The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder
A: PERSONAL RESPONSE/NOTES.
I truly think that the best absurdist plays are the ones that let the audience see human beings from an "aerial view" in which they can be detached, see how small the people are, and think outside of their own lives ( a rare occurrence.) Hence, the audience may even feel like they are watching/reading a very pathetic or comical scene that is temporarily hilarious until they realize how similarly repetitive, empty, and essentially meaningless their lives are too.
This effect, unique to the theatre of the absurd allows the audience to have a subjective, quiet, and honest reflection about themselves and the human condition.
The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder gave me this perspective and as I am a fan of absurdist theatre I selected this play and am eager to develop it.
Theme 1: Inevitable passing of time
Theme 2: Ageing is a performative/social construct
This play somewhat speaks out against stereotypes towards the process of ageing
This play is generally quite straightforward...so the play itself can be staged in this manner. Ex.) The stage can be set, simplistically, linearly, like in the spirit of "Young to old and One to ninety."
*The stage should stay consistent throughout.
Ideas brought up by Wilder
The stability of human identity over one life time
This is found in the fact that one actor plays one character for "ninety years" and the only way in which their identity truly "changes" on stage is through their acting and costume. Hence, the audience is aware of the actor's consistence and ageing is therefore not perceived as a morphing of identity but becomes a simple process.
Actors will also play characters that are not accurate to their actual age which raises an argument about how the notion of "age" perceived in society is performative and ultimately socially constructed.
The repetition found in life/Human's don't change much in terms of the essential's
Firstly, the whole play is set in one setting and with one family. The play is also focusing only on christmas as the marker for each passing year. There is a sense of repetition here as the setting, characters, and event is not only consistent but also the discussions that go on are constantly about daily sometimes silly 'people' things that don't seem to change much over time.
Further, birth, death, and ageing are so blatantly communicated in this play over a course of ninety years (which not to mention is a huge time span in which a civil war and a world war can happen along with industrial revolutions and various other social ups and downs,) the play is further endearing to the audience who starts to reflect on what time means to them in the reality of a repetitive cyclic life.
Basic notes (not particularly filtered or detailed.)
SET
consistent interior setting
- long table horizontally facing audience
window located in the top left of the stage. (use film??) show the passing of time through the window
- ex.buildings change but there is always snow tree grows outside.
GENERAL BLOCKING
- vignette style
- for example lighting would dim with the tallest person in the middle of the table two shorter people on both sides and medium sized people on the very end to create depth and make harmony with the window on the top left (directions given from audience perspective of proscenium stage)
LIGHTING
- anything but hard lighting
- robert wilson and robert lepage both used very deep and atmospheric colors that were not realistic and therefore gave the feeling of transcending time.
^ I want to use this kind of lighting. The pictures of existing adaptations of
The Long Christmas Dinner use very realistic lighting and vibes which I don't particularly like.
SOUND
- will the music be very loud? When will i use music appropriately since there is so much text?
- what sound effects will I use? To what extent?
* I am really keen on using the concept of a vignette
* shadows were used extensively in wilsons work and also in lepage's
* film inspiration from lepage
* Symbolism through set is important especially when dealing with the two portals representing life and death
^decide on how to present these two 'portals'
The Director’s Notebook
By Hayeon Kim
Based on the works of Thornton Wilder
DB PART I: WHY I SELECTED THE PLAY
The
ironically significant relevance the absurd theatre has to real life has always
interested me. Hence, it was to no surprise that Thornton Wilder’s quaint and
straightforward interpretation of a typically formidable concept: time, in The Long Christmas Dinner inspired my
directors notebook.
