The Construction Of A Secular Cathedral:Peter Shaffer’s Dramatic Vision And Theatrical Practice

Widely acknowledged as one of the foremost contemporary playwrights in Britain and America,Peter Shaffer(1926—)has a career that spans four decades,during which his plays have inspired phenomenal appeal with broad-based audiences and garnered almost all the important theatrical awards in the English-speaking world.Due to the outstanding theatrical quality of his plays,however,most of the existing scholarship consists of production reviews.The less than abundant scholarly essays tend to focus on one or several of his plays and few have attempted to conduct a comprehensive analysis.Moreover,despite the diversity of individual research topics,most researchers tend to focus on the literary aspects and evaluate the plays chiefly on the merits of theme,characterization,and language.While this approach helps to illuminate important aspects of Shaffer’s dramaturgy,the limited scope has the danger of eclipsing the real strength of the playwright,who writes with a sharp awareness of the stage.The present dissertation studies Shaffer’s dramatic vision and its impact on his theatrical practice,which remains an inadequately-researched area.Special efforts are made to consider the integration of multiple elements that make his plays work in the theater and effect multi-dimensional appeal with the audience.Apart from the plays,the study cross-references Shaffer’s articles,interviews,director/actors’ memoirs as well as audience feedbacks.While literary aspects of the plays are taken into consideration,the focus is shifted to the impact the script has or might have on a broad-based audience.The study finds that religion has huge impact on Shaffer’s dramatic vision.For Shaffer,the chief problem with the modern society is the spiritual and emotional apathy,and drama,"the only ultimately indispensable public art",should provide the cure by emulating religion’s capacity to create communion and kindle faith.On several occasions he has compared the theater to the church and dramatists/actors to priests,and the themes and devices in many of his plays are reminiscent of those found in religious rituals.However,this does not mean he seeks a blanket reproduction of religious rituals.Instead,he has a deep distrust and resentment against conventional religion and organized churches for their monopoly of "Sole Interpretation" and their demand of complete subordination.As a result,his works witness attempts to both exploit and deviate from strategies found in religious ceremonies.In this sense,the secular cathedral he envisions has dual quality:on one hand,it possesses the spiritual and emotive appeal of religion;on the other hand,it encourages secular autonomy and inspires the audience to create their own individual faith.The dissertation examines three leading characteristics in Shaffer’s theatrical practice,as shaped by this vision:the prior commitment to the engagement and education of broad-based audiences,the delivery of spiritual themes with spectacular theatricality,and the efforts to empower actors,whom he regards as the real executors of sacerdotal responsibility,by leaving them creative space in the script.These qualities,which serve as the main pillars in his secular cathedral,largely account for the special power of his plays and the tremendous appeal he achieves worldwide,a record,as Shafferian critics agree,unmatched by any of his peers.