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I think the question, should theatre be socially motivated is one that is difficult to answer.
The theatre itself was invented originally by the ancient Greeks as a FORM of communicating political decisions staged as a dramatic representation of the situations going on in and around greece that would affect the general public. Then the politicians and rulers would judge their decision based on the reaction to the action in the play.

But, theatre has moved on since then I think that theatre should only be socially motivated if there is a burning desire in the writer and/ or director to project their political views onto the main-stage but they have to prepare themselves to take the blows of objections along with rewarding support.

Theatre practitioners such as Brecht did use the stage as an objective view on the social situation happening around them. Brecht often set his plays in other wars in different countries in past times in order to comment on the parallel situations erupting in his modern day Germany all around him. His audience alienation devices were a useful tool to make the audience stop, look, reflect and apply the events happening in front of them to the events happening to them, rather than becoming in an imaginative trance where the plight of the characters and the emotional connection to the characters was all that they took from the play. Inhibiting the potential for the audience to make emotional communications with the characters allowed the plays political impact to resound more. To pioneer this type of social theatre Brecht needed to be subtle for fear of discovery and trial by the Nazi's.

But of course the theatre is only successful on the back of opinion. People might want to go to the theatre as a break from the raw realities of life. They might want to reach out to the characters emotions and grasp them as a change from their own, but of course this sort of emotional high plateau can only be successful for so long. People look for other styles, comedies for example provide light relief for the audience.

You see I think that socially motivated theatre can only be successful as a combination of different audience engagement devices. It needs to be subtle, in today's society people tend to be less politically ignorant and we are becoming a more socially liberal society, freedom to speak and all that, is a human right that has been well and truly worn out using media etc etc therefore theatre audiences are going to be wise to hugely obvious political views and they will stem their political flow right from the offset. There's always that risk of insulting the audience by using blatant connections to the world we are living in now.

So i think that the only way to make your political objectiveness work is to keep the audience guessing. Keep them strapped into a roller coaster of devices, alienation, emotional, ritual, beautiful and grotesque. The impact of the alternating texture of the piece will hit them right where it hurts and the best thing about it is...

they wont even know it's coming.

Learn more about this author, Lowri Ann Davies.
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