1112 - The theater of conscience and the conscience of the theater

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athena Kehagias

The theater is not just art. It’s also humanity. Every theatrical play that touches the substance, is also touching the human. Consequently, it is not just art for art’s sake. It is also human art. In theater, consciousness is no longer an abstract concept, it becomes life. Everyone can see through its kinesiology, the embodiments of consciousness. There is no issue that the theater can not analyze, adapt, and or revise. Because the theater is, significance in action. What can be said is a dialogue and what not, is a structure. Through theater, our conscience can resist injustice. Through theater, the human can prove to others that he exists. In this notion, theater is the resistance of human consciousness. Society may accept everything in order to maintain itself and sustain the system. The theater does not!
The theatrical plays are by nature subversive, otherwise they have no reason to exist. Their creations are not just a personal need, because there are not simply literature. It doesn’t exist by itself, it lives with its public, even if it is a timeless entity. If it is seasonal it wouldn’t remain in people’s memory. Consequently, the theater can not be social, as it does not belong to a society. In this sense, the theater is human. In this field, even one condemned in life, has not only a price but also a value. His existence has a meaning that its creator and his conscience understand and invent. Furthermore, each person has its dignity and so they can speak about everyone without social boundaries.
The theater can condemn inhumanity as it is judging it. It is independent of the system because it is not an anonymous creation, because it is no an anonymous company, or an artificial institution. The conscience of the theater is an enduring one. It has of course a political aura. But this is a diction of resistance against a regime which is unjust and violates humanity. And for this reason it’s hard to touch the masses. As a propaganda instrument is neither viable nor functional. touch the crowd, but only human who are few and rare. But the theater is actually a form of resistance not of a polemological manner nor the politicking one. The theater is the resistance of consciousness.
It is the expression of the consciousness of the author but not only that. The theater is the audacity of humanism. It can speak even when all are silent. And can wait even when all are rushing. The theater is the light of fire, it is the power that is within every human who is unable to express it for social reasons. This explains the existence of authors who are not trying to entertain their audience but to awaken them, so as to be able to resist the absolute authority which is infringing his freedom.