Illusion theater
In the narrower sense, the term illusion theater describes a conception and practice of theater , according to which the audience of a stage performance is not made aware of the fictional character of the act and should temporarily forget it. In a wider sense of the word, all productions are called illusion theater , through which people in the most varied of social roles create illusions in other people in the manner of actors or cheaters .
Types of illusions
In 1949 Fritz Erpenbeck distinguished four types of illusions:
- The viewer could be deceived by an appearance that was not at all intentionally “produced” by someone; the viewer is wrong.
- An appearance is created consciously with the intention of deceiving the viewer against his will. If the deception succeeds, the viewer falls into the illusion that he is cheated.
- The appearance is created consciously in order to deceive the viewer, to give him an illusion, but with his consent. He is ready to take the appearance of reality as its artistic image.
- The appearance is produced in order to expose it - with the consent of the viewer or against his will - as a deception, an illusion.
According to Erpenbeck, the first case can be neglected in the case of illusion theater, since works of art are always “creations”, in which one cannot disregard the intention of the authors or the staff responsible for the performance. However, cases 2 to 4 were always present in mixtures that differed from performance to performance.
The four different types of illusion formation can be explained using the anti-illusionist drama Der Puss in Boots by Ludwig Tieck (first published in 1797, first performed in 1844): A real actor plays in the framework story, a fictional theatrical performance, the "great actor", the Beginning of the internal story slips into a hangover costume. In this he appears on stage as a "cat". His boots are supposed to indicate his role as a "hunter", which he plays at the royal court. Tieck has thus built up a complex system of illusion formation on four different levels: Illusions arise in the real viewer, in the fictional viewer of the framework plot, with those actors on the stage who see a hangover in their partner, and finally with those who see it for keep a hunter.
At the point in the first act where the cat begins to speak, the fictional viewer Fischer complains in the form of an interjection "spontaneously" that he could not achieve any "reasonable illusion" because of the cat's speech. He may not understand (Category 1) that talking animals are common in fairy tale worlds. It is more likely that he cannot imagine that adult, enlightened people like him should really be presented with a fairy tale story, although in his opinion fairy tales are texts for children. Fischer believes that this should be a form of “fraud” (Category 2). The interjection clarifies a condition that the theater should fulfill so that viewers and fishermen are ready to engage in an illusion (category 3). According to Fischer, only “reasonable” illusions enable an appropriate enjoyment of art. Real viewers who have not prepared for the performance do not notice that the interjection belongs to the piece. Their formation of illusions with regard to the action on the stage is actually disturbed by the interjection (category 4).
Anyone who, as a real viewer, believes that they can protect themselves against undesirable forms of illusion by reading the text (everything that is in the text only seems to happen “spontaneously” or “unintentionally”) must expect the director the performance, really extemporating real actors, etc. have devised further disillusionment techniques that cannot be found in the Tieck text. Apart from that, real mishaps can always occur during a performance, which in plays like Puss in Boots can be mistaken for ideas of the author or the director. At the level of the fictional theater evening, this happens e.g. B. by "accidentally" opening the curtain prematurely and the audience witnessing a director's talk on stage. When the "glitch" is noticed, the audience is asked to undo any illusion that may have arisen.
Methods of creating illusions
In the illusion theater, the viewer has the feeling of witnessing a real event. The illusion is triggered by empathizing with a "realistically" depicted situation; in the "ideal case" it is so perfect that the viewer does not perceive the play as a mere fictitious reality, at least for a time, and fully identifies with the stage character he has felt himself in. The set and props, the direction and the character story, d. H. the actors' playing technique are used specifically to create illusions. This effect is particularly desirable in naturalistic drama and through the development of stage and performance technology as well as the scientific observation of imitated elements of reality (e.g. through researching dialects that are faithfully brought onto the stage and analyzing social conditions through modern sociology ) until the end of the 19th century. Already in the baroque era there were attempts to make the most unbelievable appearances appear "real" with the help of stage technology. The prerequisite for the success of the attempt to technically imitate reality as perfectly as possible is the “ peep box ”, a rectangular room with three walls and a missing fourth wall , which is separated from the auditorium by a curtain and a ramp. This type of stage became standard with the development of “standing show stages” (ie theaters in specially equipped buildings in which permanent ensembles play).
