Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Suspending Disbelief
Theatre as Context for Sharing
Roger Grainger is the author of a number of books, including The Language of the Rite (Darton, Longman and Todd) and The Message of the Rite (Lutterworth); The Drama of the Rite (published by SAP in 2008) is the final book in this trilogy. Other publications include: Imagination, Identification and Catharsis in Theatre and Therapy (with Mary Duggan); The Social Symbolism of Grief and Mourning; and Theatre and Relationship in Shakespeare's Late Plays.
Foreword
by Barbara Jefford OBE (‘an actress of powerful address, whose
Lady Macbeth ranks among the finest of the post-war era’,
The Everyman Companion to Shakespeare
Postscript by
Siân Phillips CBE, Livia in the classic BBC series I Claudius and recipient of a
Tony Award Nomination for her one-woman cabaret show on ‘Marlene
Dietrich’
This is a book about the central principle of drama and theatre – how we join up with one another in
order to enjoy a play. This is the principle defined by Coleridge
when he described poetry as involving “the willing suspension
of disbelief”, a phrase often used by theatre critics and
others, but one which is rarely examined in any detail, having as
much to do with psychology as aesthetics. Roger Grainger is both
a psychologist and an actor, and is thus uniquely placed to investigate
this shared territory, not only from an academic viewpoint but also
professionally, in “hands-on” ways.
Theatre has the ability to transfer reality: it promotes
a situation where disbelief is willingly suspended in every gesture
of demonstration or presentation. As a consequence, imaginative
involvement is at the heart of theatrical endeavour, and thus has
inevitable crucial repercussions for human happiness and well-being.
Drama and the uses to which we put it represent part of the process
of living our lives – drama is an aspect of being human which
is frequently misunderstood and almost always undervalued. This
fact about ordinary life is considered here with regard to its social
and sociological implications. The concern here is with ordinary
human experience; the purpose is to draw attention to something
that is usually taken for granted and almost always denied the respect
it deserves. Without the experience we so often dismiss as “mere
entertainment”, we would not just find life less enjoyable,
it would be unendurable. Without the psychological harmony with
our inner selves and our worlds which imagination allows and encourages,
we would struggle to be human at all. This book sets out to explain
what it is that makes drama in all its manifestations – including
literature – “work”, and how the engagement with
imagination leads to psychological wholeness.
Paperback ISBN: | 978-1-84519-398-0 |
Paperback Price: | £11.99 / $24.99 |
Release Date: | March 2010 |
Page Extent / Format: | 96 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
Illustrated: | No |
Preface
Foreword by Barbara Jefford
Chapter One Learning
Chapter Two Trusting
Chapter Three Sharing
Chapter Four Cats and Bags
Chapter Five Journeying
Chapter Six Trusting
Chapter Seven Dramatising
Chapter Eight Believing
Chapter Nine Consenting Conclusion
Postscript by Siân Phillips
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Review Quotes to Follow
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