Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
Theatre History II
Cato Vervoort
1
,Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
Class 1: Introduction
WHAT IS THEATRE?
• The etymology of the word theater in all kinds of languages suggests that the focus is
mostly the audience, and not only what is happening on stage. Therefore we also have
to take in account the audience, when talking about a play.
• Theatre history is also mostly written by the audience. It is a lived-history, it only exists
at a certain moment in time, it’s ephemeral and disappears. Theatre history is thus
mostly based on the memory of the audience members. All theatre histories are also
different depending on specific societies, cities, countries and thus different cultures. It
is therefore a social practice.
THEATRE HISTORY IN THE 21ST CENTURY – DAVID WILES
• David Wiles complains about the lack of interest in theatre history. He gives a couple
of possible reasons for this decline of interest:
o Theatre History is an unpopular job market according to him, students do more
practice-based and contemporary-oriented research. This can also be ascribed to
the fact that David Wiles lives in the USA.
o Postmodernist believe that there is not one single truth to history, which is kind
of problematic for theatre history. Leopold von Ranke founded the principle of
describing the past “as it really happened”. Postmodernists oppose his theory,
they believe he only tells history through his perspective.
o The issue of ephemerality
o Is there still an appetite for nation-based theatre history? For smaller countries
this is important to construct national identities, but larger countries mostly want
to cut ties with anything nationalistic.
o Performance Studies are more popular. Study shifted from text-based analysis
to body-based analysis.
• There are a couple of arguments against what David Wiles wrote in his essay
o We cannot have single-truth in the era of post-truth politics, but maybe we can
have multiple truths.
o History is too male-oriented and white, as the word “his-story” suggests.
o The only grand narrative is the story of the Anthropocene. We should also write
a story outside of the perspective of humans, and maybe write from the
perspective of the earth.
• Why then learn theatre history?
o History is the basis of academic research.
o Humans learn from histories.
o Theatre also reflects society, therefore by studying theatre history we can also
learn about general history.
o History is also necessary to understand theatre today, and the evolution that
theatre has gone through.
o Learning about history makes us orient ourselves and have a better root for the
future. The synchronic, diachronic and chronotopos are all manners of looking
2
,Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
at the past. It means an understanding that we are living in a certain time or
place, and this is important to know when doing historic research.
• There are two approaches of historical analyses (by Thomas Postlewait)
o The Micro-Historian approach goes into the particular piece of evidence often
buried at its centre. Each document, statement, piece of evidence is searched for
an inner sanctum of an event.
o The Macro-Historian approach searches the margins of an event to discover the
framing factors and issues that contribute to the event’s definitive features. The
method focuses on the contextual conditions, such as possible social, economic,
political, religious, moral and/or geographical factors. The spatial and temporal
parameters of the event are expanded under the investigation.
o Most historians use either of the two, but a good historian does both. (But the
ability to do either of the two approaches is already a real talented).
o (This course is going to be more macro-historic)
Class 2: A History of the 18th Century Theatres
18TH CENTURY THEATRE
• Key Movements
o Tragedies of Middleclass People: In classic Greek dramas, the protagonists of
dramas were Gods, heroes or those largerthan-life people. From 18th century,
tragedies of ordinary men became acceptable.
o Beyond neoclassical rules: Aristotelian rules of theatres, such as: unity of time
and place, moralistic characters, clear division of tragedy and comedy, became
less important.
o From ethics to psychology: Until the 17th century, theatre was an apparatus for
moral virtue (poetic justice). Gradually from the 18th century, describing the
true human psyche became acceptable.
o The age of enlightenment: The eighteenth century is called the Age of
Enlightenment or simply the Enlightenment because of many new developments
in learning and philosophy. The search for knowledge was supported by the
educated middle class.
o The age of revolution: The American Revolution (1775 – 1778) and the French
Revolution (1789 – 1799) were based on the ideals of Enlightenment, whereby
ordinary people craved for democratic power.
o “Drama” was invented: Tragedies that didn’t fit the definition of neoclassical
tragedy were named “drame [drama]” by Denis Diderot in which the heroes and
heroines were the emerging middle class bourgeoisie. Drama became the base
of melodrama.
