The Encyclopedia of World Religions

drama, religious S 123

Nevertheless, religions have played important roles in the development of kinds of drama that are usu ally associated with entertainment. It is customary to locate the beginning of Western drama with Greek tragedy and comedy. Some of the religious influences on these plays are hard to miss. Tragedies use religious stories, such as the story of Oedipus, to explore the human situ ation. These tragedies were performed as part of a festival in Athens known as the Greater Dionysia, in celebration of Dionysos. During the Middle Ages, too, drama had a strong religious character. Guilds performed mys tery plays to dramatize stories from the Bible. Morality plays, such as Everyman, talked about the human condition. From such roots, European drama of the Renaissance and later periods grew. Religious influence on theater is hardly limited to Europe. In Japan, a form of drama known as Noh combines elements of S HINTO and B UDDHISM . Actors sometimes perform Noh plays for religious purposes, but they also perform them today to entertain audiences. During the plays actors repre sent gods, spirits of the dead, and demons. These beings come on stage to relate their stories to the audience. In the 20th and early 21st centuries some leading theater directors have paid close attention to the religious and ritual dimensions of drama. Important leaders of this movement include the British director Peter Brook (b. 1925), the Ameri can director Richard Schechner (b. 1934), and the African director Wole Soyinka (b. 1934). RELIGION OPPOSED TO DRAMA Not everyone has approved of drama, religious or secular. Perhaps the most famous person who opposed it was the Greek philosopher Plato ( c. 427– c. 347 B . C . E .). He accused dramatists and poets of lying about the gods. When he envi sioned his ideal state, he excluded drama and poetry from it. Others have opposed drama, too. Many Mus lim thinkers have opposed drama, just as they have opposed two-dimensional representations of human beings and animals. Nevertheless, there

realm of the spirits, because spirits are thought to make people sick. In that realm they discover the cause of a patient’s illness and, in some tradi tions, battle and defeat the evil spirits. Shamans may use dance, song, and drama as they act out their encounters with beings in the spirit realm, including their struggles with and victory over the illness-causing spirits. Another form of religious drama takes place when a spirit overcomes a person, as happens when a spirit “rides” a person in the Caribbean religion known as V OODOO . This, too, is a kind of religious drama, but a spontaneous one which members of the religion take to be not a perfor mance but the very actions of the spirit itself. The presence of supernatural beings may bring about another kind of religious drama. Peo ple who believe that G OD is actually present in a temple may perform dramas to please her or him. This was the function of special women in Hindu temples known as devadasis, “servants of god.” Their dancing acted out stories at the same time that it entertained the divinity present. Religious dramas are not restricted to adult actors. In many religions children, too, perform religious dramas in the context of ritual and wor ship. In J UDAISM children act out the events sur rounding E STHER ’s saving of her people at P URIM . Many Christian children in North America drama tize the story of Jesus’ birth around the time of C HRISTMAS . Children in schools in India may also put on plays about the life of Rama during Ramlila. These dramas provide ways for children to learn religious stories by participating in them rather than simply listening to them. Actors identify with the characters, and as a result the stories begin to define who they are. RELIGION INFLUENCES DRAMA The line between drama performed as ritual and drama performed as entertainment is often difficult to draw. For example, are Purim plays and plays about the birth of Jesus performed for religious purposes, for entertainment, or both? It has been suggested that drama for entertainment began as ritual. That statement may be an exaggeration.