On Drama
Geetha Bakilapadavu
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What is Drama?
‘imitated human action’- story of human beings in
conflict with the world (Aristotle, 4th Century B.C.)
Tragedy is ‘an imitation of an action that is serious,
complete and of a certain magnitude, in a language
beautified, in different parts with different kinds of
embellishments through action and not through
narration and through scenes of pity and fear bringing
about the catharsis of these or such likely emotions…
Every tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which
parts determine its quality- namely plot, characters,
diction, thought, spectacle, melody’ ( Aristotle in
Poetics, tr. S. H. Burter)
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‘ a representation of the will of man in conflict with
the mysterious powers of natural forces which limit
and belittle us; it is one of us thrown living upon the
stage there to struggle against fatality, against social
law, against one of his fellow mortals, against himself
if need be, against the ambitions, the interests, the
prejudices, the folly, the malevolence of those around
him’ (William Archer (1926) in Play Making)
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Life is formless- its interconnections are
concealed by lapses of time, by events
occurring in separated places, by the hiatus
of memory. We live in the world made by
man and the past. Art suggests or makes the
interconnections palpable. Form is the
tension of these interconnections, man with
man, man with the past and present
environment. The drama at its best is a mass
experience of these tensions. ( Arthur Miller
in his Essay on American Drama)
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• It is dramatic, requires a stage and a performance
• It enjoys a double life
• On stage, sets and machinery make us the place
and the time visible to us unlike fiction and
poetry where the onus is on us to imagine them
• Theme, plot, tone, characters, symbol- all unfold
and evolve in front of our eyes
• From the written to the spoken they evolve
before us
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Types of Drama:
• Traditionally 2 types: Tragedy and Comedy
• Tragedy: dominated by a serious tone,
concerns kings and princes, Gods; deals
with profound issues, and usually ends
with the demise of the leading character
• Comedy: common people, light tone that
encourages laughter and ends happily
• Tragi comedy: Shakespeare mixed
elements from both
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Dramatic Unities- three rules of construction
prescribed by Aristotle:
• a play should represent what takes place
within eight hours
• There must be no minor plot
• There must be no change of location
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Ancient Drama:
• Greek and the Roman
• Medieval Drama
• Modern Elizabethan Drama
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Ancient Greek Drama
• Began in the 6th Century B.C.E.
in Athens with the performance of
tragedy plays at religious festivals (this
then inspired Greek comedy plays)
• Hugely popular forms
• the works of such great playwrights
as Sophocles and Aristophanes formed
the foundation upon which all modern
theatre is based
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Greek Plays
• Traditionally would begin with a Chorus
coming to the stage and chant a religious
song
• one person from the chorus would then
come forward and start speaking
contextualizing the dramatic situation
• followed by the entry of the main
characters- the principle dramatis
personae- with their dialogues
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Chorus:
• Group of people wearing a mask singing
and dancing( dancing unrehearsed and
thus spontaneous)
• Entrance through sideways, in a
rectangular formation on stage
• The singing was to the accompaniment of
the flute commenting on the proceedings
of the play
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Traverse
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Proscenium arch
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