Conceptual foundations of illusion theater
One basis of the theater of illusions is Aristotle 's theory of the effects of tragedy, which he published in his work Poetics . In the words of the translator Manfred Fuhrmann, “Jammer” and “Shudder” are named as the intended effect , ie the feelings that are to be stimulated in the audience so that the desired purification, the catharsis , can occur. By means of tragedy or tragic poetry, the emotional world of the audience should now be addressed in such a way that the people who experience the presented action are so involved in the action that they - in the exuberance of feelings - are enabled to channel their own emotions and them to provide some kind of valve. According to Aristotle, the feelings lived out in this way lead to a kind of sublimation and promote harmony between the individual and society. However, Aristotle does not explicitly use the term “empathy”.
For those plays that were performed before the introduction of the “peep show” stage, the term “illusion theater” can only be used to a limited extent despite the influence of Aristotle: The declamatory style of ancient dramas, in which the actors speak unnaturally loudly, also affects the architectural conditions from amphitheatres , in which viewers in the back row had to be able to understand the actor acoustically without any technical aids. Conversely, the distance between the actors and the audience in William Shakespeare's Globe Theater was so small that the illusion of a fourth wall could not arise. Typical of Shakespeare's plays is therefore the large number of "aside" comments in the direction of the audience. Also monologues in classic dramas are unrealistic and thus the illusion Education hindrance; average viewers definitely notice that someone is not talking to themselves, but that the thoughts of the character are to be conveyed to the audience with the help of a monologue.
The idea that the theater should help the audience to enjoy art by playing with illusions had its first heyday in baroque theater . Richard Alewyn describes the effect of baroque theater, but also of traditional theater in general, with the words: Not a real spectator who is not bewitched the senses and soul, but neither is a real spectator who is in doubt even for a moment that he is in Theater sits and everything is just a game. Each spectator splits into a dreaming and a waking one, one who succumbs to the deception and one who remains conscious of it. In this way, the theater ultimately reproduces the real world, in which people are also exposed to an interplay of illusion and disillusionment, of dreams and awakening.
The first German actor who consistently tried to create the illusion in the audience that he was the character portrayed was August Wilhelm Iffland , writer, actor and director first of the Mannheim National Theater , then the National Theater in Berlin . Before 1800, it was common for actors to put the stamp of their personality on roles or to declaim their lyrics rather than play them. Iffland's new playing technique met with great approval from his audience.
The term “empathy”, applied to literature, can be identified for the first time in Friedrich Vischer's work Plan for a new structure of aesthetics , published in 1843 . The most consistent form was found in the idea of combining illusion formation and empathy in the theory of acting by Konstantin Sergejewitsch Stanislawski . This demanded: All feelings, sensations and thoughts of the role must become alive, trembling feelings, sensations and thoughts of the actor. He must create the spiritual life of the person of the role from his living soul and embody it with his own living body. Your own living feelings, which arise under the influence of the role, must serve as artistic material. According to Stanislavski, the audience must be “enchanted” by an art of acting in which the actor appears to be identical to the character portrayed. At the New York "Actors' School" under the direction of Stanislawski's student Lee Strasberg, numerous actors were trained according to Stanislawski's teaching since 1948. These included the actors James Dean , Marlon Brando , Rod Steiger , Dustin Hoffman , Paul Newman , Harvey Keitel , Robert De Niro , Dennis Hopper and Al Pacino , who were later successful as film actors . Strasberg's method of acting is still taught in New York today.
Communist cultural officials declared the theater of illusions and, above all, Stanislawski's theory of acting to be binding. In 1953 the norm of socialist realism was interpreted in the sense of Stanislawski. For this reason, and since most naturalistic plays already showed a social-democratic tendency in the 19th century, the frequently encountered characterization of illusion theater as "bourgeois theater of illusions" is problematic.
criticism
Two types of criticism are brought against the theater of illusions: it is not possible to completely deprive the audience of the awareness that they are observing a mere game, and it is not sensible (not only for this reason) to attempt to create an illusion in the audience .
