4 from ritual to theater and back: the efficacy ... - AAAARG.ORG

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from ritual to theater and back
What the braided model depicts is a dynamic system yielding change,
not necessary improvement or decay. At all times a dialectical tension
exists between the efficacious and the entertainment tendencies. For
western theater, at least, I think it can be shown that when the braid is
tight – that is, when efficacy and entertainment are both present in
nearly equal degrees – theater flourishes. During these relatively brief
historical moments the theater answers needs that are both ritualistic
and pleasure-giving. Fifth-century-bce Athenian theater, Elizabethan
theater, and possibly the theater from the late nineteenth century to our
own times show the kind of convergence I’m talking about.
When efficacy dominates, performances are universalistic, allegorical,
ritualized, tied to a stable established order; this kind of theater
persists for a relatively long time. When entertainment dominates, performances
are class-oriented, individualized, show business, constantly
adjusting to the tastes of fickle audiences. The two most recent convergencies
in western theater – the rise of entertainment before the Elizabethan
period and the rise of efficacy during the modern period – are
necessarily structural opposites of each other, though the kind of
theater of each period may appear strikingly similar, reflecting the
balance–tension between efficacy and entertainment.
Figure 4.5 is of course a simplification of the historical process of
western theater. I present the figure as a help in conceptualizing the
process. The late medieval period was dominated by efficacious performances:
church services, court ceremonies, moralities, cycle plays,
carnivals, fairs, pageants. As the Renaissance took hold in England these
began to decline and popular entertainments, always present, became
predominant in the form of the Elizabethen public theaters. The private
and court theaters developed alongside the public theaters. The private
theaters and masques were for the upper classes. Although some professionals
worked in both public and private theaters, and some spectators
attended both, these entertainments were fundamentally different
from each other. The conflicts between the public and private theaters
never worked themselves out because all theaters were closed in 1642
by the Puritans. When the theaters reopened after the Restoration of
1660 the Elizabethan public theater was gone. All the theaters
resembled the private theaters and masques, the property of the upper
classes. The behavior inside Restoration theaters combined the acting