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

King Lear according to the techniques of game theory reveals four
separate “games” woven into a complex total texture which might be
called the Lear-game. The shifting combination of players, the rhythmic
occurrences of moves, and the directions of players’ choices give
in the graphic form of a “game tree” a structural picture of the scene
more elemental than a mere design of the physical action or of the
psychological motivation could ever be. This kind of analysis would be
of practical use in determining broad patterns of movement and specific
stage groupings; its advantage over a purely intuitive interpretation
of a scene based upon character psychology is that it assumes
an integral dramatic structure which supports characterization while
transcending individual action.
(McCoy 1965)
It would seem that mathematical game theory and transactional
analysis have rich futures in the theater. This is so because dramas are
completed actions involving interpersonal relationships usually pivoting
on a conflict situation. Thus there is a nice fit between what drama
encodes to what these theories are attempting to analyze. Further work
needs to be done in the entire area relating theater to plays, games,
sports, and ritual. What I have tried to do here is to outline some of the
relationships and suggest possibilities for future work. [. . .]
These new approaches may be productive because they urge explorations
of horizontal relationships among related forms rather than a
searching vertically for unprovable origins. They also situate theater
where it belongs: among performance genres, not literature. The text,
where it exists, is understood as a key to action, not its replacement.
Where there is no text, action is treated directly. The possibility exists
that a unified set of approaches will be developed that can handle all
performance phenomena, classical and modern, textual and nontextual,
dramatic, theatrical, playful, ritual. Could it be that the historical
rifts separating theorists, critics, and practitioners may be ending?
NOTES
approaches 19
1 William Arrowsmith on several occasions attacked the Cambridge thesis.
For example, “It seems to me that nothing but chaos can come from the