DB PART II: CONTEXT
The
“context” of any play consists of three interrelated categories. The first is literal,
as in not only what is happening to the characters in the play but also the
category in which it falls in. (ex. Absurd Theatre.) The second is the world of
the author or the cultural and historical environment in which he/she wrote the
piece. And lastly, is the world of the audience, also known as the time period
and situation of those reading the text. Therefore researching a play text in
all these ways is essential before bringing it to life. Wilder wrote this short
one act play in 1931 when America was facing the Great Depression. However, as
most of the upper class did not suffer significantly from the economic
downfall, Wilder successfully continued to write after attending the most
prestigious institutions in the country such as the University of Yale, Oberlin
College, and later even taught at the University of Chicago.
The Long Christmas Dinner therefore does not reflect the
historical context in which it was written in as much as it shows Wilder’s
personal musings on the inevitable passing of time and the strangeness of life
itself. Although not considered absurdist to the extent to which play’s like Beckett’s
Waiting for Godot are, The Long Christmas Dinner nevertheless falls into an absurdist category
because of the way in which it allows the audience an objective perception on
life and thus ponder their existence.
The
following are characteristics specific to the Absurd Theatre.
1. Life is essentially meaningless, hence
miserable.
2.
There
is no hope because of the inevitable futility of man’s efforts
3.
Reality
is unbearable unless relieved by dreams and illusions
4.
Man
is fascinated by death which permanently replaces dreams and illusions
5.
There
is no action or plot. Very little happens because nothing meaningful can
happen.
6.
The
final situation is absurd or comic.
7.
Absurd
drama is not purposeful and specific, as it solves no problem.
The theatre of the absurd originated from
morally disorientated artists of postwar Europe, when questions like, is there
even a God? What is the meaning of life? Began to manifest the minds of many
and eventually led a group of people called the “absurdist’s” to gather in
France and surreally express cynical perspectives on life.
Yet,
it is important to note that fundamental concepts revolving absurdism have been
around long before its theatrical movement during the 1950’s and that absurdism
is not synonymous to existentialism, which is a primary branch of philosophy
that deals with very similar concepts. Absurdism is, instead, an idea that is found
within various existential works and is a perspective that one can have without
necessarily being existential. This is because existentialism includes the
belief that although there is no meaning in life an individual can create his
or her own purpose by making choices. Hence, existentialism is a thought
process that may initially seem cynical but ultimately heralds the power of the
individual existence, freedom and choice, whereas the idea of absurdism focuses
specifically on the notion of a cruel contrast in which there is no solution.
French philosopher, Albert
Camus in his book, “The myth of Sisyphus”, clarifies this contrast by saying
that “The absurd is born out of the confrontation between the human need and
the unreasonable silence of the world.” In his work, Camus characterizes the
world as a cruel and unresponsive entity in which humans are doomed to
ignorantly live in. Camus thus describes the inherent difference between the
desperate and vain human search for meaning from the universe and the empty
response.
Prior
to Camus, Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher, also explored topics of
existentialism as early as the 19th century. The Absurd Theatre can therefore also be seen as an attempt to restore the importance of myths and cosmic
wonders. It was a method to make man feel small once again and realize not only
the emptiness but also more importantly the strangeness
of existence.
However, the most important factor is that while existentialism states that there is a solution to meaningless in life which is
the individual’s choices, absurdism suggests the contrary: the human search for
meaning in life and the lack of it can not be counteracted but simply accepted
and enjoyed by embracing everything life has to offer.
In fact, it is the last
part, the ironic and sadly optimistic part of absurdism that chiefly motivates me to
direct this play. I want to deliver to the audience the message that because
our lives are so short, repetitive, and seemingly meaningless we can and should
do whatever we want and feel is right.
Ultimately, it is not the
meaninglessness that is the focus but the meaningfulness that comes out from
the meaninglessness that truly matters.
Works Cited
Wilder, Thornton. The Long Christmas Dinner: & Other Plays in One Act. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. Print.
http://www.twildersociety.org/works/the-long-christmas-dinner/
references to workshops I've been in (alfie and mark hill)
http://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/putting-on-her-white-hair-the-life-course-in-wilders-the-long-christmas-dinner-2/
references to plays ive seen this year by the two roberts
