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Brecht’in epik tiyatrosunun Caryl Churchill'in Mad Forest ve Sarah Kane'in Cleansed adlı oyunlarında yansımaları

Year 2020, Issue: Ö8, 678 - 692, 21.11.2020
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.816670

Abstract

Caryl Churchill’in oyunları tematik olarak feminizm, kapitalizm, sosyalizm gibi birçok -izm içerir. Bu durum, Churchill’in dramaturjisinin toplumsal düşüncelerin ve siyasi ideolojilerin eklektik bir birleşimi olduğuna işaret eder. Oyun yazımı ve dramatik uygulamaları bakımından kendine has bir yaratıcılığı olsa da Caryl Churchill geçmişte Avrupa kıtasında gelişmiş dramatik kuram, uygulama ve kültürden istifade etmekten kaçınmaz. Bu bakımdan Churchill, Mad Forest adlı oyununda gözlemlendiği üzere, Bertolt Brecht’in epik tiyatrosunun tematik ve teknik özelliklerinden cömertçe yararlanan bir oyun yazarıdır. Öte yandan, oyunlarında ortaya koyduğu deneyselciliği ile realizmi ve natüralizmi eğip bükerek yeni, post-dramatik bir forma sokan Sarah Kane zorlayıcı, çatışmacı düşünceleri kucaklayışı ve oyunlarında sergileyişi bakımından selefi Churchill’den farklı değildir. Yenilikçi dramatik düşüncelere ve uygulamalara olan yakınlığının yanı sıra Sarah Kane önceki dramatik yaklaşımları da onaylar tıpkı Romalı oyun yazarı Seneca’nın Phaedra oyununu Phaedra’s Love oyunu ile uyarlayışında olduğu gibi. Keza, Cleansed oyununda Sarah Kane’in Brecht’in epik tiyatro anlayışından yararlandığı gözlemlenebilir. Tüm bunların rehberliğinde bu çalışma, Caryl Churchill’in ve Sarah Kane’in sırasıyla Mad Forest ve Cleansed adlı oyunlarının nasıl ve ne derecede epik tiyatro özellikleri barındırdığını irdelemektedir. Bertolt Brecht, Caryl Churchill ve Sarah Kane arasındaki bu üç taraflı etkileşimi irdeleyerek bu çalışma ayrıca görünürde farklı nesillerin birbirlerinden uzak bu oyun yazarları arasındaki dramatik ilişkileri de yeniden anlamlandırmaya çalışmaktadır.

