Political Theatre Quotes

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions.

When elections are not democratic, even the most populist discussions become superficial, disconnected from real power; they are theatre.

While we all want the U.N. to live up to its original intent and be the place where the world comes together to solve international problems, the reality is the U.N. isn't all that different from any other political body. Countries and individuals play to the cameras, create good theatre, and negotiate selfishly.

There are a few writers that one has a relationship with that means, basically, you do whatever they say. One is Caryl Churchill, and the other is David Hare.

The person whose work introduced me to the craft was Lorraine Hansberry. The person who taught me to love the craft was Tennessee Williams. The person who really taught me the power of the craft was August Wilson, and the person who taught me the political heft of the craft was Arthur Miller.

A summit is a photo opportunity featuring two or more heads of government who have no business to transact, but believe a set of smiley photos will do them a lot of good politically.

Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice.

When I grew up, in the time of 'Look Back in Anger,' the theatre was very exciting, a place where you felt that social comment could lead to social change.

When I was at university, I did essays on political theatre. And it was really frustrating that the ideas weren't reaching the people they were talking about. Standup is the one place where you are talking to every level of society.

The thing that I have a horror of is ideological theatre - Shakespeare never told us how to think.

I trust Angela Merkel, she is a very open person. She is also subject to certain constraints and limitations. But she is honestly trying to settle the crisis, also in the south-east of Ukraine. However, what the European Union is doing with those sanctions is nothing but a theatre of the absurd.

It’s like a Stalinist show trial. The senators all get up and make their speeches and then leave. No one listens.

I had no idea that our love of fame was going to display itself in a high political office on a world stage.

All I'm saying is that there are many different kinds of political theatre and many plays I greatly admire: 'Antigone,' 'Mother Courage,' 'All My Sons.' But, if I tackle a political theme, I have to do it in my own way.

I love that theatre can be political. You can go watch a play; it sends out messages, and you can go away thinking differently to the way you thought about it before.

I spent so many years of my life as a stage actor and when you do all these plays, a lot of really great plays are very politically driven. They deal with deep social issues, and that's the kind of stuff that I love, as an audience member.

The first rule of good theatre is 'Show, don't tell.' It applies to good political action as well.

Questions about political theatre always overlook America's most powerful and effective political theatre, which is always thriving: the American musical. The politics is conservative but, to my mind, effective and insidious.

Only when you don't impose things on it do you get real political theatre.

Bob was very influenced by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. That huge type of creativity which takes nothing and makes it into something very wrenching.

With theatre, you can interpret the most complex play on stage for it have meaning to an audience because you're dealing in images, you're dealing in action, you can use different idioms to interpret and clarify something which is obscured in the reading and of course there are different kinds of play, there are mythological plays, there are what I call the dramatic sketches, direct political theatre which is virtually everybody, but I find that you can use the stage as a social vehicle, you know, which any kind of audience.

I have great respect for Brecht, but his path is not mine.

I don't write political plays in the sense that I'm writing essays that are kind of disguised as plays. I would really defy anyone to watch any of my plays and say 'Well, here's the point.'

One of the things I find very little of in America - and certainly not on Broadway - are plays with political attitudes.