In the case of a complete illusion, a murder depicted on stage would have to cause panic in the audience. However, this almost never happens with adult viewers, because with acting there is no danger that viewers really completely forget that they are in a theater and that an action is only simulated on stage. An essential difference between theatrical performances and the broadcasting of radio plays or the presentation of films is that viewers do not go to the theater to receive information about reality, but that they also listen to the radio and watch films for this purpose, which leads to misunderstandings regarding of the genre used.
According to Bertolt Brecht, the stage actors' seeming not to take notice of the audience does not lead the audience to believe that they are watching the action as if through a keyhole in a door, so that the observers do not notice the process of observation. Brecht also fundamentally criticizes the theater of illusions. Throughout his life he fought against the hypnotic effect of the illusionary stage, the overwhelming aesthetic of which degrades the viewer to the passive consumer of the entertainment terror of a culture industry striving towards totality . Through empathy, the theater gives the feeling that the reactions of the main characters are “natural”, “fateful” and consequently there is no alternative. In the theater, however, it is important to make the “natural” appear as something conspicuous. The theater should therefore not put the audience in an art frenzy, but rather enable them to think critically.
Playing techniques that are expressly intended to make illusions in the audience more difficult or to prevent have existed since the baroque theater. In the 1960s, concepts of post-dramatic theater were developed that were also not based on the means of creating illusions in the audience.
literature
- Gerhard Kluge (ed.): Studies on drama in the Federal Republic of Germany . Amsterdam 1983. ISBN 90-6203-625-2 .
Web links
- Eun-A Choi: Aspects of literary illusionism (PDF; 973 kB)
- What do illusion and imitation mean? , Bavarian radio
- Searching for and finding one's own role (s) - a way to expand one's own role competencies (PDF; 198 kB, in particular Section 4.5 (empathy through experience / identification and embodiment))
Individual evidence
- ^ Fritz Erpenbeck: Illusion theater - still today? . Theater der Zeit , issue 3/1949, p. 1
- ↑ Elke Reinhard-Becker: Illusionstheater ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . university Duisburg-Essen
- ↑ Elke Krafka: Dramaturgy - in a nutshell ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 96 kB) young criticism , June 2010, p. 4
- ↑ Manfred Pfister: Basic problems of the theater . In: Helmut Popp (ed.): Theater and audience . Munich 1978, pp. 62-66
- ↑ Richard Alewyn: The world as an illusion: the baroque theater . In: Helmut Popp (ed.): Theater and audience . Munich 1978, p. 67ff.
- ^ August Wilhelm Iffland . Duden student lexicon literature . Bibliographisches Institut & FA Brockhaus AG, Mannheim and DUDEN PAETEC GmbH
- ↑ cf. Hellmut Flashar: Eidola , Amsterdam 1989, p. 197
- ↑ Jochen Staadt: The State Commission for Art Affairs - The Stanislavski Conference 1953 as an attack on Brecht's theater concept (PDF; 215 kB). March 2012, p. 4f.
- ↑ Jochen Staadt: The State Commission for Art Affairs - The Stanislavski Conference 1953 as an attack on Brecht's theater concept (PDF; 215 kB). March 2012, p. 20
- ↑ Petra Stuber: Scope and Limits. Studies on the GDR theater . Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 1998, p. 68
- ↑ Janine Dahlweid: "They tear or they murder" - The birth of the theater from the nature of the 'woman' . Master's thesis 2009, p. 102
- ↑ Karl Nühlen: The audience and its types of action . In: Helmut Popp (ed.): Theater and audience . Munich 1978, p. 34
- ↑ cf. z. E.g. the alleged audience reaction when the alleged report The War of the Worlds was broadcast in the USA in 1938
- ^ Bertolt Brecht: The brass purchase (section dismantling the illusion and empathy ). In: Bertolt Brecht: Schriften zum Theater 2, Frankfurt / Main 1967, p. 578
- ↑ Fabian Lettow: Review of Frank-M. Raddatz: Brecht eats Brecht. New Epic Theater in the 21st Century ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Theater der Zeit , January 2008
