Background 2: History & Hope

In my second journal from “Background”, I wanted to discuss our previous experiences and how they come to shape our identities. From this point, I wanted to discuss dramaturgy in general using Les Murs Ont Des Yeux as a case study to highlight certain dramaturgical questions.

Turner and Behrndt mention Versenyi’s definition that sees dramaturgy as the architecture of the theatrical event and how the different elements of this event come together to present meaning to the audience (17-18). In their argument, they emphasize that in dramaturgical analysis, this is extended to beyond the performance to include the audience, the context, and other related factors of production and reception and how appropriately the performance is orchestrated to deliver a certain meaning (25). This ties into what Brook suggests as key elements of the immediate theatre which is that it should highlight emotion through intellectual insight and relevance (156-157)

One show that I found was particularly confusing was les Murs Ont Des Yeux. They discuss the story of a woman who is beaten up by her husband through the perspective of the walls. At the beginning and end of the play, the word ‘Hope’ appears as they end up *spoiler alert* burning the house down with the husband and the woman’s body in it as a sign of revolution and hope, hiding the truth of their mother’s suffering from their children. Dramaturgically, I think we need to consider the psychological aspects of the show. In psychology, this is a case of a battered woman syndrome. What this basically means, is that women who have such a condition, will acquire what is known as learned helplessness (Walker 75). Learned helplessness means that, in this case, the woman would feel hopeless and incapable of seeking help (Walker 77). It was great that they tried to give the idea some hope, but they went at it in the wrong way, at the wrong time. They burned down the house after she had long died seeking revenge on the husband and hiding the truth from the children. So, the confusing part is whether this was intentional or not. it is either very inappropriate or very brilliant! However, it didn’t feel to me like it was intentional especially because the audience wouldn’t particularly understand those concepts. My suggestion would be to either have nothing occur which would provoke the audience to do something about it themselves, or to change the time when the word “Hope” is shown. Therefore, even though the structure of that performance really was creative, it struggled with making certain dramaturgical decisions.

“Les murs ont les oreilles de Dieu” is interestingly a line from another show that discusses domestic violence (Genet). De Meiden on the other hand, also discussed domestic violence. Dramaturgically, it seemed to accurately represent violence against women within a patriarchal system; however, certain casting and structure choices provoked different questions on dramaturgy. From this point, later journals will continue to discuss dramaturgy within new forms such as the use of multimedia and context such as different theatre structures within globalization. The next part will discuss questions about our current ideas, thoughts, and theater. The next part will discuss “Identity”.

Works Cited

Peter Brook The Empty Space Simon and Schuster. Touchstone Edition 1996.

Turner, Cathy, and Synne K. Behrndt. "What is Dramaturgy?" Dramaturgy and performance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 17-29. Print.

Les Murs Ont Des Yeux. By A.M. Matte. Tarragon Theatre, Toronto. 8 July 2017. Performance.

De Meiden. Dir. Katie Mitchell. By Jean Genet. L'Autre Scène du Grand Avignon - Vedène, Avignon. 16 July 2017. Performance.

Walker, Lenore E.A. The Battered Woman Syndrome. 4th ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2017. Print.