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Representation and Reality: The Case of Documentary Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2009

Attilio Favorini
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Extract

From its origins and throughout its history, Western theatre has engaged, represented, and/or attempted to affect the course of history. Phrynichus and Aeschylus wrote plays on the Persian wars when they were still fresh in the memories of their auditors—too fresh in the case of Phrynichus, who was censured by the Athenians. Early in the sixteenth century French sotties commented on Papal politics; late in the same century Elizabethan playwrights began to exploit contemporary crime stories. During the French Revolution hack writers issued dramatic accounts of Marat's death within a month of its occurrence. Astley's had spectacular recreations of Crimean War battles on stage almost before they occurred. In the twentieth century, technological innovation has stimulated this tendency and extended it throughout the mass media in numberless examples of reality-driven representation.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , November 1994 , pp. 31 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1994

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References

1 The Phrynichus anecdote is reported by Herodotus, , The History, tr. by Grene, David. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 416–417CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On topical medieval French drama see, e.g., Harvey, Howard, The Theatre of the Basoche (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941)Google Scholar. On the Elizabethan crime dramas, see Clark, Andrew, Domestic Drama. A Survey of the Origins, Antecedents and Nature of the Domestic Play in England, 1500–1640. (Salzburg: Institut für Englische Sprache und Literatur., 1975), 2 volsGoogle Scholar. On drama of the French Revolution, see Carlson, Marvin, The Theatre of the French Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1966)Google Scholar. On the Crimean War dramas, see Bratton, J. S. “Theatre of War: the Crimea on the London Stage 1854–5,” in Performance and Politics in Popular Drama ed. by Brady, David, James, Louis and Sharrat, Bernard (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

2 Baudrillard, Jean, Simulations (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983), 11Google Scholar.

3 de Certeau, Michel, The Writing of History, tr. by Conley, Tom (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), 30Google Scholar.

4 See Willett, John, The Theatre of Erwin Piscator (London: Eyre Methuen, 1978), 186Google Scholar. The same year John Grierson used the term in reference to Robert Flaherty's film Moana. See The Documentary Tradition: From Nanook to Woodstock, ed. Jacobs, Lewis (New York: Hopkinson and Blake, 1971), 4–5Google Scholar.

5 Weiss, Peter, “Fourteen Propositions for a Documentary Theatre,” World Theatre 17 (1968): 375–389Google Scholar. Weiss's documentary techniques, though relevant to my concerns here, have been thoroughly considered. See, e.g., Salloch, Erika, Peter Weiss' Die Ermittlung Zur Struktur des Dokumentartheaters (Frankfurt: Athenåum, 1972)Google Scholar and Cohen, Robert, Understanding Peter Weiss (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

6 Robert Bolt uses this expression in the preface to Vivat, Vivat Regina!

7 Freed, Donald, Inquest (New York: Hill and Wang, 1970), 22Google Scholar.

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10 Renov, Michael in the introduction to Theorizing Documentary (New York: Routledge, 1993)Google Scholar engages some of these issues vis à vis film.

11 The text of Trotz Alledem! is lost. We have, however, police reports, Piscator's testimony and a set of reviews. The notes and reviews are in Hoffman, Ludwig and Hoffman-Ostvald, Daniel, Deutsches Arbeittheater, 1 (Munich: Rogner and Bernhard, 1973), 168–184Google Scholar. See also on Piscator's career Willett, John, The Theatre of Erwin Piscator: Half a Century of Politics in the Theatre (London: Eyre Methuen, 1978)Google Scholar and McAlpine, Sheila, Visual Aids in the Productions of the First Piscator-Bühne, 1927–1928 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1990)Google Scholar.

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15 Willett, 55.

16 Ibid., 55 ff. and 141.

17 Paget, Derek, True Stories? Documentary Drama on Radio, Screen and Stage (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), 17Google Scholar.

18 See de Hart Mathews, Jane, The Federal Theatre, 1935–1939. Plays, Relief and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 22Google Scholar.

19 See Goldman, Arnold, “Life and Death of the Living Newspaper Unit,” Theatre Quarterly, 3, no. 9 (Jan.-March 1973): 69–82Google Scholar.

20 The text of Ethiopia was published in Educational Theatre Journal, 20, no. 1 (1968): 15–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Quoted in “Rice Quits in Row Over WPA Drama,” New York Times, 01 24, 1936, p. 5Google Scholar.

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25 Cheeseman, Peter, “Introduction” to The Knotty, “Created by the Victoria Theatre Company working from historical research conducted by Peter Terson under the direction of Peter Cheeseman” (London: Methuen, 1970), xivGoogle Scholar.

26 In an interview with Gillette Elvgren cited in introduction to Elvgren, and Favorini, Attilio, Steel/City. A Docudrama in Three Acts (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), xviiGoogle Scholar. A small portion of the material relating to Cheeseman in the present essay has previously appeared in the Elvgren/Favorini volume.

27 Ibid., xviii.

28 Fight for Shelton Bar. A Documentary from The Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent with Introduction and Notes by the Director Peter Cheeseman (London: Eyre Methuen, 19770, 22Google Scholar.

29 Kershaw, 33. Cheeseman is not the subject of this quote, nor are the Victoria documentaries accorded much attention by Kershaw.

30 Lindenberger, Herbert, Historical Drama. The Relation of Literature and Reality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975), 22Google Scholar.

31 See, e.g., Tropics of Discourse (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

32 Frye, Northrop, The Anatomy of Criticism (New York: Atheneum, 1969), 283Google Scholar.

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34 Cited in Wikander, Matthew K., The Play of Truth and State. Historical Drama from Shakespeare to Brecht (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), 7Google Scholar.