An Octoroon: A Critical Analysis of Influential Artists and Genres - Essay Sample

Introduction

The play An Octoroon is an adaptation of the play The Octoroon, which was written in 1859 by Dion Boucicaults. Jenkins retains the original characters and plot and the Boucacaults way of address (Jacobs-Jenkins, 3). A critical analysis of the play reveals significant positive and negative influential artists and genres that shaped the themes, genre, and flow of the play. Among the possible influencers of the play include Growtoski, who pioneered Poor Drama, a type of theatre that minimizes characters and props to simplify a play. The other genre that influences the play is a reconstruction, which aims to understand the relationship between texts. The paper will also explore Bretch's negative influence on the play looking at how epic theatre depicts the opposite of that is applied in the play. In addition, the essay explores expressionism and Dadaism as essential as two influences absent in the play that would have helped in highlighting some of the themes addressed by the play.

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One of the most influential polish theater directors who influenced the works of Jenkins is Jerzy Marian Grotowski. The playwright, with several influential pieces like the play chairs, Orpheus, and Akropolis, is renowned for his formulation of the poor theater (Moniz, 1). Although he utilized several styles throughout his career, his most remarkable job is the play he introduced and employed poor theatre. In his small theater lab, he, together with a few actors, experimented with the spiritual, physical, and ritualistic factors of a theatre and the relationship between actors and spectators (1). It is through the experiments that he invented the term poor theater to represent a performance style that used the most simplistic of costumes and theater details. Precisely, the concept focuses on the actors' skill and a reduced number of props.

An analysis of the play an octoroon reveals several similarities between the two playwrights. The application of poor theater is so evident in the play An Octoroon as we see the JJB acting several roles. As noted before, poor theatre focuses on minimal props and a reduced number of actors. We also see the other actors taking up several roles, which are an attempt to minimize the number of actors in the play. At the start of the play, we see the protagonist speaking to the audience about seeing his therapist about his issues, which he later states that he didn't have any therapist since he could not afford it; thus, the play try's to minimize actual actors to simplify the play. Another expression of poor theatre is just before the play commences BJJ holds a conversation with the playwright, expressing how he had to play the white actor by applying whiteface (Jacobs-Jenkins, 1). This shows how BJJ employed poor theatre concept of using minimal props.

The second aspect that influenced the play is reconstruction. The term is used to define an approach that seeks to understand the relationship between text and meaning. The concept was coined by Jacques Derrida, who was the biggest proponent of the concept. Precisely, the concept can be described as a criticism of Plato's idea of pure form, which puts precedence on essence over true forms (Zi, 1395). The concept places importance on actual forms over essence, emphasizing that the true essence could be deducted from appearance. The theory analyses factor-like language touching on aspects like truth; justice is complex aspects that are hard to decipher without a critical look at the physical aspects.

Jenkins uses deconstruction in several instances in his play to bring out aspects like justice, colorism, stereotypes, and prejudice. The use of direct address, Jenkins explores the idea that it is possible to fell something before actually being aware of it. The term octoroon is repeatedly numerously in the play to ensure that the audience grasps the feeling of an octoroon before finally getting to see the octoroon. The term means an individual who is one-eighth black by descent representing the racialism categories present in the African American society at the time (Miller, 20). The various colors represented on the scene reveal the racial categories with the darker race being discriminated against more than the octoroon who held a better position since they were treasured and held better roles in the house while the black ladies did harsh duties in the society. Being an action also made it risky since they were regarded as more valuable and attractive; thus, they could be sold at a higher price as slaves (33).

Another artist who influences the play An Octoroon is a German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht. His first breakthrough came when he wrote the Threepenny Opera, together with Kurt Weill, in 1924 (Brecht, 1936). He is recognized for being the key proponent of epic theatre, which was later commonly referred to as dialectal theater. The concept emphasized the audience's reactions to a play using a variety of techniques. In essence, it pushed the audience to suspend their audience to see and experience the world as it rather than suspending their disbelief.

