Quick questions on Political theatre: HSC Drama elective

Political theatre is theatre that takes political intervention as part of its aim. The distinction is not absolute; most theatre carries political implications, and political theatre is not always overtly partisan. The term marks work that explicitly engages with political and social conflict and that seeks to do more than entertain.

Erwin Piscator (1893 to 1966) is the founding figure of modern political theatre. A German director, Piscator developed documentary theatre at the Berlin Volksbuhne (1924 to 1927) and at his own Piscator-Buhne (1927 to 1931).

Bertolt Brecht's epic theatre (covered in detail in the brecht-and-epic-theatre dot point) remains the canonical reference for political theatre. Verfremdungseffekt, gestus, narrative structure and songs that interrupt the action have been adopted by virtually every subsequent political theatre tradition.

Joan Littlewood (1914 to 2002) ran the Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, from 1953 to 1979. The Workshop was a co-operative committed to popular theatre for working-class audiences.

Augusto Boal (1931 to 2009), Brazilian director and theorist, developed Theatre of the Oppressed from the late 1960s. The work emerged out of his direction of the Arena Theatre of Sao Paulo and his political organising during the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964 to 1985).

The political theatre tradition continues in many directions.

Direct address. Speaking past the action to the audience. Standard since Brecht.

If your Studies in Drama and Theatre elective is Political Theatre, you will study the tradition from Piscator and Brecht through Littlewood and Boal into contemporary practitioners. Strong essays move past description of techniques into analysis of how form serves political aim, and engage with at least one specific production in detail.

David Hare (Stuff Happens, 2004, on the Iraq War), Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, 1982; A Number, 2002; Seven Jewish Children, 2009), debbie tucker green (random, 2008), James Graham (This House, 2012). The Tricycle Theatre's tribunal plays of the 1990s and 2000s (verbatim courtroom drama) were a major political theatre vehicle.

Tony Kushner (Angels in America, 1991; Caroline, or Change, 2003), Anna Deavere Smith (Fires in the Mirror, 1992; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1993), Larry Kramer (The Normal Heart, 1985).

Melbourne Workers Theatre (1987 to 2012) was the most institutionally committed political theatre company. Patricia Cornelius's plays on working-class women, sexual violence and contemporary class politics. Stephen Sewell's larger-canvas political plays.

Anna Deavere Smith, the Tricycle tribunal plays, Roslyn Oades and Alana Valentine in Australia (covered in the verbatim-theatre dot point).

Speaking past the action to the audience. Standard since Brecht.

Real interviews, news footage, court transcripts. Piscator's invention; verbatim theatre's central method.

Boal's Forum Theatre is the developed example. Less radical forms include solicited audience response in Joan Littlewood's productions.