ENGLISH THEATRE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
• The year 1674 marks the beginning of a new phase in English dramatic criticism: the
methods of French neoclassic criticism received their first widespread attention in
England with the appearance or Thomas Rymer’ s translation of René Rapin’s
3
, Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
Reflections on Aristotle's Treaties of Poesie. Following this translation, many
playwrights and theatre critics of the era followed the neoclassic idea of moral decorum.
The characters have to represent universalized morality of “poetic justice”.
• The Concept of Poetic Justice:
o In reality, kings must have been corrupt and cruel, but poetic kings must be just,
noble, and heroic.
o The story of noble man should have a good ending. And evil people should be
punished at the end.
o In theatres, moral decorum should always be maintained. Profanity, corruption,
violence, and wrong-doings should not be represented on stage.
o Tragedies and Comedies should not be mixed together.
o Shakespeare’s plays were considered morally wrong, as against the rule of
poetic justice, good people died at the end. For example, Cordelia in King Lear.
• David Garrick (1717-1779)
o Actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer
o considered the first “director” in theatre
o He was the theatre manager of Theatre Royal Drury Lane, from 1747 to 1776,
one of the two theatres authorized to present legitimate drama (the other being
Covent Garden).
o Reformations Garrick made:
§ He sought to reform audience behavior; asking them to sit in silence.
§ He brought an overarching consistency in design, costumes and even
special effects.
§ He introduced footlights and sidelights, which were oil lamps with
reflectors.
§ He purported realistic acting, rather than following Poetic Justice!!!
§ He changed how we view Shakespeare
• In 1788 Henry James Pye published the first English direct translation of Aristotle’s
Poetics:
o In Poetics, Aristotle argues that plot, character, thought , diction, melody, and
spectacle are the six elements that consist the drama. And, important in this
order. Although diction (oratorical speech) is included in the six elements, acting
is not.
o Pye argues that if Aristotle has seen David Garrick in King Lear, he might well
have placed much more importance on the presentation of the drama. → This is
a huge thing! Garrick’s acting is subverting almost 2000 years-old theatre
method.
• From Ethical to Psychological Turn:
o Moving away from ethical virtues, the new generation of English tragedy writers
started to write about painful events that would cause discomfort in life but are
pleasurable in theatre.
o In his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful (1756), Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) argues that the sense of
4
Theatre History II
Cato Vervoort
1
,Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
Class 1: Introduction
WHAT IS THEATRE?
• The etymology of the word theater in all kinds of languages suggests that the focus is
mostly the audience, and not only what is happening on stage. Therefore we also have
to take in account the audience, when talking about a play.
• Theatre history is also mostly written by the audience. It is a lived-history, it only exists
at a certain moment in time, it’s ephemeral and disappears. Theatre history is thus
mostly based on the memory of the audience members. All theatre histories are also
different depending on specific societies, cities, countries and thus different cultures. It
is therefore a social practice.
THEATRE HISTORY IN THE 21ST CENTURY – DAVID WILES
• David Wiles complains about the lack of interest in theatre history. He gives a couple
of possible reasons for this decline of interest:
o Theatre History is an unpopular job market according to him, students do more
practice-based and contemporary-oriented research. This can also be ascribed to
the fact that David Wiles lives in the USA.
o Postmodernist believe that there is not one single truth to history, which is kind
of problematic for theatre history. Leopold von Ranke founded the principle of
describing the past “as it really happened”. Postmodernists oppose his theory,
they believe he only tells history through his perspective.
o The issue of ephemerality
o Is there still an appetite for nation-based theatre history? For smaller countries
this is important to construct national identities, but larger countries mostly want
to cut ties with anything nationalistic.
o Performance Studies are more popular. Study shifted from text-based analysis
to body-based analysis.
• There are a couple of arguments against what David Wiles wrote in his essay
o We cannot have single-truth in the era of post-truth politics, but maybe we can
have multiple truths.
o History is too male-oriented and white, as the word “his-story” suggests.
o The only grand narrative is the story of the Anthropocene. We should also write
a story outside of the perspective of humans, and maybe write from the
perspective of the earth.
• Why then learn theatre history?
o History is the basis of academic research.
o Humans learn from histories.
o Theatre also reflects society, therefore by studying theatre history we can also
learn about general history.
o History is also necessary to understand theatre today, and the evolution that
theatre has gone through.
o Learning about history makes us orient ourselves and have a better root for the
future. The synchronic, diachronic and chronotopos are all manners of looking
2
,Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
at the past. It means an understanding that we are living in a certain time or
place, and this is important to know when doing historic research.
