A History of the Theatre (Performing Arts)

308 Pages·1994·67.509 MB·English

by  Glynne Wickham

A HISTOR
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2nd Edition
PHAIDON

A HISTORY
OF
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A HISTORY
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OF
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Wickham
Glynne
Second Edition
To those actors and actresses, designers, directors, playwrights
and theatre technicians who as artists or students (and often in
both capacities) have given me the benefit oftheir experience and
friendship.
Phaidon Press Limited
2 Kensington Square
London w8 5EZ
Firstpublished 1985
Second edition 1992
Reprinted 1993, 1994
©
1985, 1992 Phaidon Press Limited
Text© 1985, 1992 Glynne Wickham
A CIP catalogue record forthis bookis available from
the British Library
isbn o 7148 2736
3
All rights reserved. No part ofthispublication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system ortransmitted,
in any form orbyany means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission ofPhaidon Press Limited.
Unless otherwise indicated all dates ofplays are the dates offirst
performance.
Typeset in Monotype Sabon
Printed in Malaysia
FRONTISPIECE: BarbaraKellermanintheRoyalShakespeareCompany's
productionofCalderon'sLife's a Dream(StratfordandLondon, 1983).
1
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements 7
Prologue 11
PART I Communities and their Gods
Introduction 16
1 Oriental Drama and Theatre: Origins, Experiment and Development 21
2 Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic World 500—200 BC 31
3 Rome and the Hellenistic World 200 BC-AD 500 43
4 The Roman Phoenix AD 410—975 36
PART II God and the Community
Introduction 68
5 Dramatic Experiment in Christian Europe 1000—1300 70
6 Dramatic Achievement in Christian Europe 1300—the Reformation 80
PART III Princes and their Servants
Introduction gy
7 Italy gg
8 Englanci 113
9 Spain 134
10 France 145
PART IV Expanding Frontiers
Introduction 138
Merchant Princes and the Theatre of the Eighteenth Century 160
1
12 Princes of Industry and the Theatre of the Nineteenth Century 181
PART V The Disintegration of Style: Hyper-realism and Anti-realism
Introduction 202
13 Theatre and Early Cinema 204
14 Armageddon and its Aftermath: 1900-1950 226
15 From the Fifties to the Nineties 244
Epilogue 271
Further Reading 273
Index 279
Credits 288
i. Dionysus on a couch with a satyr holding a jug and situla, and a maenad with a wreath and tambourine; above, a female mask.
Apulian red-figurebellkraterbytheDijon Painter, 380-360 bc. Vatican Museums.
Preface and Acknowledgements
To discuss drama as if it were simply dramatic literature umbrage, and withdraw itsconfidence. This happens when
is about as sensible as trying to drive a car with only one actors cannot beheard, allow themselvesto behidden from
—
cylinder in working order. Drama and the theatres in view by other actors, or indulge in narcissistic posturing
which it is presented—embraces actors and actresses, pain- that reveals the real man or woman behind the character.
ters and paintings, architects and craftsmen, costumiers Itisforsuchreasonsthatcriticscome,onoccasion,todamn
and engineers; italsoextends to encompass composers and on its firstnighta play which posterity latercomesto recog-
musicians, choreographers and dancers, acrobats and ath- nize as great: more often, great acting can lead critics to
—
letes, poets and journalists, and perhaps the most signifi- believe that a play of little genuine merit is a considerable
— —
cant of all its elements audiences. In short it is a group work of art a view quickly dispelled once the play is
experience based on interaction. presented by other and less distinguished casts.
In the theatre no performance can ever be identically What is not so often recognized is that every member
repeated. The actors are human they remember their lines of an audience (ourselves included) spends a large part of
:
and moves one night and forget them or mistime them the every day acting out some chosen role (often an imposed
next. Nor is the composition of the audience ever exactly role), giving a daily 'performance'. Those people whom we
the same. Each performance is thus a shared experience encounter in the course of the day are our 'audience'. We
unique to those actually present at the time. Anyone who wear clothes or 'costume' we consider to be appropriate
has tried to describe an actor's rendering of a particular to that role, and we use the words and speech rhythms
line of verse to someone else not present at the time, or (technical jargon for the most part) which we regard as
an actress's death-bed sigh, or some especially striking likely either to conform with the role or to help us to define
lightingeffect, knows the truth ofthis. it in other people's eyes; and in all our behaviour, above
How, then, can one explain this special and intimate all in our use ofour feet, hands and eyes, we give constant
relationship within thegroup? Clearly, audiences have first signals to those around us indicating how we wish them
got to be persuaded that it will be worth their while to to interpret our actions and our utterances. Unhappily for
attend the performance; that requires an act of faith, us, wecan alsobetransmittingsignals by these same means.
repeated every time they exercise their right of choice in unknown or only partly known to ourselves, which can
deciding how to use their free time. betray to perceptive spectators feelings which we are seek
Once an audience, however, has made this decision, it ingto hide. In short, whether in arguing with ourcolleagues
becomes the actor's prime task to woo its members, to gain or in more relaxed social conversation, we strive, like
their confidence, to persuade them to accept in their hearts actors, to capture and to hold the attention of an audience,
