Five Truths - National Theatre

Extra Research

What is the National Theatre?

The National Theatre is a public funded theatre that supports new talent. It was originally based in the Old Vic Theatre, London, whilst the current theatres that it currently 'lives' in were being built. It tours across the UK and provides performances of plays/musicals written by Shakespeare, international classical drama writers, and contemporary playwrights. Additionally, it provides National Theatre Live which is where performances of National Theatre productions are broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world; the first National Theatre Live was in 2009. The calls for a National Theatre date as far back as 1847 where there seemed to be a 'star' system in the theatre industry in Britain. Finally, on October 22nd 1963, the National Theatre opened with a production of Hamlet. The company houses three separate theatres: Olivier Theatre, named after Laurence Olivier, the first artistic director; Lyttelton Theatre, named after Oliver Lyttelton, the first board chairman; and Dorfman Theatre, named after Lloyd Dorfman. There was also a Temporary Theatre from April 2013 to May 2016.

The Five Truths Series

The National Theatre created the Five Truths Series which was a series in which a scene from Hamlet and the character Ophelia are examined. They are presented in five different ways in the style of five different theatre practitioners: Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, and Brook.

Stanislavski

In my opinion, I think that this version of the piece was the most boring one, especially compared to the more interesting and genuinely frightening versions such as the Artaud inspired one. It was very naturalistic, which could be used to describe Stanislavski's style of theatre, and although there seemed to be vast amounts of emotion that Ophelia had about the deaths of her potential husband and her father but not as much compared with that of the Grotowski version. This piece did show the emotion that would be needed to become fully immersed in the character and it seems as though the actress may have thought about the Magic If which is why she seems so affected by the Hamlet's death.

Brecht

The Brecht piece was much more interesting to watch than the Stanislavski piece. To me, I think that this piece was more compelling to watch due to Ophelia's lesser reaction to Hamlet's death which showed her to be distancing the audience - the Verfremdungseffekt - and also suggests that the actress is presenting an archetype rather than immersing herself into the character. Additionally, Ophelia shows less emotion throughout the piece than what is shown in the Stanislavski and the Grotowski pieces, especially when she commits suicide at the end. This would allow the audience to think about the reasons why she committed suicide, rather than the emotional needs - theatre is for "the brain not the heart".

Artaud

Artaud was a French dramatist who worked at around the same time as Brecht. He, however, took a different route to Brecht, and in some ways was somewhat similar to Stanislavski, because he wanted the audience to become emotional when watching a piece, although, Artaud wanted the audience to look into their fears, rather than get lost into the piece that they were watching. Artaud presented the Theatre of Cruelty where he wanted the audience to experience discomfort/confusion about the piece that they were watching. In many of Artaud's pieces, there was no storyline, but rather a theme that ran throughout, which is similar to the political themes presented in Brechtian theatre. His pieces would have minimal dialogue, instead animalistic noises - such as grunts and screams - were used to present the story. He was heavily influenced by surrealism due to a life long addiction to opiates such as heroin. Additionally, he had spells inside mental institutions which also influenced his work.

Visual Poetry - Instead of words, Artaud used stylised movement, gesture, dance, music, and sound effects to communicate with the audience.

Dream World - Combined with visual poetry, Artaud used symbolic props and costumes in order to affect the audience's emotion and subconscious.

Assaulting the Audience - Lights, music, sound, and images were used to shock and confront the audience; this has been made easier in recent years due to the development of technology.

Involving the Audience - The action would take place around the audience which would allow them to be closer and more a part of the action; in some Artaud inspired pieces (and in my GCSE Drama devised piece) actors can go into the audience in order to affect them emotionally.

Deliberate Cruelty - This is an attack on the audience's emotions and senses in a deliberate attempt designed to shock and total involve the audience.

This version of the scene from Hamlet was again exciting and interesting to watch. There was a complete change of props from the previous two pieces, including a goldfish bowl from which the camera was placed which I thought was an effective way of getting the audience directly involved with the action. For the first few minutes of the piece there were distorted sounds and images on screen where the sounds were amplified. At this point the actress was making the form of words with her mouth but wasn't actually speaking, so when she began to speak I got shivers from how distorted and unexpected her voice was. I thought this piece was the most effective way of showing Ophelia's pain because I thought the distortions could resemble her emotional pain and may also show the state of her mind which gives a clearer reason to her death - which seemed vastly more dramatic than in the other pieces. This piece also attacked the audience's senses (and made my younger brother scared when I watched it in the room with him!) which directly involved the audience.

Grotowski

Grotowski was a Polish dramatist who thought that theatre had become too infected with extravagant costume, make up, acting and staging. The only thing, to him, that was required for a performance was the actors themselves and that the relationship between the actor and the audience was key and wanted to eliminate unnecessary movement. He wanted audiences to experience truths about human experience through watching actors access their own inner truth. He did this by training actors to be stripped away of pre-conceived ideas and masks that would aid them in their acting. Additionally, he trained actors to have supreme power over their mental and physical state and wanted an actor's voice and body to be mirrored by the text.

This version of the scene was again interesting to watch, however, the first time I watched it (without researching the practitioner) I found the piece confusing which may have affected my view on the piece. Much like Artaud, the piece was far more dramatic in showing Ophelia's mental state, especially at the beginning where Ophelia seemed to be losing herself in her grief. Her voice and body at this point mirror the text and suggest that she is very affected by the prior events. Additionally, this piece was effective because there was less of a build up to her death in the beginning, which for me was easier to watch because it was less boring for the audience. There were fewer props and less of a focus on hair and make up which allows the audience to focus on the person rather than on what's around them which sticks to Grotowski's style of theatre.

Brook

Brook is an English theatre and film director who was inspired by Artaud, Brecht, and Grotowski. He has directed a lot of Shakespeare with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wants to liberate actors from methods and wants to break down the classic conventions of theatre. He called these classic conventions 'Deadly Theatre'. He also coined terms such as 'Holy Theatre' (seeks out spiritual/ritualistic nature of theatre) and 'Rough Theatre' (popular without pretentions to art). His personal theatre was 'Immediate Theatre' which is the notion of experimental theatre but is a pretty useless theory.

I found this version of the piece quite boring to watch as the tone stayed relatively the same throughout and didn't really present Ophelia's emotions. However, it could be said that the tone of the piece shows how bad her mental state is because she hardly seems to be reacting. Despite this, I found it harder to connect with Ophelia in the piece than I had in others such as Artaud.