BERTOLT BRECHT’İN EPİK TİYATROSUNUN İNGİLİZ POLİTİK TİYATROSU ÜZERİNE TARTIŞMALI ETKİSİ VE BU ETKİNİN DAVİD HARE’İN FANSHEN OYUNUYLA ÖRNEKLEMİ

Year 2022, Volume: 62 Issue: 1, 721 - 740, 25.06.2022

Tuba Ağkaş Özcan

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2022.62.1.29

Abstract

İngiliz politik tiyatrosu, edebi bir bildiri olmaksızın, 1960’ların sonlarında, bir grup sol görüşlü oyun yazarının politik farkındalıkla yazdığı oyunlarıyla çağdaş İngiliz sahnesindeki yerini aldı. Bu tiyatro, söz konusu oyun yazarlarının kendi ülkelerinde İşçi Partisi politikaları, dünyada da Vietnam Savaşı, Paris’teki öğrenci ayaklanmaları, Sovyet Rusya’nun Macaristan’a ve Çekoslavakya’ya müdahalesi gibi olaylar karşısındaki hayal kırıklığını yansıtmaktadır. İngiliz politik tiyatrosu oyun yazarları açık bir şekilde politik oyunlar yazdılar ve oyunlarını, ilk planda, gezici, tiyatroyu halkın ayağına götüren “fringe” tiyatro kumpanyaları aracılığıyla sergilediler. Bertolt Brecht, İngiliz politik tiyatrosunun gelişimi üzerinde en önemli etkisi olan isimlerden biriydi ama bu gerçek politik tiyatro oyun yazarları tarafından çoğu zaman inkar edilmekteydi. Brecht’in etkisi, tiyatro kumpanyası Berliner Ensemble’ın 1958’de Londra’yı ziyaretinden de önceye, II. Dünya Savaşı öncesine dayanmaktadır. 1950’ler ve 1960’lardaki İngiliz oyun yazarları ve yönetmenleri Brecht’in eserlerini hem İngiltere’de hem de Almanya’da görüp tanıma imkanı buldular ve İngiliz sahnesine de Brecht’in epic tiyatrosunu tanıttılar. İşte bu oyun yazarlarının ve yönetmenlerinin dönemi İngiltere’de politik tiyatronun gelişiminin öncülüğünü yaptı. Politik tiyatro oyun yazarları kabul etmese de Brecht’in epic tiyatrosu, İngiliz politik tiyatrosu üzerinde edebi anlamda etkisi olan en önemli unsurlardan biridir. Bu çalışma, öncelikle İngiliz politik tiyatrosunun gelişiminden kısaca bahsedecek ve sonrasında Brecht’in epic tiyatrosunun İngiliz politik tiyatro oyun yazarlarını ne kadar etkilediğini gün ışığına çıkaracaktır. En son olarak da, önde gelen politik tiyatro oyun yazarlarından biri olan David Hare’in Fanshen (1975) adlı oyunundaki Brecht etkilerini araştırıp gözler önüne serecektir.

Keywords

İngiliz politik tiyatrosu, "fringe" tiyatro, Bertolt Brecht, epik tiyatro, David Hare, Fanshen

CONTROVERSIAL EFFECT OF BERTOLT BRECHT’S EPIC THEATRE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH POLITICAL DRAMA AND ITS ILLUSTRATION IN DAVID HARE’S FANSHEN

Abstract

British political drama took its place on contemporary British stage without the boundaries of a certain manifesto but with the political consciousness of a group of leftist playwrights in the late 1960s. It reflected the disillusionment of these playwrights with the Labour Party politics at home and with some worldwide events like the Vietnam War, student riots in Paris, Soviet Russia’s interventions in Hungary and in Czechoslovakia. British political dramatists wrote explicitly politically and produced their plays, in the first place, by the help of fringe theatre companies, which were touring and which took theatre to the public. Bertolt Brecht was one of the most important literary influences on the development of British political drama, which was mostly denied by political dramatists. Brecht’s impact dated back not only to his theatre company Berliner Ensemble’s visit to London in 1958 but even before the World War II. British playwrights and directors in 1950s and 1960s got acquainted with Brecht’s works both in Britain and in Germany and they helped to introduce Brecht’s epic theatre on British stage. This generation of playwrights and directors paved the way for the development of political drama in Britain. Even though political dramatists did conceal, Brecht’s epic theatre was, in literary terms, one of the greatest influences on political drama. This study will briefly talk about the development of British political drama and then it will reveal to what extent Brecht’s epic theatre affected British political playwrights. Lastly, it will explore Brechtian influences in a play Fanshen (1975) by one of the representative political playwrights, David Hare.

Keywords

British political drama, fringe theatre, Bertolt Brecht, epic theatre, David Hare, Fanshen

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