Looking at the play in discussion, the playwright opts to apply the theory negatively by going against what the concepts advocate for. While epic theatre focuses on the audience and their reaction, An Octoroon employs poor theatre, which focuses on actor development and their ability to use minimal prompts. Moreover, epic theatre abstains from the use of emotions to draw one into a state of emotional reasoning, which is evident in the movie as Georg confesses his love for Zoe despite their struggling condition (Jacobs-Jenkins 15). Epic theatre would have instead focused on the current issues and encouraged a practical appraisal of the situation rather than an emotional approach.

Having looked at the genres and artists who influenced the play, a look at the artist and genre absent that would have effectively influenced the film is also worth noting. The first genre that would have been effectively applied in bringing out the theme of colorism is Dadaism. The term represents an art movement in the 20th century whose protagonist did not subscribe to logic, reason, and the beauty attributed to modern society (Galimberti, 45). The movement forms of expressions comprised violence, war, and nationalism and an affiliation with the radical left-wingers.

The octoroon was written to show an outcry of racial discrimination and colorism, which was a mild protest of what was happening in the society then. The black and the octoroons in the play are bought and traded like commodities. As a useful tool, a resistance or form of Dadaism would have been applicable in bringing out the people's resistance and the plight of an octoroon. Since the play employs suicide as an avenue to escape reality, Dadaism would have portrayed a complete resistance of the current situation and a fight for equitable treatment.

Another movement that developed in the early 20th century that would have significantly influenced the play is expressionism. A movement that started initially as a poetry and painting group later developed to embrace other artistic fields like theatre and film. According to Alba, the primary premise of the movement was that it aimed at representing society totally from a subjective point of view (16). The movement edged away from culture and traditional institutions as the only representation of reality but instead sought to represents abstract concepts that did not bare physical existence (16).

The reason why an octoroon would benefit from the influence of expressionism is that the ideologies overlooked cultural and traditional representation as to the only existing reality. Expressionism would have given an edge to the play and represented issues of love and intimacy more clearly. This is because love is an abstract emotion without an accurate representation. Moreover, the play is saturated with sentiments that could be effectively being brought out through expressionism.

Reading the play, one would agree that the play in discussion employs several influential genres and artists approach to comprehensively bring out the plight of the octoroons and other individuals with black ancestry. Poor dramas a tool is used by the playwright to ensure that the play has minimal props and actors, while deconstruction brings out the various themes like colorism. Albeit being a great play, application from movements like expressionism and Dadaism would have also played a key role in highlighting some of the themes effectively.

Works Cited

Agraz Ortiz, Alba. "From Songs To Poets In New York: The Modern Anguish In Two Poems Of Lorca." Anales De La Literatura Espanola Contemporanea. Vol. 43. No. 1. 1114 Berks St, Philadelphia, Pa 19122 USA: Temple Univ, Dept Spanish & Portuguese, 2018.

Brecht, Bertolt. Bertolt Brecht Journals, 1934-55. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Galimberti, Jacopo. "Maoism, Dadaism, and Mao-Dadaism in the 1960s and 1970s Italy." Art, Global Maoism, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Manchester University Press, 2019.

Jacobs-Jenkins, Branden. An Octoroon. Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 2015.

Miller, Renata Kobetts. "Syllabus for Melodrama, with assignments, Spring 2019." (2019).

Moniz, Justin John. "The 21st Century Way: Redefining the Opera Workshop." Opera Journal 50.3 (2017): 1.

Zi, Y. A. N. G. "Utopian Theatre and Subjectivity Reconstruction-Rethinking on the Artistic Spirit of Minjian Theatre1." Journal of Literature and Art Studies 7.11 (2017): 1391-1400.

Zi YANG. "Utopian theatre and subjectivity reconstruction-Rethinking on the artistic spirit of Minjian theatre." Journal of Literature and Art Studies, vol. 7, no. 11, 2017, doi:10.17265/2159-5836/2017.11.001.