A Study On Sartre’s Theatrical Theory

Theater plays an important role in Sartre’s literary career,which witnesses the significant transformation of Sartre’s thought.The wartime experiences prompt Sartre to discover the social and historical characteristics of human existence,so his views on human freedom shift from absolute freedom to freedom in the situation,which becomes a driving force of Sartre’s theatre career.After World War II,French theatre’s hard time inspires Sartre to renovate the theatre.In that period,French theater regards shaping characters’ personality as its main purpose and expressing psychological conflicts as its main content.Such theatre can not answer the confusion of French people about survival.So Sartre learns from ancient Greek tragedy and French classical theatre,prefers freedom as the motivation of theatre development and replaces psychological conflict with right conflict.Meanwhile,Sartre also draws lessons from Brecht’s attempt in the "Epic Theatre",emphasizing that theatre should reflect social problems and arouse the audience’s thinking.In forming his own theory of theatre,Sartre considers both the literary nature and the stage nature of theatre.He paints his own ideal theatre from three aspects.First of all,universal and contemporary situations are chosen in terms of theatre themes.Based on the stage effect,the design of situation centers on theatre characters instead of stage setting and has the characteristics of abstraction and defamiliarization.Second,Sartre equates the language(the core of the theatre)with action.Finally,the audience’s creative participation in the theatre is fully taken into consideration and the ideal of consistent audience is put forward.Sartre attempts to form his theatre theory in order to seek a path of theatre development for it is in crisis at that time.Compared with novels,it is found that the immediate reaction of audience not only sets a higher demand but also leads to a better commitment;Compared with movies,it is found that the absolute distance both guarantees the objectivity of the theatre and reveals the truth through the theatre.All these characteristics above contribute to Sartre’s theatre commitment.Moreover,Sartre realizes his dream of commitment through theatre in practice.