 Drama: May 04, 2011 Issue [#4343] |
  Drama
This week: Political Drama Edited by: Joy  
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"Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons."
From the movie Man of the Year
"Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the coliseum."
From the movie Gladiator
When the black and mortal blood of man has fallen to the ground ... who then can sing spells to call it back again?
Aeschylus, Agamemnon
"The man the city sets up in authority/must be obeyed in small things and in just.../There is nothing worse/than disobedience to authority./It destroys cities, it demolishes homes.../So we must stand by the side of what is orderly; we cannot give victory to a woman./If we accept defeat, let it be from a man;/we must not let people say that a woman beat us."
Sophocles, Antigone
"Poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men."
William Shakespeare Julius Caesar
"If little faults proceeding on distemper shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye, when capital crimes, chewed, swallowed and digested appear before us?"
William Shakespeare King Henry V
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor, here to discuss political drama.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
A short while ago, the federal government of the United States faced a shutdown due to the clash and obstinacy of the parties. Now that it is over (well, somewhat), didn't we live through a political drama, and don't such dramas pop up once in a few months, or sometimes, from day to day?
Since politics gamble with the everyday lives of populations, political drama is used as one of the most powerful subjects for film, stage, and fiction. In the known human history, beginning with the Greek societies, political satire and tragedies were performed in amphitheaters and town squares, playing on the tenets of democracy to influence public opinion.
Aristophanes, the father of comedy, recreated the Greek life and politics more credibly than any other author of his time. Although the text of his comedy The Clouds has been lost for us, the critics of later times relate that it made fun of the philosophical trends, which contributed to the trial and execution of Socrates. Aristophanes's Lysistrata, word meaning army-disbander, is the humorous account of one woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War. In the play, Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold their affections from their husbands and lovers in order to stop the war.
The great tragedians Aeschylus and Sophocles united poetry and tragedy with rulers, gods, and history. In Sophocles' Antigone, the young woman Antigone stands alone in her fight and unshaken courage to challenge King Creon.
The best political Roman dramas were not written by the Romans but by who came after them, mainly William Shakespeare, with Antony and Cleopatra,
Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Titus Andronicus. Shakespeare wrote of Greek politics, too, in Timon of Athens, Troilus and Cressida and also English historical plays like Richard II, King Henry IV, and King HenryV.
Shakespeare was fascinated by history and politics and exhibited a deep understanding of bureaucracy and power. His strength, however, comes not from the historical or political facts but from his profound observation of human behavior. One can easily claim that the bard used the historical drama to teach a few political lessons to his contemporaries. For example, Henry V shows what a perfect king could be like.
Jumping forward in time, Robert Redford's movie, The Conspirator, uses the assassination of Lincoln to expose the deep-rooted political divide that may be reverberating to the present day. By the same token, Warren Beatty's Reds impresses on the viewer a special era of American optimism that took its roots from the 19th century, and it is not about communism as its title may suggest.
The nearer the drama to the present time, the more political clout it carries. Concerning the 2008 Frost/Nixon film by Peter Morgan, directed by Ron Howard, the partisans from both parties questioned its accuracy, overlooking the core lessons the movie tried to show.
Here are a few tips for writing the political drama:
 Know what you want to convey to the audience. Know the moral or the lesson inside your story. This is very important in all fiction, but more so when writing the political drama.
Make sure you grasp the specific political situation in its entirety and with its details.
If you are writing about a historical era that may bring meaning to a present-day situation, learn everything you can learn about that piece of history, so your work rings true and what you mean shines crisp and clear.
Remain as loyal as you can to the time and the setting of the plot.
Since every intense political drama examines the personal side of a crisis, fold your characters into real people, but make them larger than life if that can further the story. In other words, you can't change the plot much, but you can play with the characters' psychology to give deeper meaning to a political event.
Until next time, happy writing!.
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