rather than merely portraying a character’s emotion. The interpretation of the gesture being performed is built on the character’s role within society and why they need to behave in a particular manner, rather than looking at the inner emotional motivation. Gestus can also be gesture with social commentary on current political events. Spass literally translates as ‘fun’. Brecht wanted to make his audience think rather than just enjoying the show. Brecht realised that while we are laughing, we are simultaneously thinking about the message behind it. The message itself may be serious rather than comedic. Comedy could be an excellent way of engaging the audience and forcing them to actually think about political issues of the piece. Spass was also an excellent way to break the tension. The dark humour of foul taste of this would be shocking for an audience. However, this actually highlights the painful truth of depression through shocking contrast and dark comedy. The audience will laugh. However, they will also question why they laughed.

Opposites and stereotypes

We had to get into pairs and create a still image of two opposites such as Rich and poor or winter and summer etc. It was interesting to see the similarities between the still images across the class. For example, the rich were usually standing up with open body language and confident or occasionally arrogant facial expressions whereas the poor were on the floor with enclosed bod language with shy or intimidated facial expressions. This clearly demonstrated how levels were used to portray status and emotions. This is interesting as political theatre relies on clarity and stereotypes. The fact that everyone used a very similar still images was a representation of how society believes that the rich are a lot more powerful than the poor and even look down on them due to their lower status and lack of power within society. This demonstrated how political theatre can affect the actors as well as the audience because they all see political events or issued through the same viewpoint. This related to when we did a performance in the lesson based around three emotions. Our group used the emotions of love, disbelief and intimidation. In our piece, two people were in love until the wife had an affair and the husband got very violent and abusive. This also showed the constrast between the light hearted comedy at the beginning and the shocking and scary violence at the end. Furthemore, this shows how the political message in a play can have a large impact on the actors and the audience. 

Cards

Each person was given a playing card, the card we were given was a representation of what our status for the exercise would be. The higher number, the higher the status. For example, a King or an Ace would be a very high status, however a 2 or a 3 would be a very low status. The card I was given was a King, therefore I had a very high status. This had a significant effect on the way in which I walked around the room and I made sure I stood up tall in order to appear taller as a higher level reflects a higher status. I made sure my posture was very good as my chest was sticking out with my chin up. My facial expression changed so that it was large and slightly exaggerated to demonstrate an arrogant and pompous attitude to those around me. I made sure I looked down upon those I thought had a low status and showed respect and smiled at those who also has a high status. This exercise demonstrated the stereotypes society has about status, wealth and power and how everyone thinks about how the status of individuals has a significant effect on the relationships between them. You could immediately tell how much status everyone had due to their body language and the way in which they interacted with everyone else. This shows how the class subconsciously made a political statement about society. After this, we lined up against the wall and two by two shook hands in front of the rest of the class, this also made the relationships between two different people very apparent depending on their status. However, for some pairs, placards were given. A placard is a sign or additional piece of written information presented on stage. This showed the prominent effect of language. The words had a significant effect on the action on stage and allowed the audience to see what was happening and the relationship between the two people from a completely different perspective. One placard read ‘Policeman on the take’ which reflected on the reports of police brutality and how they can abuse their power in society. These 4 words on the placards had a huge change on our viewpoint of what was happening. At first, the ironic nature of the placard appeared amusing for us, as audience. However, the effect of what was happening kicked in to show important political issues in society and some very serious issues. This helped me realise the effect that political theatre and language can have on an audience. 

Shrug

We all stood in a circle and were asked to shrug and say 'I dunno.' We were then told to exaggerate this in order to make it appear almost like a caricature of a stereotypical teenager. We performed almost as if we were puppets and we were being controlled by a puppeteer, when we shrugged it was like someone was pulling on our strings in order to lift up our shoulders. We then said ‘I dunno’ in a zombie like manner. After this, someone went up to the front and stood on a chair behind one of the zombie like teenagers in order to portray the puppeteer. The puppeteer then said ‘I am society’ in order to portray how society controls us and gives us a lack of freedom or individuality. This was a clear political statement which shows how a few words in a performance can have a major impact on the meaning behind it. The actor playing society said it with a large smile to represent the obnoxiousness and narrow mindedness of our society. This was clear and blunt which are two crucial aspects of political theatre. 

Nursery rhymes

We got into pairs and were told to stand on opposite sides of the room and perform a nursery rhyme to each other. This was difficult as the whole class had to perform a nursery rhyme all at the same time which got very confusing. We were then told to guess what our partner’s nursery rhyme was, this was very difficult at first as it was very hard to hear them when everyone was talking at the same time. We were then told that if we didn’t correctly guess what our partner’s nursery rhyme was that we would be shot. Suddenly, everyone became more urgent in what they were doing and the motivation made us work harder. This helped me realises the important of mime and gestures, which relates to a piece of political theatre. Brecht was the founder of ‘gestus’ which is similar to gestures. Gestus is an acting which carries the sense of a combination of physical gestures with attitude.   This exercise definitely highlighted the fact that clarity in political theatre is imperative. Clarity is crucial in political theatre, without it the message behind the piece could be misinterpreted or misunderstood which would completely take away the purpose of the performance.