Final Essay HONR218T PDF

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Aimee Dastin-van Rijn Nelson Pressley HONR218T Final Paper What Makes for an Effective Piece of Political Theatre? Just as Sondheim said, “Content dictates form,” I believe that an effective piece of political theatre employs a method of conveying information which suits the topic being covered. Not all political messages are the same, so there can be no formula for the creation of a powerful piece of political theatre. The one key necessity a playwright must possess for a successful piece of political theatre is a clearly illustrated message; otherwise the play cannot be designed to suit its purpose as even the creator is unsure of what that is. If a piece of political theatre lacks a message, it cannot be the type of play that, “shakes the world”. Political messages do not have to be expressly stated in order to be clear to the audience, leaving room for many forms of theatre to express political ideas. In order to demonstrate this, I will contrast What the Constitution Means to Me with Angels in America. The extended monologue form chosen by Heidi Schreck in What the Constitution Means to Me is conducive to being able to express opinions openly. On stage, Schreck articulates her views directly to the audience, presenting her personal stories and beliefs about the Constitution. This allows Schreck to create what The Villager describes as, “a wake up call not only about the erosion of liberties in response to fear, but also about the less than glorious history of the myth that is America.” (Schulman) While some of the piece’s meanings are implicit, such as personally deciding if one believes that the Constitution should be kept or abolished, the majority of the play explicitly

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presents its political message. Conversely, Angels in America’s political message is more implied and needs to be extracted by the audience as the author does not clearly state it. At the end of the play, Prior delivers the line which is closest to explicitly communicating Kushner’s political message, “We won't die secret deaths anymore. The world only spins forward. We will be citizens. The time has come.” (Kushner) Even here, in the most overt line delivery of the play, the audience must still consider who Prior is discussing and the implications that his words have for society as a whole. Throughout the show, the mistreatment and marginalization of people with AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome) is only hinted at, but the play proves to be an effective piece as the audience can deduce meaning for themselves. Both What the Constitution Means to Me and Angels in America are influential pieces of political theatre which received high acclaim, illustrating that implicitly and explicitly delivered political messages can be equally cogent. The choice of how to best convey the message depends on the play’s themes and the type of message the playwright aims to present. There are certain forms of theatre which are effective at conveying some political messages, but would be unsuccessful for others. For example, humor cannot be employed in all cases as there are subjects too sensitive to be approached in such a way or messages which would benefit more from serious delivery. For instance, November, when compared to Absence of War, is equally effective at commenting on the political climate of a country, but does so in a much more comedic way. November uses satire to present the flawed absurdity of American politics. Charles is obsessed with earning money from pardoning turkeys, an age-old tradition not usually meant for monetary gain, showing what the current president in the play has come to. Mamet also uses comedic lines such as, “Couldn’t we make it rain or something, just to keep the other guys from voting? The other guys stop voting the incumbent wins, isn’ that the rule? Can’t

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we oh, you know, just make it rain…?” (Mamet) Mamet intends to make the President’s words and actions ridiculous to show that politics has started to resemble a gameshow or a sitcom rather than a medium where politicians aim to push the country forward. Absence of War presents the idea that politics these days has become all about image and how the public perceives the politicians such as when Mary says, “He has to look reassuring. Six Pfennings against the Mark and George goes pinstripe at least.” (Hare) Absence of War presents the cruel British political scene through the realistic story of George’s campaign. If it were to be done through comedy, exposing the backstabbing nature of what British politics has become would not be achieved as meaningfully. The contrast of these two equally effective political commentaries demonstrates that form and tactics must be chosen to fit the idea the playwright is trying to convey. Further, the form of a musical is one that would not be appropriate for all political messages. Even plays which loosely focus on similar ideas can require starkly different forms to be successful. Hamilton: An American Musical and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 both have messages which relate to the idea that American culture is divided based upon race and those who are different can struggle to be accepted. Hamilton hints at acceptance and progress in the United States in a subtle way through telling a story, making the form of a musical useful in moving the story along in a way that engages the audience. In a song lyric, Hamilton calls America, “A place where even orphan immigrants can leave their fingerprints and rise up.” (Miranda) Unlike the darker, more critical messages within Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 about how immigrants and people of different races are treated within the United States, Hamilton presents an uplifting view of immigrants’ roles, making the form of a musical more effective for this piece of political theatre. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 has lines of a different manner: “They basically feel that if it’s a black-on-black crime, if it’s a nigger killin’ a nigger, they don’t have no