as real what they know in their minds to be fiction, to make it laugh with us, or to appreciate our personal anx-
pretence. It is like courtship and |iist as treacherous; for ieties and sorrows.
if, at any time, the actor loses his concentration and In doing all of this we rarely regard ourselves as actors,
becomes careless, the audience can become offended, take yet every now and again—when we gel home, and are h.n
8 Preface and Acknowledgements
—
ing a bath or pouring ourselves a drink we recognize that defences, everyone else concerned has effectively wasted
we have changed one persona for another. We have ceased their time.
to be actors and become ourselves. What audiences consider to be acceptable has varied
This phenomenon is one of the most vital factors in from one period to another and is to a large extent depen-
—
explaining the group experience unique to dramatic art dent on their expectancies upon conventions. The spec-
since it links, through mimetic action, each and everyone trum of theatrical illusion is itself exceptionally wide,
of us with those rare and exceptional individuals whom including as it does at one extreme an almost photographic
we label as actors. Yet they, like us, are human beings, but degree of realism in both acting and scenic representation,
the role that they have chosen to play in life consists of and at the other a reliance upon emblems, symbols, images
putting this whole process into reverse. The major dif- and allusions which seem far removed from any behaviour
ferenceliesinthesubjectivityoftherole-playinginourown or environment encountered in everyday life (see Figs. 179
daily lives and the objectivity of a professional actor's and 191). IntheearlyMiddleAges, forinstance,actorswere
public theatrical performance. The latter is invariably a not expected to speak, let alone use conversational prose;
demonstration, a show, whereas the former is only rarely they were expected to sing, in verse and in Latin that was
:
self-conscious, and is employed as often to conceal as to the convention. Yet in the sixteenth century actors were
display. This link, which we carry with us from the cradle expected to speak, normally in verse but sometimes in
to the grave, between our own and the actor's motivation prose, and almost invariably in the vernacular. In our own
and technique, goes far towards explaining the enduring time, to write a play in verse is virtually to invite manage-
fascination of the theatre the world over, and its ability ments to reject it.
so to adapt itselfto change that even when apparently sick Audiencescan beeducated tochangetheir approach and
and dying it is atthat very moment in theprocess ofrenew- attitude to stage conventions. This usually occurs first in
ing itself in some novel, challenging and more appropriate universities, schools, or in 'fringe' groups where experi-
form. mentisencouraged, andthenextendsoutwardsintosociety
All theatre is make-believe, a world of marvels and illu- at large. Thus what at first had seemed outlandish and
sion, pretended actions, game or play; yet this fairy-tale unintelligible to the play-going public comes to be received
world of artifice must be firmly anchored in the real world as natural, welcome, and ultimately taken for granted.
(sometimes the dream-world) either through its When this happens, the pioneering initiatives have usually
— —
characters their speech and behaviour or through the been taken by amateur enthusiasts who are not dependent
action represented, if it is to be recognized by audiences on the financial results oftheir experiments for their liveli-
and to awake any emotional response. Our minds and our hood; butonce it has becomeobvious to professionals that
hearts are called upon to respond simultaneously, the one a particular experiment is attracting substantial public
in step with the other. If, in our minds, we lose track of attention and support (as was the case with changeable
which character is which, orofwhat is supposed to be hap- scenery during the seventeenth century, and again with
pening, we rapidly lose interest and cease to care which ensembleactingintheearlyyearsofthiscentury),theyhave
character is praised and which maligned, who lives or who normally adopted this change forthemselves and havethen
dies. In other words, the illusion ofcredible human actions gone on to execute it better than the original, amateur
or relationships has collapsed; we can no longer believe exponents.
in what we are seeing or hearing; and when that happens The many illustrations in this book are there to remind
our emotional involvement in the predicament represented readers that audiences enter theatres with eyes as well as
vanishes. In extreme cases our response becomes the ears, and that a play is never simply a written statement
opposite of what is expected of us: we laugh at what we likea philosophical treatiseoran epicpoem oran academic
should be taking seriously and yawn at what is intended lecture or a political harangue. Pictures which hang in a
to make us laugh. The author of the play may be among gallery or on living-room walls are static; stage-pictures
the finest of poets and the designer may have provided the arenot. Play texts andthetheatrical representationofthem
mostconvincingoflandscapesorinteriors andthedirector are thus inextricably linked. Audiences are always jux-
;
and stage-manager may have done their best to orchestrate taposing what they see happening on the stage with what
the scene as an ensemble; but if the actor fails to convince the actors are saying, and then weighing the two impres-
us that he is what he claims in his costume and make-up sions in the scales of their own hearts and minds. It is in
to be, we, his audience, will actively resist his pretensions; thiswaythatthey arriveatjudgementsaboutthecharacters
and if we refuse to allow him to penetrate our emotional and on their respective actions. And herein, precisely, lies