Ritual primitive form of theatre?

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Ritual primitive form of theatre?

 

   This issue interested me because of its historical aspect and I felt like I could use my knowledge in pre historic material in favour of writing this essay. I started by looking for exact definition for ritual, I found out that although I could find books that try to define theatre and ritual, most of them end up in dead end. If there was a definition it didn’t cover the broad range of rituals.

    Oscar G. Brockett in his book “The History of the Theatre” has few examples of what rituals may have been used for. Ritual may have been a form of knowledge. It might be the way to pass knowledge and preserve it before written language was invented.  Rituals may be intended to influence certain events like the rainfall or the change of the seasons. They are often performed to glorify a supernatural power, victory in hunting or in a war. And finally rituals may entertain or give pleasure. As those examples show rituals are used widely and in very varied occasions and purposes and that makes the difference between ritual and theatre very difficult to define.

   Despite the fact that the difference between ritual and theatre is hard to define many historians have tried to explain how theatre became into existence. One might have suggested that theatre evolved from ritual or from storytelling or perhaps they both slowly side by side became their own way of expressing ideas and emotions or what ever was necessary at the time. I originally thought that rituals were the starting points for theatre. Now that I have read about the different theories about its origins I have found myself wondering about the other possibilities.

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   But as Oscar G. Brockett recognises there is a problem not only because it is hard to define theatre from ritual but because of lack of written evidence.

 

    In seeking to describe the origin of theatre, the historian must rely heavily upon theory, since reliable evidence is lacking. To answer the question ‘how did the theatre come into existence?’ he must try to imagine a time before there were theatrical elements, and then theorise about how they may have been discovered (The history of the theatre 1986, 1,2)

   Perhaps story telling was the original source ...

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