Enemy Of The People

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a timeless play which continues to remain relevant across all generations due to its presentation of ideas that are fundamental to humanity. The play highlights aspects that relate to the society of not only Elizabethan England but also that of our modern society. Hamlet, as a character, considers ideas from outside his time and is somewhat relatable to modern day man. By drawing from ideas of archetypes and the human psyche, it reveals that Hamlet relates deeply to the elements of humanity.

This phenomenon was replicated at the University of Michigan’s SMTD performance of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, written by Bertolt Brecht. This play told the story of the rise of gangster Arturo Ui and the corruption of the cauliflower business in order to satirize the rise of Hitler. Despite this being a play, rather than a musical, the use of Copland’s “planes of listening” still apply. Theater-goers can still view the work with different approaches- either purely surface level, meaning-driven, or technical, like the “planes of listening Copland describes.

Brecht’s political theatre stems from his political views towards communism and the upper class society. Theatre that comments on political issues within society. Brecht began to have a dislike for the capitalist society he was brought up in and wanted more of an equal approach to the world and the people around him. With epic theatre, Brecht wanted it to be both didactic (able to teach others) and dialectic (able to create discussions and ideas). The audience at no time during an epic play can be seen to be in a trance or take what they see on stage for granted. Our performance is reflective of Brecht and his Epic and Political theatre as we address many political topics such as Marxism and the divides between classes and the corruption of the government. We have props such as protest signs and banners to communicate Brecht’s political theatre to the audience. In the first episode, Brown’s Boys, there is a scene where MPs choke and die after ignoring the recession and protesters emerge into the audience chanting that ‘politics is dead’ and ‘they don’t really care about us’ while holding banners saying, ‘politics is dead’ and ‘Gordon Clown’. This was done as it represented politics and the fact the seriousness of the situation was ignored; showing how quickly the issues with the recession spiralled out of control and became something that even the higher up in society were unable

     An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen is a theatrical drama which portrays important characteristics such as honesty, integrity, and courage. All of which could be seen as hazardous to European politics at the time. Dr. Thomas Stockmann is a common man who attempts to create a revolution in his town. With the help of his naturally defiant personality the doctor makes a discovery that he hopes will better the town. This discovery was meant to lead a change in the physical structure of the water source. Instead it created a waterfall of political disaster. Despite numerous stabs in the back and lack of free-thinking, Dr. Stockmann stood tall and never backed down from what he believed in.

Within the play, there are a variety of ways that the people of Laramie and those outside of Laramie frame Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, the murderers of Matthew Shepard. I find the fact that the play is able to present how the American people were able to frame them as outliers from society, yet still, acknowledge that the two were manifestations of society surprising. In most texts aimed at the public, the perpetrators of the Matthew Shepard murder are framed as being outliers, not connected with the majority of society. The Laramie Project is able to demonstrate that the pair are a reflection of societal prejudices through the use of contradictions of characters. The playwrights would present a character that used language suggesting that the behavior and attitudes of McKinney and Henderson were abnormal, then contradict those statements using members of Laramie who were either scrutinized by these prejudices or experienced similar ones. In creating these opposing narratives, the play is able to share all the perceptions of Laramie, while still holding the town of Laramie and the audience accountable for the murder.

The play can be seen as a general statement on the effects that fear and fanaticism can have on human beings and how one person can cause such catastrophe. It

creates a play that illustrates not only the struggle of growing up in a prejudiced world but also

“Suspend your disbelief,” is not what playwright Bertolt Brecht wants you to do when you see his musical about the story of the founding fathers on Broadway. Brecht wants his audience to be conscious of the fact that his musical is in fact just that: a musical.

Brechts work is based on the concept that theatre is a means of political persuasion for the masses. He sees the theatre as a tool to manipulate the audience, and to influence their day-to-day living once that have thought about issues raised during the performance.

“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”

Our choice to tell stories should exist in the same moment that we identify an audience who needs to hear that story – now, in this context, in this time, and in this medium. The best relationship with an audience begins dramaturgically, at the beginning of a rehearsal process. We must ask: How can we keep our minds open to the audience we have and also to the audience we want and the audience with whom we hope to collaborate? How do we enter a community and work with new people, learn from them and hope they learn from us? Partner with our similar goals and share resources. Work with them and never for them. Theatre isn’t a service—it’s a

Stockmann, is a mother and a wife who's depicted as an adoring and steadfast housewife. Mrs. Stockmann is a dynamic character in An Enemy of the People. She is unafraid to talk her brain about her assessments. Mrs. Stockmann roots the benefit of the town - everything to work out in a manner where everybody is content with the result. She straightforwardly tells the Doctor, Peter, Billing, Aslaksen, Hovstad, and Petra precisely how she feels about their activities all through the play. Toward the start of the play she was against the thought of Dr. Stockmann, her husband, who needed to compose an article censuring the Baths, "Ah, yes, right, right! Be that as it may, what great is the privilege, in the event that you don't have the may?" (Ibsen 31). Be that as it may, when everybody started siding against Dr. Stockmann, Katherine chooses to stay faithful to her spouse and bolster his thoughts. The reason she bolsters him is on account of she's unwavering and she needs to secure her crew. She's extremely minding and adoring towards her family, another case of her being depicted as a housewife, cliché lady at that time of time. So as should be obvious, her inspiration was her part as an average housewife and a minding mother and wife. Mrs. Stockmann sees how imperative reality her spouse has discovered truly is, yet in the meantime she sees the force Peter needs to keep reality from getting out. She gets to be incensed at the thought what Peter would preferably

The play attracted an audience of almost a thousand, majority of which were senior adults who wanted to see how the young generation could bring out the concepts of Hugo’s novel into action. A good number of the poorer audience members were allowed to pay a few bucks to stand in front of the stage while the affluent majority sat on the covered galleries, paying twice as much as the poor audience for their seats. I could realize that the attendance was beyond the expectations of the play’s organizer because most people complained about missing a ticket to watch it.

In Henrik Ibsen’s play, ‘Ghosts’, the public opinion and the moral system pollutes, deforms and corrupts each character. For instance, Mrs. Alving struggles to liberate herself from the society’s norm that stands in the way of her freedom. Ibsen believed people should not live like Mrs. Alving or in a society that deprives one from their ‘joy of living’. It could be argued the play is especially pessimistic, but actually it is not in fact Ibsen is optimistic about overcoming the restrictions that stop us from being authentic. He wants to break free of the ideas and the ‘Ghosts’, which trap us. Even, in the last scene of his play, ‘When We Dead

The political message portrayed in most of Dario Fo’s performances was: beware of institutional power, and this became the comical backbone of several of his plays. In his most well known production, Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!, Fo addressed the issue of the rising prices for food at the time. This is said to be his most entertaining work, so, while also addressing a fierce political situation, Fo also sustains the comedy in his piece. Like most of his plays, it was written in response to a specific political need. Most theatre today addresses issues that affect a wide range of people. While it is still mainly a form of entertainment, the audience is now left pondering the messages behind the text. This is a continuation of Fo’s ideas.