• There are two approaches of historical analyses (by Thomas Postlewait)
o The Micro-Historian approach goes into the particular piece of evidence often
buried at its centre. Each document, statement, piece of evidence is searched for
an inner sanctum of an event.
o The Macro-Historian approach searches the margins of an event to discover the
framing factors and issues that contribute to the event’s definitive features. The
method focuses on the contextual conditions, such as possible social, economic,
political, religious, moral and/or geographical factors. The spatial and temporal
parameters of the event are expanded under the investigation.
o Most historians use either of the two, but a good historian does both. (But the
ability to do either of the two approaches is already a real talented).
o (This course is going to be more macro-historic)
Class 2: A History of the 18th Century Theatres
18TH CENTURY THEATRE
• Key Movements
o Tragedies of Middleclass People: In classic Greek dramas, the protagonists of
dramas were Gods, heroes or those largerthan-life people. From 18th century,
tragedies of ordinary men became acceptable.
o Beyond neoclassical rules: Aristotelian rules of theatres, such as: unity of time
and place, moralistic characters, clear division of tragedy and comedy, became
less important.
o From ethics to psychology: Until the 17th century, theatre was an apparatus for
moral virtue (poetic justice). Gradually from the 18th century, describing the
true human psyche became acceptable.
o The age of enlightenment: The eighteenth century is called the Age of
Enlightenment or simply the Enlightenment because of many new developments
in learning and philosophy. The search for knowledge was supported by the
educated middle class.
o The age of revolution: The American Revolution (1775 – 1778) and the French
Revolution (1789 – 1799) were based on the ideals of Enlightenment, whereby
ordinary people craved for democratic power.
o “Drama” was invented: Tragedies that didn’t fit the definition of neoclassical
tragedy were named “drame [drama]” by Denis Diderot in which the heroes and
heroines were the emerging middle class bourgeoisie. Drama became the base
of melodrama.
ENGLISH THEATRE IN THE 18TH CENTURY
• The year 1674 marks the beginning of a new phase in English dramatic criticism: the
methods of French neoclassic criticism received their first widespread attention in
England with the appearance or Thomas Rymer’ s translation of René Rapin’s
3
, Theatre History Kyoko Iwaki
Reflections on Aristotle's Treaties of Poesie. Following this translation, many
playwrights and theatre critics of the era followed the neoclassic idea of moral decorum.
The characters have to represent universalized morality of “poetic justice”.
• The Concept of Poetic Justice:
o In reality, kings must have been corrupt and cruel, but poetic kings must be just,
noble, and heroic.
o The story of noble man should have a good ending. And evil people should be
punished at the end.
o In theatres, moral decorum should always be maintained. Profanity, corruption,
violence, and wrong-doings should not be represented on stage.
o Tragedies and Comedies should not be mixed together.
o Shakespeare’s plays were considered morally wrong, as against the rule of
poetic justice, good people died at the end. For example, Cordelia in King Lear.
• David Garrick (1717-1779)
o Actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer
o considered the first “director” in theatre
o He was the theatre manager of Theatre Royal Drury Lane, from 1747 to 1776,
one of the two theatres authorized to present legitimate drama (the other being
Covent Garden).
o Reformations Garrick made:
§ He sought to reform audience behavior; asking them to sit in silence.
§ He brought an overarching consistency in design, costumes and even
special effects.
§ He introduced footlights and sidelights, which were oil lamps with
reflectors.
§ He purported realistic acting, rather than following Poetic Justice!!!
§ He changed how we view Shakespeare
• In 1788 Henry James Pye published the first English direct translation of Aristotle’s
Poetics:
o In Poetics, Aristotle argues that plot, character, thought , diction, melody, and
spectacle are the six elements that consist the drama. And, important in this
order. Although diction (oratorical speech) is included in the six elements, acting
is not.
o Pye argues that if Aristotle has seen David Garrick in King Lear, he might well
have placed much more importance on the presentation of the drama. → This is
a huge thing! Garrick’s acting is subverting almost 2000 years-old theatre
method.
• From Ethical to Psychological Turn:
o Moving away from ethical virtues, the new generation of English tragedy writers
started to write about painful events that would cause discomfort in life but are
pleasurable in theatre.
o In his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful (1756), Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) argues that the sense of
4
