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Mattox S. Reed

Political Theatre

Dr. Holt

1 May 2017

The Design of Political Theatre

The effect of theatrical design can change the meaning behind the story just as much as

the words of the performance. There have been countless performances and iconic messages

throughout politics and theatre and the platform that the message is displayed on has been just as

important as anything that has been said. Everything in politics and theater is thought out and

used to create some sort of advantage for the presenter in order to control the audiences

perception of their message and image. Designing and creating a platform for all of this is an

integral part that is often forgotten and is said is to be doing its job best when it goes unnoticed.

Staging and theatrical design is an integral part of all of these adaptations. Sets can be

abstract, highly realistic, or anything in between, and they are a chance for a designer to

showcase interesting concepts, new techniques, and unusual materials all to tell the story in a

different manner. Scenic or set design can be thought of as the art of addressing three issues:

space, texture, and the statement. The space telling the audience and showing them where the

director wants them to place this performance. The texture is added depth to the story and leaves

something for the audience to think about when the story is at a lull in order to draw them back

into the environment. And of course the statement which differs from each designer and

performance as they choose what stamp their design is trying to leave on the show and hence the

audience. At its core it is mean to give context to the audience of the show but it can also be used
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to tell stories all its own and draw the audience in that way. The design of the show just as the

actors and the staging is never mean to detract from the story being told, but its only meant to

enhance and this goes back to the very beginning.

The history of set design begins in ancient Greece. Between 550 BC and 220 BC, theaters

flourished in ancient Greece and set the ball rolling for performance in front of a large audience.

Designers of Greek theaters were the first to understand the communicative experience between

the stage and audience and during ancient times the theatre was a place where the citizen body

gathered to be informed on matters of both society and politics. It was the tragedies and

comedies created by William Shakespeare and the like that stirred debate and dialogue among

the audience, often with regard to political engagement. The audience would see direct

connections and styles used in the world around them. The staging of the shows presented the set

designers of today with works to follow off of and plays that they can then adapt to knew times

and different political situations.

The theatre presents us with this impossible challenge of holding both reality and our

imagination in the same moment in order to keep the interest in the show. Most of the time we

are holding this subconscious idea that we are watching something that is so fake and we know is

not real but at the same time we want it to be, and it effectively connects to us as people and

relates in a way that no other performance medium can. In watching politics the same kind of

dilemma comes up, where what is being shown we have to take as both fact and falsehood we

have to remember the ultimate goal of the performance as something to appease and satisfy the

people.

The power of theatre and its messages can be very influential on an audience but is the

power itself is still primarily an indirect power. There is that unconscious decision that every
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person makes to connect to the core of the story to them. It is not the audiences fault either its

simply human nature relating the story to oneself and something that the theatre itself takes

advantage of from time to time. But it does not always stick and not something that you can

discover in any other medium or simply discover through everyday life. These are connections

that can pertain to you or the world directly around you but still can be forgotten forever just the

same as they could pertain to the rest of you life. That is the power that most theatre holds where

the audience member is spectating and creating connections that are simply presented to them by

the performance in front of them.

Theatre and the stage really grew into its own story telling form at the beginning of the

20th century with the rise of modern theatre and the globalization of new devices in the design

world. One of the most unique and powerful effects that emerged during this time would be

Verfremdungseffekt, or more commonly know as the estrangement effect. The estrangement

effect described by Berlot Brecht, the man noted with defining the over arching concept of Epic

Theatre, describes it as such playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply

identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and

utterances was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience's

subconscious. Therefore forcing the audience to think of the actors as actors and they as

audience members redirecting their focus of the story as just a story and then playing with their

creativity to imagine new things in the performance. Leaving stages and crews bare in their

natural state and then calling out all of the stage directions and different emotions to the audience

forces these kinds of connections to be formed amongst the audience. The production took the

subject matter and the events portrayed on stage and put them through a process of alienation.
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What really is the difference though between the political and theatrical stage? In the

words of English playwright Lee Hall The point of theatre is transformation: to make an

extraordinary event out of ordinary material right in front of an audience's eyes. Where the germ

of the idea came from is pretty much irrelevant. What matters to every theatre maker is speaking

clearly to the audience 'right now. This is where the difference between the politics of theatre

and the theatre of politics really comes into full view.

While theatre is built on the audience being captivated by a message that speaks clearly

to each and everyone of them relating to them and pushing them for self change. Politics is much

more about the perception of clarity and relating to specific people in a specific moment or place.

It is getting to its unique audience directly talking about what they want to hear in a convoluted

and masked way. Theyre goal is to appease and reach as many people as possible. The power is

in their simple relations to people and hiding the fact that they to are actors and presenters of an

idea and a concept.

Todays theatre and stage is presented with all of these challenges everyday and as the

world seems to be changing faster and faster then ever they need to be that much more careful. I

recently talked with the Co-Artistic Director, Michael Haverty, at 7 Stages and we talked through

the troubles of creating a show for this kind of environment. As background 7 Stages is a

professional, non-profit theatre company devoted to engaging artists and audiences by focusing

on the social, political, and spiritual values of contemporary culture. Creating spaces for having

hard collaborative conversations. And they have to think through each and everyone of the

aspects that I have talked about previously. Mr. Haverty was able to provide proven fact that

there is a serious challenge in bringing all of these components together and that as an artistic

director he must discover and consider every possible view point. In theatre the ultimate goal is
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never to shut something down or stop a point but to provide a stage for discussion. Allowing

those who leave the theatre to continue and have a discussion with one another without feeling

shut down or attacked by what they had just experienced. And that goes back to the original point

expressing the amount of care and effort that has to be put in for each story and for each audience

members view of the story. The art of crafting a stage and a performance for a text takes so much

more then ever can be shown on so the ultimate goal turns to be making it look as easy as

possible and hide all of the hard work and thought that goes into it. The design though and the

concepts and levels that they provide will always be an integral part of a show.

Works Cited-

Haverty, Michael Personal Interview. 21 April. 2017.

Brecht, Bertolt, and John Willett. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. New

York: Hill and Wang, 1964. Print.

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Hill, Jim. "Lee Hall Compares Translating 'Shakespeare in Love' From the Screen to the Stage to

Doing an Enormous Suduko." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Aug.

2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.