Kamryn C.

Burton
March 31, 2015
Professor Carolyn Coulson
Script Analysis
Analysis For the Isms

In non-realist theatre actors are told a lot less information than

what they would be told in a realist play. For example, in Brecht s
plays he tells his actors only what he knows of his writing and leaves
the rest up for interpretation. The actors then take this information and
incorporate it into the scene. Unlike Realist plays, Theatre of Alienation
does not let the actor create and answer their own questions, but
ponder. Its very similar to poetry, open to an interpretation for the
audience. Actors in the Theatre of Alienation also break the many rules
of the traditional Realist theatre approach. There are plays where the
actor does not speak a word, or is only a mouth speaking fifty miles an
hour. These plays, however, still manage to tell an overall story to the
viewer even without a change of lines from the actor. In Brechts play
Play the actors speak very fast and are in what appears to be urns.
Each person in the audience has their own view on what they saw.
Another example of a theatre ism is Surrealism. The definition
of surrealism is above the point of being real, therefore, it does not
force the audience to be stuck in the problems of the current society,

but frees audience members to be able liberated from these events

through theatre. It also gives people the ability to be able to think,
what more? It gives the audience the ability to also question society
traditions.
This is very different from Theatre of the Absurd which objective
is to show the world through the playwrights eyes. Theatre of the
Absurd does not liberate the audience but concerns them. Instead of
bringing the world to a heightened place, it traps the human species
into bad, illogical situations. The actor is often alone or trapped in
horrifying situations and makes audiences cringe with the thought of
the idea. This is very unlike the yearning feeling that surrealism gives
the audience.
Although all of these examples are not realist theatre, they are
not the same, and can often be very different.