ABSTRACT
Throughout this book, we consider philosophical problems that arise in relation to theatre. The broad aim of this chapter is to answer the question: what is theatre? Giving an answer — and looking at answers proposed by others — helps us to understand what a broad range of activities can be associated with ‘theatre’. One way to answer our question would be to say: ‘there's no single, useful definition; it's the label for a loose, rag-tag bundle of social and cultural practices that more or less began in Ancient Greece but that had probably been going on long before in various different guises and under various different descriptions’. This is perfectly true, even if exactly the same answer, word for word, could be given for ‘What is democracy?’, ‘What is history’? and ‘What is philosophy?’, amongst other questions. The point, then, is to come up with something a little more concrete than that, but that pays attention to the enormous variety of things that have been and still are called ‘theatre’. We don't need a watertight definition, but we do need something that will carry us through the rest of the book. We'll look at the question ‘what is theatre?’ in three different ways. First, we examine the ‘typical elements’ of a theatrical performance. Second, we look at some standard definitions of theatre. Third, we look at theatre compared with other art forms. Finally, we look at the relationship between play texts and theatrical performances.
