Theatre
In theatre, such as in the works of absurdists such as Tom Stoppard, characters played by the same actor may be of thematic significance. A good example of this is Tony Kushner's Angels in America, which has a cast of eight despite having many roles. Debate exists over William Shakespeare's use of such, with a famous example being whether the characters of Cordelia and the Fool in King Lear are one and the same. In stage productions of Peter Pan, it is a tradition for Mr. Darling and Captain Hook to be played by the same actor, a tradition often continued in film adaptations with the actors playing dual roles.
Read more about this topic: Dual Role
Famous quotes containing the word theatre:
“The theatre is supremely fitted to say: “Behold! These things are.” Yet most dramatists employ it to say: “This moral truth can be learned from beholding this action.””
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)
“... in the happy laughter of a theatre audience one can get the most immediate and numerically impressive guarantee that there is nothing in one’s mind which is not familiar to the mass of persons living at the time.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air: the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (1858–1924)