Analysis Of The Grapes Of Wrath As Representational Theatre

The production of The Grapes of Wrath would be classified as Representational theatre. According to Robert Cohen, “In representational performance, the audience watches behavior that seems to be staged as if no audience were present. As a result, the audience is encouraged to concentrate on the events that are being staged, not on the nature of their presentation.” (16). In other words, the actors are blind to the audience. For example, in the beginning of the play when the patrolman appears on the stage and Tom and Jim hide because they are trespassing on private property, the patrolman does not address the audience at all. He flashes his light at the audience momentarily, but acts as if we are not there. In Presentational theatre their would have been some type of communication with the audience like a joke further entertain the audience. In addition, the break where the man plays the guitar and sings are not directed to the audience further proving this production is an example of Representational theatre.
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I feel the University of Illinois Department of Theatre choose this play because it was a great play to surprise you on how much you may like theatre. Personally, I really enjoyed the play because all of the assignments I have completed I saw put into work. It made me think about things I could’ve done to be more creative with my treatments, which made me appreciative of the play. For example, the thunderstorm added sound effects, a background, and water dropping to enhanced the experience of the audience. Another example would be how all the actor were on point at all points of the play. I thought to myself if you are not one of the main people talking at the moment, you would be talking about random things or doing nothing, but this was not the case. I looked around at all the actors and they all played their roles and took even their smaller roles