Theatre Of The Left: Its Practice And Theory In 20～(th) Century West

Originated from end of the nineteenth century and flourished during the twentieth century, theatre of the left in West conveys a strong ideological meaning, and its rise and decline is always closely related to that of the movement of left as a political force. It is not only the proletarian theatre in 20s and 30s but also those anti-tradition theatres and theatres for minorities, for women, and for the oppressed that constitutes western theatre of the left after World War II especially in 50s and 60s. It got its popularity mainly in Germany, France, America and Britain in 30s and 60s and played an important role in western civilization in 20th century.Generally speaking, theatre of the left possesses general unanimous ideology and aesthetic appeal with different features. In the first stage Marxist theory was respected, and agitprop form that can intervene in current affairs was adopted to reflect the evil of bourgeois and the suffering of proletariat. German theatre of the left at this stage was influenced by expressionism and British and American theatre of the left by realism. In the second stage, under the influence of"new left", the theory of modern experimental theatre was accepted as a guide to exhibit the mental struggle and hope of being redeemed of human being. French theatre of the left at this stage was likely to show the dissimilated"being"in an absurd way. On the other hand,"performance-center"was practiced by the British theatre of the left to test to which extent theatre could be applied to reality.The development of theatre is closely related to that of theory. Dramatic theories from Piscator, Brecht to Boal covers the essential claim of ideological and aesthetic appeals of western theatre of the left. Explanation of Piscator's"political theatre"and theory of Brecht's"epic theatre"become the guideline of theatre of the left in 20th century West. Boal's"poetics of the oppressed"represents the most important achievement of theatre of the left in the second half of the 20th century. All those theories started their way from a rebellion to Aristotle's tradition and to"theatre of illusion", tried to participate in social politics to surpass the footstone of traditional theatre by the way of combing the audience with social politics together. Those attempts provide abundant theoretical sources for the creation of distinct ideological and aesthetic meaning of western theatre of the left. Without this, the developmentand flourish of western theatre of the left is impossible.With free, epical dramatic structure and varied performance methods, western theatre of the left strengthens the"external communication system"and"authenticate convention"in open performance, breaks the limit of actor-audience, and makes use of the audience's participation to ritualize the theatre and finally transmits the spirit of rebellion to audience, to whole society, to country, and even to every corner of the world. In this way, established on the basis of a rebellion to mainstream western theatre, theatre of the left in West reached the ideological meaning of overthrowing the political system and culture hegemony by a denial of traditional theatre form.Movement of western theatre of the left is a part of the modern and post-modern theatre movement. The whole period must be considered when discussing the aesthetic meaning of it. A common pursuit of modern and post-modern theatre is to break the illusion and to emphasize the participation of audience and establishment of a new relation between performance and audience. The only difference in various schools lies in the purpose of their pursuit. The main purpose of theatre of the left holds a political meaning to arouse the oppressed people to change the world. From social"intervention"to audience's"participation", theatre of the left achieved its breakthrough in dramatic aesthetics. It has expanded the theatre space, changed traditional structure and function of drama, discovered a flexible way of performance, realized the ideal of a new relation between performance and audience, and finally formed a new dramatic aesthetics with modern and post-modern theatres. The soul of theatre of the left in 20th century West lies in its firm revolution, and its rebellious spirit to status quo. In this sense, denial, rebellion, overthrow constitute the most essential character of western theatre of the left in 20th century. That is the great fortune for the later century and the force of improving the society and culture. At the same time, they left a precious heritage for later development of theatre, which is its creation in dramatic aesthetics, its breakthrough to old dramatic tradition, and its establishment of theatre of new pattern.