References

  • Abrams, M. H. (1998). A Glossary of literary terms. Holt & Winston........................................
  • Akçeşme, B. (2009). Epic theatre as a means of feminist theatre in Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest.” Erciyes Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, no: 26 (1), 93-106.
  • Aston, E. (2010). Caryl Churchill. Liverpool University Press....................................
  • Brecht, B. (1978). Brecht on theatre (John Willett, Trans.). Methuen. (Original work published in 1964)
  • Carney, S. (2013). The politics and poetics of contemporary English tragedy. University of Toronto Press. https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebooksid=a05e7014-ca55-48e6-b5c82eeb8ce05347%40sessionmgr101&vid=0&format=EB
  • Churchill, C. (1996). Mad Forest. Theater Communications Group......................................
  • Dabiri, A. (2012). Sarah Kane’s concern for humanity: “Blasted” as an antiwar play. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, vol. 51. 90-93.
  • Demastes, W. (1996). British playwrights, 1956-1995: A research and production sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group.
  • Dimitrova, Z. (2016). Transmorphisms in Sarah Kane’s “Cleansed” and Laura Wade’s “Breathing Corpses”. SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies. 2:2. 223-243.
  • Gray, F. (1993). Mirrors of utopia: Caryl Churchill and the joint stock. In James Acheson (Ed.), British and Irish Drama since 1960. St. Martin’s Press. 47-58.
  • Greig, D. (2001). Introduction. Complete Plays: Blasted, Phaedra’s Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, Skin. Methuen Drama. pp. ix-xviii.
  • Gobert, R. D. (2014). The theatre of Caryl Churchill. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama........................
  • Grimm, R. (1997). Alienation in context: On the theory and practice of Brechtian theater. In Siegfried Mews (Ed.), A Bertolt Brecht Reference Companion. Greenwood Press.
  • Kane, S. (2001). Complete plays: Blasted, Phaedra’s Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, Skin. Methuen Drama.
  • Leach, R. (1994). “Mother Courage and Her Children”. In Peter Thompson and Glendry Sacks (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge UP. 128-139.
  • Lyon, J. K. (1980). Bertolt Brecht in America. Princeton UP.........................................................
  • Matović, T. (2016). Wings of desire: Pleas for humanity in Mark Ravenhill’s “Faust is Dead” and Sarah Kane’s “Cleansed”. In Radmila Nastic and Vesna Bratic (Eds.), Highlights in Anglo-American drama: Viewpoints from Southeast Europe. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Murray, E. (1990). Varieties of dramatic structure: A study of theory and practice. University Press of America.
  • Orwell, G. (2003). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin Books....................................................
  • Patterson, M. (2003). Strategies of political theatre: Post-war British playwrights. Cambridge UP.
  • Reinelt, J. (2000). Caryl Churchill and the politics of style. In Elaine Aston & Janelle Reinelt (Eds.), Modern British Women Playwrights (pp. 174-191). Cambridge UP. Rodríguez, V. (2013). Neo-Brechtian techniques for a globalized age: The politics of David Greig’s Brewers Fayre (2009) and Fragile (2011). School of English Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
  • Sierz, A. (2001). In-Yer-Face theatre: British drama today. Faber and Faber..............................
  • Stephenson, H., Langridge, N. (Eds). (1997). Rage and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting. Methuen Drama.
  • Urban, K. (2001). An ethics of catastrophe: The theatre of Sarah Kane. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, 23 (3), 36-46.
  • Urban, K. (2006). Cruel Britannia: British Theatre in the 1990s [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The State University of New Jersey.
  • Waulbern, J. H. (1972). Brecht and Ionesco: Commitment in context. University of Illinois P.
  • Weales, G. (1993). Overbite & underdone: “Mad Forest” and “Halcyon Days”. Commonweal. 120 (1), 20.
  • Willett, J. (1977). The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht. Methuen Drama.........................
  • Yönkul, A. (2013). A Brechtian analysis of Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest” and Edward Bond’s “Red, Black and Ignorant” [Unpublished master thesis]. Middle East Technical University.

Elements of Brecht’s epic theatre in Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest and Sarah Kane’s Cleansed

Year 2020, Issue: Ö8, 678 - 692, 21.11.2020
https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.816670

Abstract

Caryl Churchill’s plays thematically embody elements of many -isms such as feminism, sexism, capitalism, and socialism, labeling her dramaturgy as an eclectic combination of social philosophies and political ideologies. Although genuinely creative and original in her writing and theatrical practices, Caryl Churchill does not refrain from making use of preceding European theatrical theory, practice, and culture. In this sense, she is a playwright who benefits considerably from the thematic and technical aspects of the Brechtian epic theatre, which can be observed in her Mad Forest. Sarah Kane, on the other hand, with her experimental dramaturgy that stretches and twists features of realism and naturalism into new post-dramatic forms, is no less different from her predecessor Caryl Churchill in terms of embracing challenging, confrontational ideas and reflecting them in her plays. Notwithstanding with her openness to novel dramatic styles, Sarah Kane, too, acknowledges earlier dramatic aesthetics as seen in her Phaedra’s Love, which is an adaptation of the classical Roman playwright Seneca’s Phaedra. Likewise, it can be observed that Sarah Kane utilizes certain features of the Brechtian epic theater in her Cleansed. Considering these, this article studies how and to what extent Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane maintain the Brechtian dramatic elements in their Mad Forest and Cleansed, respectively. By examining this tripartite interaction among Bertolt Brecht, Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane, the study also tries to reinterpret the dramatic relations among these seemingly distant playwrights of different generations.

