During the Victorian era it was a popular idea amongst playwrights, such as Shakespeare, to us the stage as a mirror for the world. “like a mirror, [the stage] shows audiences both their good and bad qualities along with an accurate reflection of the times.”, Barranger’s eloquent sentence brings up a good point. The stage, used as a way to showcase humanity, with all its shine, and all its cracks. Nearly every good story showcases a part of the time they were written in, such as: Hamlet, Oedipus, Macbeth; even some modern stories such as Spamalot, Wicked, and Greece. Showcasing Humanity is an effective to create the connection between actors and audience.
Something that bothers me about the showcasing of Humanity in a performance is perception. When the audience is watching a performance, they see only the perception that the actors convey, and the actors only convey what the script says, with added direction of a director. So what is conveyed to the audience is not truly a mirror of reality in the sense of a straight bathroom mirror, but a mirror that closer resembles a fun house; having been warped to the perception of the play write, the warped by a director, then tweaked by the actors, and delivered to the audience.
“Our perception is our reality, but our reality may not be our perception”, a powerful quote delivered to me by my seventh grade Social Science teacher, Mr. Clark. I took that quote as a warning of caution, everything that is spoken, written, or performed came from someone’s perspective, and while we must live our lives believing that perspective to be real, we also must be open to different perspectives, so that we can become critical of our own. All of that is to say that when observing a production, it is best to watch out for things that you would consider falsehoods, and instead of throwing those ideas away, examine them. Barranger attempts to describe the changing of perspectives when he talks on the difference between the play Henrey V and the film Henrey V.
Barranger states that films are “cutting, editing, framing, and camera movement rearranged Shakespeare’s text while retaining the language pertinent to telling the story on film.” While “The theatrical dimension is concentrated in certain scenes of Henry V,”. Films are more concerned about fitting the whole story into roughly an hour and a half, where as theatre has the luxury of having all evening. Scenes that are drawn out in a theatre version are cut shorter for film; we lose the perspective of the original text.
The Victorian idea that the stage is a mirror for humanity is more or less true. To create the bond between actors and audience, some familiarity is required; a sense of reality is needed, whither that be environmental or ideological. But, because the play is written by one man, then twisted and turned by several others. The stage is a mirror, but it is not a large bathroom mirror that reflects with perfect light, it’s more like the back of a spoon, reflective, but flipped upside down, and bulged.
Something that bothers me about the showcasing of Humanity in a performance is perception. When the audience is watching a performance, they see only the perception that the actors convey, and the actors only convey what the script says, with added direction of a director. So what is conveyed to the audience is not truly a mirror of reality in the sense of a straight bathroom mirror, but a mirror that closer resembles a fun house; having been warped to the perception of the play write, the warped by a director, then tweaked by the actors, and delivered to the audience.
“Our perception is our reality, but our reality may not be our perception”, a powerful quote delivered to me by my seventh grade Social Science teacher, Mr. Clark. I took that quote as a warning of caution, everything that is spoken, written, or performed came from someone’s perspective, and while we must live our lives believing that perspective to be real, we also must be open to different perspectives, so that we can become critical of our own. All of that is to say that when observing a production, it is best to watch out for things that you would consider falsehoods, and instead of throwing those ideas away, examine them. Barranger attempts to describe the changing of perspectives when he talks on the difference between the play Henrey V and the film Henrey V.
Barranger states that films are “cutting, editing, framing, and camera movement rearranged Shakespeare’s text while retaining the language pertinent to telling the story on film.” While “The theatrical dimension is concentrated in certain scenes of Henry V,”. Films are more concerned about fitting the whole story into roughly an hour and a half, where as theatre has the luxury of having all evening. Scenes that are drawn out in a theatre version are cut shorter for film; we lose the perspective of the original text.
The Victorian idea that the stage is a mirror for humanity is more or less true. To create the bond between actors and audience, some familiarity is required; a sense of reality is needed, whither that be environmental or ideological. But, because the play is written by one man, then twisted and turned by several others. The stage is a mirror, but it is not a large bathroom mirror that reflects with perfect light, it’s more like the back of a spoon, reflective, but flipped upside down, and bulged.
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