Hey guys! - I was wondering if someone would be able to read my drama essay and give me some tips on what to add to 'The Bald Prima Donna' section? - thanks! Practice essay question: How did plays of the 20th century use theatre to reflect the horrors and injustices of their time? Discuss with reference to TWO plays in this topic.
Notable plays not only reflect the injustices and horrors of their time, but transcend the time and place for which they were originally written, offering insight into the fundamental traits that characterise our own humanity. This is evident in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Prima Donna which confront the brutality of war through Epic Theatre and absurdism respectively. The plays, reflective of their social and political milieu, depict the nature of human greed which kills human empathy (Mother Courage) and the meaningless of life when logic is demanded from a world gone seemingly mad in The Bald Prima Donna through techniques and theatre conventions.
Brecht’s use of innovative techniques in Mother Courage augment the pivotal actions that catalyse human beings, expressing how morals, in times of survival, waver; the results of tough choices are harsh judgement. Brecht’s approach to theatre forces his audiences to detach themselves from their common knowledge and “to tell people the truth about life and the[ir] social situation” (Adler). Through the form of an episodic structure, Brecht informs audiences of the impact that a capitalist figure, through the representation of ‘Mother Courage’, can have upon a war inflicted society as well as the lengths to which one would go for wealth in a violent-ridden world. Brecht, through his use of minimalist staging and props, wishes for his audience to consider why something is happening instead of how. He wished for audiences to “step into the theatre” and reflect upon the environment of their outside world which has just witnessed the brutality and horrors of World War 2. Brecht focused on the representation of human greed and how it is killing human empathy, demanding his audience to ponder on the idea that ‘human destiny is alterable’. Through class workshopping experiences, our class wished to reflect the idea of Mother Courage wanting wealth instead of providing protection and safety for her children. As a class, we decided to enact Scene 11 of the play. T.C was chosen to depict ‘Kattrin’, Mother Courage’s daughter and was positioned on a table to reflect her protest for human lives so as to awaken the townsfolk. We also utilised sounds through the use of a garbage lid as the drum to assist in the rising tension of the scene. The other students of the class played the ‘soldiers’ wo were positioned on a lower level in the drama space in order to symbolise the power struggle between both opposing parties. The sound of gunshots by the actors then caused ‘Kattrin’ to fall to the floor with an audible thud, and thus depicting her inevitable downfall against the soldiers. Mother Courage’s response to this, having to “get back to work” after her daughter’s death, highlights the length to which one would go for monetary happiness , placing profit ahead of her own children. This essential theme in the play and our playbuilding of this scene reflects the horrors that Brecht was wishing to convey in his play and the idea that humans should always choose empathy over greed.
Ionesco’s absurdist and cyclical play, The Bald Prima Donna mirrors the illogical nature of both WW1 and WW2 and the aftermath of its destruction upon the meaning of language as a communication device between individuals. Ionesco, through his depiction of two conventional middle class couples, wished to show to his audiences that those who neglect the past are destined to repeat it. Ionesco as a playwright acknowledged the need for communication after the destruction of thousands of lives as a way of moving forward. If I was directing this play, I would implement the use of a revolving stage to replicate the cyclical nature of chaos (such as World War 2) with the positioning of the two couples on opposite sides of the stage. This rotating stage would be used throughout the entire play to show aspect of human experience that recurring such as everyday meals at work and social life that are centred around banal routine. Ultimately Eugene Ionesco wishes for audiences to reflect on their own lives and looks for meaning in their seemingly devoid world. It Is through his play that audiences gain insight into the brutality and horror that characterises our own modern society.
Significant plays of the 20th century enhance our own understanding and awareness of the inherent traits that characterise us as human beings. Both Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Prima Donna give insight into the dilemmas of the 20th century and the continual horrors of our own 21st-century lives.
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