References

  • Abrams, M. H. (1998). A Glossary of literary terms. Holt & Winston........................................
  • Akçeşme, B. (2009). Epic theatre as a means of feminist theatre in Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest.” Erciyes Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, no: 26 (1), 93-106.
  • Aston, E. (2010). Caryl Churchill. Liverpool University Press....................................
  • Brecht, B. (1978). Brecht on theatre (John Willett, Trans.). Methuen. (Original work published in 1964)
  • Carney, S. (2013). The politics and poetics of contemporary English tragedy. University of Toronto Press. https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebooksid=a05e7014-ca55-48e6-b5c82eeb8ce05347%40sessionmgr101&vid=0&format=EB
  • Churchill, C. (1996). Mad Forest. Theater Communications Group......................................
  • Dabiri, A. (2012). Sarah Kane’s concern for humanity: “Blasted” as an antiwar play. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, vol. 51. 90-93.
  • Demastes, W. (1996). British playwrights, 1956-1995: A research and production sourcebook. Greenwood Publishing Group.
  • Dimitrova, Z. (2016). Transmorphisms in Sarah Kane’s “Cleansed” and Laura Wade’s “Breathing Corpses”. SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies. 2:2. 223-243.
  • Gray, F. (1993). Mirrors of utopia: Caryl Churchill and the joint stock. In James Acheson (Ed.), British and Irish Drama since 1960. St. Martin’s Press. 47-58.
  • Greig, D. (2001). Introduction. Complete Plays: Blasted, Phaedra’s Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, Skin. Methuen Drama. pp. ix-xviii.
  • Gobert, R. D. (2014). The theatre of Caryl Churchill. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama........................
  • Grimm, R. (1997). Alienation in context: On the theory and practice of Brechtian theater. In Siegfried Mews (Ed.), A Bertolt Brecht Reference Companion. Greenwood Press.
  • Kane, S. (2001). Complete plays: Blasted, Phaedra’s Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, Skin. Methuen Drama.
  • Leach, R. (1994). “Mother Courage and Her Children”. In Peter Thompson and Glendry Sacks (Eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Brecht. Cambridge UP. 128-139.
  • Lyon, J. K. (1980). Bertolt Brecht in America. Princeton UP.........................................................
  • Matović, T. (2016). Wings of desire: Pleas for humanity in Mark Ravenhill’s “Faust is Dead” and Sarah Kane’s “Cleansed”. In Radmila Nastic and Vesna Bratic (Eds.), Highlights in Anglo-American drama: Viewpoints from Southeast Europe. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Murray, E. (1990). Varieties of dramatic structure: A study of theory and practice. University Press of America.
  • Orwell, G. (2003). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin Books....................................................
  • Patterson, M. (2003). Strategies of political theatre: Post-war British playwrights. Cambridge UP.
  • Reinelt, J. (2000). Caryl Churchill and the politics of style. In Elaine Aston & Janelle Reinelt (Eds.), Modern British Women Playwrights (pp. 174-191). Cambridge UP. Rodríguez, V. (2013). Neo-Brechtian techniques for a globalized age: The politics of David Greig’s Brewers Fayre (2009) and Fragile (2011). School of English Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
  • Sierz, A. (2001). In-Yer-Face theatre: British drama today. Faber and Faber..............................
  • Stephenson, H., Langridge, N. (Eds). (1997). Rage and Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting. Methuen Drama.
  • Urban, K. (2001). An ethics of catastrophe: The theatre of Sarah Kane. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, 23 (3), 36-46.
  • Urban, K. (2006). Cruel Britannia: British Theatre in the 1990s [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. The State University of New Jersey.
  • Waulbern, J. H. (1972). Brecht and Ionesco: Commitment in context. University of Illinois P.
  • Weales, G. (1993). Overbite & underdone: “Mad Forest” and “Halcyon Days”. Commonweal. 120 (1), 20.
  • Willett, J. (1977). The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht. Methuen Drama.........................
  • Yönkul, A. (2013). A Brechtian analysis of Caryl Churchill’s “Mad Forest” and Edward Bond’s “Red, Black and Ignorant” [Unpublished master thesis]. Middle East Technical University.
There are 29 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Linguistics
Journal Section World languages and litertures
Authors

Mustafa Bal 0000-0002-4839-1800

Publication Date November 21, 2020
Published in Issue Year 2020 Issue: Ö8

Cite

APA Bal, M. (2020). Elements of Brecht’s epic theatre in Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest and Sarah Kane’s Cleansed. RumeliDE Dil Ve Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi(Ö8), 678-692. https://doi.org/10.29000/rumelide.816670

RumeliDE Journal of Language and Literature Studies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).