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Mattox S. Reed

Political Theatre

Dr. Holt

13 April 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. Design 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.

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

person makes to connect to the core of the story to themselves. It just their natural instinct to
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relate everything to themselves. 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.

There are a multitude of different styles and design concepts where the the theatre shift

the perspective and attention of the story so that they feel a connection. One popular style is

where the audience is held in a different space though where the spectator is turned into an

observer making an active choice and connection to their situation as the feel apart of the

performance. This can be done through a multitude of different devices one of the most

prominent in early 20th century modern theatre was 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 kind of connections to be

formed amongst the audience.

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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. At its core it is mean to give context to the audience of the

show but it can also be used 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 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 stagings 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.

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 I know is
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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.