Spend a day at the theatre, they said. It will be fun, they said. Newsflash: theatre is not for the faint-hearted. It can be a great way to escape reality, but the best of it is reality knocking down doors and entering abruptly with an itch to shake things up.
So what is the point of theatre if it is always heart-wrenchingly close to home? Turn the clock back over 2 000 years, and the Greeks have just birthed a new art form: Drama. Think of great names like Sophocles and Aeschylus who stood there creating a new world of performance. Derived from “I do” comes the Greek word for “act” or “deed”, getting to the action of Drama. They acted out rituals in celebration of gods and goddesses as ways to heal society. Comedies were for the people, something for everyone to laugh at. The tragedies were much more interesting. These were based on myths, gods, and goddesses that told tales of morality. A tragedy’s purpose was to show society how to live. If rules were broken, there were consequences, and this lesson was the very beginning of theatre changing the narrative.
So, what tough topics do the Greeks delve into? Well, how does murder and incest sound? Psychology students have undoubtedly become acquainted with the Oedipus complex against their wills.
Sophocles
In around 429 BC, Sophocles wrote The Theban Plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. This tragic series follows the life of Oedipus, the King of Thebes, and his family. Here is an Oedipus Rex crash course: Oedipus’s parents are told that he will grow up, he will murder his father, and he will sleep with his mother, and so, they abandon him. Years later, Oedipus hears about this prophecy and runs away from who he believes are his birth parents. After skipping town, he has an argument with a traveller and then murders him before he arrives in Thebes, where he marries the queen. How was he to know the traveller was his biological father and the queen left behind, his mother? The events continue to unfold: Oedipus gouges his eyes out and puts himself in the naughty corner, while his mother goes somewhere she will never be reached.
What on Earth was Sophocles thinking when he wrote this? Well, The Theban Plays all touch on fate, the conflict between divine and civil law, and morality. The main lesson here (other than to not murder Dad and sleep with Mom) is to not run away from fate. The Greeks persistently believed that the gods controlled all that was happening. If one made them angry, there would be some serious consequences. So, in that context, the greater ill was going against a prophecy, and these tragedies aim to show what would happen if one defied the gods. Tragedies also pose questions about whether following free will is advisable. The last play, Antigone, gets even more interesting when it comes to questions of justice and the theme of civil versus divine law. One can assume that Sophocles wanted people to think about their actions and consequences by using some intense themes to get people to live correctly and to follow the path that the gods have set, or instead, to suffer.
Shakespeare
Fast-forward to where Shakespeare enters the stage with plays about monarchy and violence. Here is an unpopular opinion: his plays serve a purpose. Macbeth tells a story in which a power-hungry wife and her husband experience damning consequences on their bloody climb to tyranny. Then there is Titus Andronicus. Again, another overly ambitious queen who takes things a little too far and ends up unknowingly eating her sons baked in a pie! What is the point of all the bloodshed and violence? It is to try and avoid becoming so consumed with power that it will inevitably breed insanity. Written at a time when tyranny was trending, Shakespeare was trying to point out why political leaders should exercise caution.
Protest theatre: The Island
These are just little teasers of modern Drama. Let us zoom into South African protest theatre. South Africa’s history of racial injustice and discrimination has given a rich context for playwrights to work with. The Island, written by Athol Fugard, Dr John Kani and Winston Ntshona, is set in a prison and follows the lives of two cellmates. The cellmates, John and Winston, are preparing for their performance of Sophocles’s Antigone. With that comes all of the themes of the Greek tragedy, such as the individual versus the state, and various ideas of freedom. Set in a discriminatory South Africa in an unnamed prison, clearly Robben Island, the plot goes much deeper than Ancient Greek values and morals. The Island shows the physical and psychological effects Apartheid has on political prisoners, with the existentialism John and Winston feel not knowing when they will be released. When John gets his release date, the story unravels, facing the question of why they fought against the regime to begin with, and why they are experiencing this suffering. What happens when John returns to the real world, and Winston is left alone?
It is dramatic, heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. An active stand against injustice, which the audience is meant to take and then, as the Greeks said, do. The point of South African protest theatre is for audiences to leave the theatre so disgusted and moved by what they saw that they feel compelled to do something about it. Surely people could not possibly be living like Winston and John were, right? Along with inspiring the audience to do something, it gave hope to those suffering the injustices. It gave a platform for black actors such as Kani and Ntshona to have their voices heard. One can see that the roots of Drama lie within the themes of living just and moral lives, not only for the gods or divine laws, but for the rights of fellow people.
Yes, Drama can be incredibly unsavoury. Generally, people do not get an entertaining rush from murderers gouging their eyes out and prisoners being so isolated that they cannot even count the days. Theatre is meant to tip the scales and mobilise those in the comfortable seats to change the narrative. Be a dramatist – go out and do.