Drama is a literary
composition meant to be staged. The term drama is derived from the Greek word
‘dran’ which means ‘to act’. Drama originated in ancient Greece. Ancient Greek
drama took its origin from religious rituals performed during the worship of
Dionysus, the God of wine and fertility.
The villagers celebrated the festivals with a lot of singing and
dancing. Two types of plays originated from such celebration. They are tragedy
and comedy.
Tragedy represented the serious side of human
life when comedy takes the lighter side of life. In England drama originated
from the religious performances of the Middle Ages. Priests and monks enacted
the roles of characters and plays were usually performed inside the church. In due
course, the earlier Latin dialogues were replaced by English and from the
church play performances moved to the churchyard and to the streets.
The plays produced by Trade
Guilds on religious themes became popular as Mystery plays and Miracle plays. Mysteries
have themes from the Bible and the Miracle plays dealt with the lives of
saints. Then appeared Morality plays in which the characters represented
abstract qualities such as virtue, vice, prudence, ignorance.
Some times in the midst of the serious plays,
introduced small comic scripts of common familiar matters. This kind of play
within a play was called an interlude. John Heywood wrote a play “The Four P’s”
was a well-known interlude. The word
‘theatre is derived from the Greek word ‘theatrons’,which means a place for
viewing. It refers to the space used for a dramatic performance;, theatre is a
form of self-expression and self-realization. Theatre is a medium to entertain
people. Theatre can be a house or an
open space.
Thespis was the first actor playwright in
ancient Greece. Early Greek performances were stage in huge amphitheaters
situated in open areas. The theatre was
rich in music, rituals and dance. Since there were no barriers between the
actors and the audience, the actor-audience participation was very high. The
tragic actors wore marks, padded costumes and thick, high heeled shoes. The
comic actors wore light weight shoes. The masks prevented the actors from
changing expressions and hence the actor’s facial expression remained unchanged
throughout performance.
The Chorus of the ancient
Greek tragedies often functions as the author’s mouth piece. It is usually a
group of people who sing songs and perform dances during the play, guides the
actions, and continually interrupting the dialogue and the progress of the
action with their odes or interludes. The genesis of Greek tragedy is to be
found in the dithyramb, or choral hymn, which as chanted by the village
worshippers around the altar of Dionysus and from this ritual developed the Chorus
which is an essential part of Greek tragedy.
The great Greek dramatist Sophocles perfected
Chorus. In the play Oedipus Rex, the
Chorus performs many functions. Here the Chorus represents the Theban elders
who consult the King on important issues, warn him of the values of virtues and
even makes important judgments on king and others and sings and dances. The main function of the Chorus was to
narrate the events that took place off the stage and to make commends on the
morality of the actions represented on the stage. But in modern plays, the place of the Chorus
is taken by one of the characters in the play.
In Greek Drama, the hero is
called the protagonist and the rival is known as the antagonist. The deuteragonist
is the character that supported the hero throughout the narrative. A foil is a character who exhibits opposite
traits or some traits in a greater or lesser degree. A confident is someone in whom the central
character confides.
Aristotle regarded tragedy as the highest form of poetry. He identified
six elements of tragedy. They are plot, character, thought, diction, music and
spectacle. He divides plot into simple and complex plots. In complex plots there are peripeteia and
anagnorisis. In a simple plot, these two puzzling situations are absent. In Aristotle’s eyes, Oedipus Rex is the best
Greek tragedy which, arouse pity and fear, effecting the catharsis of such
emotions. The tragic hero- Oedipus evokes
the emotions of pity and fear in the minds of the audience, thereby effecting
catharsis which is the benefit of a tragedy on the audience. Elizabethan drama
reached its zenith during the period of William Shakespeare, Christopher
Marlowe and others. Shakespeare’s plays are “Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and
Hamlet are the best tragedies.
The nineteenth century Victorian age saw a new
kind of drama known as problem plays. The plays of Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard
Shaw and John Galsworthy enriched English drama. Mr.Warren’s Profession and The
Arms and Man dealt with social problems. ‘Dolls House written by Henrik Ibsen
opened the door to feminism. John Galsworthy’s ‘The Silver Box’ ‘Strife’ and
‘Justice’ dealt with social problems.
Then came ‘the poetic drama’ of Oscar Wild,
W.B.Yeats , Lady Gregory appeared. T.S.Eliot’s famous play ‘Murder in the
Cathedral’ introduces the conventions of Greek drama, and combines myth, ritual
and poetry to create a heightened theatrical effect. It was followed by the
rise of working class drama. John Osborne’s
play ‘Look Back in Anger’ is the best example. Post modern dramas
appeared in the 20th century.
Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’, Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party’,
Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Mother Courage and Her Children’ are famous. Most of them are
called absurd or black comedies.
Sanskrit drama. The earliest Sanskrit theatre is seen in
Bharat Muni’s A Treatise on Theatre (Natyasastra). The Treatise is the most
complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient India. It addresses acting, dance,
music, dramatic construction, architecture, costuming, make up, props, the
organization of companies, the audience and competition and offers a
mythological account of the origin of theatre.
The rules of the Sanskrit drama
have been laid down by Bharath Muni, in his Natyasastra. He implies that rasa
is aroused as a result of the combination of the three elements ie, the
Vibhavas, the Aubhavas and the yabhicari bhavas. However Bhasa the great Indian
dramatist did not follow the rules of Bharatha Muni. Bhasa and Kalidasa were the most famous playwrights of
ancient India. Bhasa’s ‘Karnabhara’, Kalidasa’s Sakunthalam, Vikrama and
Urvashi, Malavika and Agnimitra are famous plays of this period. Rabindranath
Tagore, is a great modern playwright and poet of India and his plays are
written in Bengali. They include ‘Chitrangada, ‘The King of the dark chamber,’
‘Post Office’ famous dramas. Another noted playwright of modern India is Girish
Karnad who has written a number of plays that use history and mythology. His
most famous play is ‘Nagamandala’ Sanskrit plays are classified into ten main
types which are called “Dasaroopikani”. They are Natakam, Prakaranam, Bhana,
Prakarna, Tima, Vyayoga, Samavakra, vithi, Ihamugh and Anga. Nataka and
Prakrana are the most developed form of plays with a minimum of five acts. Kjt/29-02-2016
No comments:
Post a Comment