Download Theatre, Audience and Society – Harry Eyres

Theatre, Audience and Society
Harry Eyres
Students will study a substantial series of texts and attend at least six plays in this course, each
challenging students to think critically about theatre and its ability to shape the thinking of its
audience. The course is a journey through different theories of theatre, including:
 Tragedy in which the feelings are purged through catharsis
 Social theatre, in which problems and abuses are addressed
 Political theatre, designed to promote awareness of or opposition to the political and
economic system
 Avante-garde, which probes the divide between life and the stage
 The theatre of gender, race and sexual orientation.
Course Outline
This is a course which focuses not so much on what theatre (in some timeless sense) is, or on
providing a snapshot of the London theatrical offering at a particular moment, but on the potentially
life-changing effect theatre can have on its audience. Implicit is a concern with theatre not as
bland, escapist entertainment but as a powerful social, political or therapeutic tool. The course is
divided into five blocks:
1. Theories of tragedy: Plato vs. Aristotle
Plato’s attack on theatre; Aristotle on catharsis: therapeutic purgation of feeling in the
theatre.
Texts: Plato, Republic Book 10 (extract)
Aristotle, Poetics (extracts)
Sophocles, Oedipus the King
2. Social theatre: Ibsen and Shaw
Theatre investigates social problems and abuses.
Texts: Ibsen, Enemy of the People
Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession
3. Political theatre: Brecht
Theatre makes the audience aware of a living in a rotten political and economic system,
and of the connections between capitalism and war.
Texts: Brecht, Selected Writings on Theatre
Brecht, Mother Courage
4. The Theatre of Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation
Texts: Churchill, Top Girls
Kushner, Angels in America
5. The theatre/life divide: avant-garde theatre
Texts: Artaud, The Theatre and its Double
Gregory/Shawn/Malle. My Dinner with Andre
Theatre Visits
The class will attend five London stage productions, illustrating at least three of the five categories
of theatre covered in the course.
Presented Work
Students will write two papers, one in each half of the semester, and there will a mid-term and a
final examination. A portion of the grade will be awarded on participation.