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Theatre as Sacrament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin

Extract

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All theatre is sacramental. A theatrical event establishes itself as theatre by setting aside a measured space as inviolable for a measured time. This framing effect of theatre is sacramental. Within the frame of theatre, other sacraments can be represented or performed. Part I of this paper develops conceptual distinctions necessary to understanding the sacramental in theatre, using an ethics-based theory of sacrament. Part II sets out to use the theory, applying it to open up new questions for the interpretation of ancient Greek tragedy, and using the theory to explain certain plot elements in Sophocles' Philoctetes and other plays.

Any act of theatre has a sacramental effect. The art of theatre makes ceremonies possible, and by ceremonies we are able to make things sacred. In saying that theatre is sacramental, I am not saying that it is religious. Religious ceremonies employ the art of theatre and depend on that art, but theatre does not depend on religion. I understand sacrament as an ethical concept. A sacrament sets up an ethical hedge around something—makes it wrong to touch, to tread on, or to alter the thing in question.

By ‘theatre’ I mean the art that makes action worth watching for a measured time in a measured space. This art must of necessity draw a line between watching and being watched. Drawing that line is a minor, though fundamental, sacrament. Other sacraments may take place within the frame of theatre. My theory of the sacramental in theatre stands on its usefulness for understanding and interpreting the elements of theatre—the experiences of both the watchers and the watched in actual productions, on the one hand, and, on the other, the texts that survive to represent productions of the past. If the theory is coherent and useful, then we should use it. Otherwise, not.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 42 , Issue 1-2: The Enigmatic Context: Approaches to Greek Drama , 2013 , pp. 5 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 2013

References

NOTES

1. This is a consequence of the definition of the art of theatre that I proposed in my book, Woodruff (2008). The relevant element in the definition is ‘in a measured space’, which led me to treat theatre space as sacred (108-22). Since writing the book, I have come to see that I had left the concept of the sacred poorly defined, and said nothing about the process or the conventions that make it sacred—in short, the book left out the topic of sacrament. This paper tries to make up for that omission.

2. The prohibition implicit in the idea of the sacred is carried by the meanings of the Latin root for our word ‘sacred’: sacer. Along with ‘sacred’ and ‘holy’, this word means ‘accursed’ and ‘detestable’.

3. Respect: Ehrfurcht. Most translations have ‘reverence’, which on my view would be Verehrung.

4. Beyond Good and Evil, tr. Norman, Judith in Horstmann, and Norman, (2002), 160, section 263Google Scholar. I am grateful to Christopher Raymond for help with this passage.

5. Woodruff (2001a), 117, with note on 232f.

6. Summoning the transcendent to inhabit a representation is a kind of theatrical sacrament which I will discuss below.

7. In practice, the line may be hard to draw. Visitors who treat a sacred place of worship with disrespect are not thereby trampling on God, but believers may react as if they were. Much conflict arises from this kind of confusion.

8. Woodruff (2008), 18 and passim.

9. I have discussed this in Woodruff (2008), 108-22.

10. Heracles, according to legend, fenced in the sanctuary at Olympus, the Altis (Pi. O. 10).

11. Woodruff (2008), 127-32.

12. On the altar call in today's art theatre, see Woodruff (2008), 121f.

13. On the Theatre of War project, see http://www.outsidethewirellc.com/projects/theater-of-war/overview. See also n.17 below.

14. Scullion (2002) and Scullion (2005), esp. 32f.

15. Sourvinou-Inwood (2003), passim, especially on the ritual role of the chorus (50-53).

16. On this see the critical review by Mendelsohn (2013). Mendelsohn argues that Euripides' audience saw Heracles not as a veteran, but as a super hero. True, his violence has mostly not been conventional warfare, but his vulnerable, sometimes foolish humanity makes Heracles represent common human experience. For the production in question, it is fair to say that the veterans for whom Meineck designed the production had also been denied an experience of conventional warfare, and were no less stressed for all that.

17. I base this on my personal experience setting up readings of scenes from these plays for veterans and their families in a program called ‘Veterans’ Voices’, supported by Humanities Texas in 2013.

18. For grief-leading in an episode, Soph. Electra 1413 (ὡ πόλις, ὡ γενεὰ τάλαινα) and 1417-21, where the Chorus step out of their roles as supporters of Electra and grieve for the whole misery of her family; for the same in an ode, see Philoctetes 674-717.

19. For an example of Athenian sentiment expressed by the Chorus, see Bacchae 386-402.

20. So Sourvinou-Inwood (2003), 51.

21. Sourvinou-Inwood (2003), 50-53 and 281-83.

22. Tr. Woodruff (1998).

23. On the relation between Dionysus and the production of ancient plays, see Easterling (1997), esp. 48. The topic has been much discussed by scholars.

24. A more literal translation: ‘Come on cleansing foot’, meaning that Dionysus' presence would purify Thebes and so save its people from plague.

25. Tr. Woodruff (2001).

26. μἑδεις δὲ παγϰοίνοις Ἐλευσινίας Δηοῦς ἐν ϰόλπιοις (‘ruling over the all welcoming hollows of Eleusinian Demeter’, Antigone 1119-21).

27. Of the parodos in the Antigone, Sourvinou-Inwood, (2003), 51Google Scholar, writes: ‘as the chorus processed in, singing a cult song the usual performance of which was processional, it would have been very difficult for the audience not to perceive this hymn as being sung also in the real world of the here and now.’ This parodos is tied directly to the plot of the Theban play; if this was recognised as a cult song in Athens, then surely the fifth stasimon would be; although not processional, it is in no way tied to the plot.

28. When the chorus say they made him ruler for killing the Sphinx, they use the word for king (βασιλεύς) for the first time in the play, at 1202, now that they know he is the legitimate ruler, son of the king,.

29. Oedipus at Colonus 421-27, 450f., 787-90, with 1375f. Some scholars have taken 1375f. as evidence that Oedipus delivered the curse before the start of the play, but Jebb and others hold that the curse was given as a result of Ismene's news, during the play. On the controversy, see my note at Meineck and Woodruff (2003), 212.

30. At 1402, Neoptolemus appears to offer to take the archer home, as asked. But the ancient commentator thought this was another act of deception: ‘He is deceiving and wants to take him to Troy’ (393.3-4 Papageorgius, cited in Calder [1971], 167). See also Raubitschek (1986). Most modern scholars disagree; see Easterling (1978), 39, and Blundell (1989), 224n. The text leaves this open, so it is most likely that the poet means to leave us in suspense.