The world is a theater

 A stage! That is how Shakespeare described life.  His much anthologised "The Seven Stages" must have been a text at some stage of the 'English Studies' aspect of your academic career, right?

Our blog today uses a similar metaphor, but slightly differently. To commemorate the recently celebrated 'World Theater Day', on March 27 to be precise, let us analyse how theater operates actually, every moment, every where. 

Meet anybody anywhere. You feel you are meeting a role and a mask. Sometimes, for instance, this role and mask could be that of a relative, of  a colleague; why, these days even students are busy playing a defined role, too. It is both amusing and depressing to see how the role and the mask consume the human being beneath.

In a way, that is the tragedy of treating life as a theater.  In the 'play' for amusement, may be, for edification, too, there is artifice. It is artistic. It opens up the 'hamartia', the tragic fault in the main character which leads to the downfall. An example could be Othello's jealousy and his self-doubts which are fanned by Iago's manipulation.

In the 'stage(d)' version, there is catharsis, too. That is to say, for those three hours, we can identify with the characters, feel both pains and pleasures vicariously, learn from the faux pas of the characters, and go home happily, having learnt a lesson or two.

In real life, unlike the reel one unfolding on the stage, the daggers drawn are invisible, but for real. It is extremely difficult to distinguish between a hero and a villain, eh, between a friend and/or a foe as most people you meet are busy playing a role to merely their own advantage. Such manipulations make comedies bitter and tragedies trenchant in that showmanship called 'acting' (up) in real life. The theater here is thematics that has a plot that is most crudely commercial, badly business-like, meanly money -minded, and  forever!

Who watches a play these days, they say. I am not so sure. Why, life itself is full of theatrics!No wonder, Shakespeare's Hamlet felt that plays 'hold, as if, a mirror up to nature"!

Pratima@ Theater, unlike reading a novel/a poem, is a group activity, whether it be a comedy or a tragedy. The farce called life has masks that are most alienating! That is, in fact, comically the greatest tragedy!