The Wheel Response Paper
The Unlisted Character: Representing War on Stage
Julia Boll
Julia Boll, the author of “The Unlisted Character: Representing War on Stage”
is essentially trying to prove that this play is an example of this group of “theatrical representation(s) of both the individual and war in time of disintegrating national states and the dramatization of destruction versus survival” as currently being the driving forces on stage” (Boll 167). Boll argues that war is the ‘primary organizing principle of society’, implying that it could very simply break out where we least expect it including our own homelands. Although she points out that “Far Away” does not actually explicit any physical violence on stage, Boll expresses that Caryl Churchill’s play “documents the slow escalation of underground guerrilla action via official state barbarism too a world at war, trying in the acceptance of violence in a ‘closed society’” (Boll 169). Boll believes that theatre is the appropriate form of expressing and communicating the reality of living through a war. Additionally, she talks about how ‘any war’ is one defining force for the shaping of these characters due to their extreme conditions that they lived in when struggling to live another day.
On the other hand, Zinnie Harris has tried to put a light on the impact of war on the children in the society which is mentioned as an ongoing process due to repetition of similar mistakes by mankind. The dramatic screenplay tends to use the challenge of using all the elements of theatrical cohesion to portray the theme of dramatized human brutality and its aftermath on children via the storyline of this play. This play takes a thematic stance to depict how children feel and react to situations when they see their loved ones (specifically parents) being tortured, exiled, incarcerated, lashed, and gassed in front of them during the war. Thus, Harris is focused on using the narrative viewpoint of children as the emotionally shredded victims of the war between Spain and France.
In order to better understand Julia Boll’s point, she utilizes examples from plays such as, “Far Away” and “Midwinter.” She explains both plots and talks about how they relate to this argument that conflicts in war are examined through diverse forms of artistic representation. She quotes a lot of the lines from characters of these two plays, utilizing the dialogue to showcase the “normality” that these characters focus on in order to forget the horrors of living through a war. For example, a Boll point out the main character in “Midwinter” makes sure not to acknowledge the elements of war that continue to haunt Maud’s life. Boll talks about the true transformation that these characters went through and the affect war had on their personal identities.
Zinnie Harris used the characters to bolster the theme of her play. The Wheel has a cast of seventeen characters, but the majority of the plot uses the events around three characters comprising of Joan Allen and the other two kids and a doll. Although the children are supposed to be the mute performers in the events with a background of the depicted scenario, the plot utilizes the expression of the three main characters to explain their reaction to the brutality of the war. For example, the scene when the frightened small girl meets Beatriz for the first time and tries to climb over the back of Beatriz while they were running away from the soldiers in the smoked area have the girl almost mute as she saw something really awful but is unable to express that (Harris 50).
What I find to be the most interesting point in this article is Boll’s thought of the focal point being survivors, rather than heroes. To be honest, I was a tad confused throughout reading this chapter. I was confused by what the thesis was for this chapter, and what she was truly arguing or discussing. She talks about this representation of war specifically on the British stage, yet I wasn’t too clear on what she was trying to point out. Boll talks a lot about plot, elaborating upon how war affects the lives of these characters. On page 175 before it ends, Julia Boll expresses this antagonist known as the “war machine.” I wanted to know more, and was quite confused as to the point in which she was building in her this chapter. I don’t feel as though the examples she used weren’t super clear in expressing her overall point. She ends the chapter by mentioning that theatre may be the appropriate form of expressing the reality of war because of its immediacy.
The most interesting aspect of ‘The Wheel’ is the part where the story transforms from the heart filled from human cruelty to a sense of compassion and faith. In the backdrop of the war scenario when France had already invaded Spain, Beatriz gets joined by 2 other abandoned children and they travel across the nation depicting major incidents of courage and motherhood. This aspect seems to be the most striking feature of the play as it continuously reminds me a paradox in human nature where one can be subjected to an extreme form of human cruelty and still retain humanity to help the helpless people.
Work Cited
Boll, Julia. "The Unlisted Character: Representing War on Stage."The New Order of War. Ed. Bob Brecher. Vol. 64. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. N. pag. Print.
Harris, Zinnie. "The Wheel." Faber and Faber Limited, 2011. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