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problem with that. But let it be a white victim, oh, they gonna… they gonna go to any extremes necessary to convict some black people.” (Parker qtd. in Smith) Such intense ideas with deep relevance to the inherent racism present in America’s culture may have been belittled through the form of a musical, making Anna Deavere Smith’s choice to create a verbatim piece a wise one. Another potential difference in forms of political theatre is the ability to choose whether the play will be based on reality or in the genre of fiction. When a play’s message has specific key players or is centered around a real, distinct event, basing the play in reality can influentially portray a political opinion. However, if the chosen message is a broader concept which can be applied to many people, places, and times, fiction could be a more useful form. This can be illustrated through analyzing Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and Sweat, plays both centered around race and how society functions, but one which does so through reality and one which does so through fiction. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 uses verbatim, which allows it to convey the true emotion and complexity of the events in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. It accurately expresses how the citizens of the area felt by using their own words such as Judith Tur saying, “It’s terrible for me to be angry-- I hate to be angry-- and what’s happening, the white people are getting so angry now that they’re going back fifty years instead of being pushed ahead.” (Tur qtd. in Smith) With such a sensitive issue that the local community had strong feelings about, fictionalizing it would have potentially been offensive to many and unable to capture the multitude of perspectives of the events at hand. Sweat, however, is a drama which fictionally presents the story of a town where many jobs are being lost and given to immigrants as they are willing to accept lower wages, leading to a divided society within the town. This is a phenomenon occurring in many towns around the United States, so fictionalizing it allows it to be relevant to all these places. When Tracey speaks about Oscar, an immigrant who accepted one of the

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positions on the line, she says, “So what he’s got an apartment filled with seventeen relatives that gotta eat. I’m tired of their shit. I worked that line for over twenty years and he thinks he can push in.” (Nottage) This is a line which could apply to any town experiencing such a situation, which is why fiction is useful for this topic. The way both these works convey their political message demonstrates why the choice of fiction versus nonfiction for a piece of political theatre is important to tailor to the specific play. As stated in the introduction, the single quality that all political theatre must have to be effective is a clear message from the playwright. When a playwright is unsure of what he or she wants to say, it is hard to convey a specific message as there is not really one to communicate. In my opinion, Fences serves as an example of a play where the playwright did not have a concrete message in mind. While it could be argued that the message is implicit like Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Fences seemed more unclear as to what it was presenting and a comprehensible message did not present itself even after much play analysis. It vaguely presented the mistreatment of African Americans in the 1950s and hinted at how they were kept out of the sports industry because of racist attitudes, but also seemingly presented how African Americans were mistreating each other which created a confusing overarching feeling after seeing the play in performance. These contrasting ideas make it seem as if August Wilson himself did not necessarily know what he wanted the audience to understand from his play. Perhaps his message is simply too implicit to be understandable, but it came across as a weaker piece of political theatre as it did not have as strong of a message as the aforementioned pieces. To me, this demonstrates how a playwright who is unsure of what he or she is trying to say will create an ineffective piece of political theatre. Political theatre strives to convey many different messages, not all of which should or can

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be expressed in the same manner. It is important to tailor the form and techniques used to the piece itself so as to effectively communicate the message the playwright is trying to get across. This can be done through satire, musicals, fiction, verbatim, and numerous other styles, many of which have been shown through this essay to be equally effective. As long as the playwright is sure of what he or she is trying to say and chooses a form which fits the message, a piece of political theatre can be extremely effective.

Works Cited: Hare, David. The Absence of War. Faber & Faber, 2015.

Kushner, Tony. Angels in America: a Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Nick Hern Books Limited, 2017.

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Mamet, David. November. Samuel French, 2010.

Miranda, Lin-Manuel. Hamilton: An American Musical. 2015.

Nottage, Lynn. Sweat . 4th ed., Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 2017.

Schulman, Michael. “Heidi Schreck Takes the Constitution to Broadway.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 25 June 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/18/heidischreck-takes-the-constitution-to-broadway?verso=true.

Smith, Anna Deavere. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Dramatists Play Service, 2003....