Revenge Tragedy

Tragedy in the days of Shakespeare is often referred to as Elizabethan tragedy. Few people realise this was a revivial of a form that had a long history, originating alongside the gladiators, only a handful of centuries after the birth of western theatre.

In the 1st Century AD, Roman philosopher Seneca wrote a series of plays involving characters who, during the course of the plot, sought revenge upon another character for an evil doing.

These types of plays are today referred to as Revenge Tragedies and they flourished during the 1600s in England. The plots of such plays included insanity, murder, ghosts, torture, graveyards, ambition and severed limbs.

Most Revenge Tragedies were written after the death of Queen Elizabeth I and during the reign of her successor King James I (1603-1625). Hence, they were a form largely belonging to the Jacobean (not Elizabethan) period and were therefore represented by Shakespeare only in his later works.

The greatest example of a Revenge Tragedy is Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603), where the title character seeks revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering Hamlet’s father. In keeping with the genre, Hamlet ends with the carnage of many characters in the final scene.

Interestingly, the difference between Seneca’s Revenge Tragedies and Shakespeare’s, was that in the Roman drama all the bloodshed occurred offstage and was usually reported via a messenger. In Jacobean tragedies however, this action happened onstage before the audience. Indeed, all the deaths at the end of Hamlet were very much a part of the play’s attraction to a 17th century audience.

Another excellent example of a Revenge Tragedy is John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1623). In this play, the widowed duchess secretly remarries a man against the will of her two powerful brothers. In return, they seek revenge and arrange for her murder as punishment.

Revenge Tragedy Links

Solo Performance Podcast

Well, this is my first attempt at podcasting! I've developed a 16 minute podcast for students and teachers on how to create a solo performance in a high school Drama or Theatre class.

I have created this for use with my current Year 10 Drama students, as part of my Master of Education project at the University of Melbourne. I am examining whether various new and emerging online technologies can benefit our Drama students? So here it is to share.

This podcast covers:

• how to create a solo performance
• various construction techniques used to aid character development
• are multiple characters acceptable in a solo performance?
• to whom do I perform to?
• what are imagined characters?
• the necessary ingredients of a solo performance plot
• the open ended solo performance
• the historical solo performance
• the structured solo performance

Now be easy on me! It's just a start. I've gottta crawl with this podcasting thing before I can run with it. I do hope it will benefit you and your students. I'd love to hear your feedback. Post a comment below.

Solo Performance Podcast

Symbolism

Adding the use of symbol in a student drama performance is a difficult task. But when symbol is weaved successfully into either classroom drama or professional theatre, it adds sophistication that places the show on a whole new level.

A symbol implies a greater meaning than the literal suggestion and is usually used to represent something other than what it is at face value. Symbolism in the theatre can be achieved via characters, colour, movement, costume and props.

Symbolism began with a group of French poets in the late 19th Century and soon spread to the visual arts and theatre, finding its peak between about 1885 and 1910. French poet Jean Moreas published the Symbolist Manifesto in 1886 that greatly influenced the entire movement in the visual and performing arts.

Symbolism in art implied a higher, more spiritual existence and aimed to express emotional experiences by visual means.

In the theatre, symbolism was considered to be a reaction against the plays that embodied naturalism and realism at the turn of the 20th Century. The dialogue and style of acting in symbolist plays was highly stylised and anti realistic/non-naturalistic.

As theatre is often a blend of the visual and performing arts working in harmony, many of the sets and props in symbolist plays were also anti realistic/non-naturalistic and were often used to symbolise emotions or values in society. A huge throne could symbolise power, a window placed in a set could symbolise freedom in the outside world or a simple action by a character could symbolise a greater ideal in the context of the play.

In 1890 French poet Paul Fort opened the Theatre d’Art where many symbolist plays were performed. The primary symbolist playwrights included Belgian Maurice Maeterlinck and Frenchmen Auguste Villiers de L’Isle-Adam and Paul Claudel. Other playwrights who dabbled in the form included Swede August Strindberg (most closely associated with expressionism in the theatre), Irishman W.B. Yeats and American Eugene O’Neill.

Symbolism Links