“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out?” To what extent do you find this statement applicable in at least two plays you have studied?
Our brain is amazing thing. It is the most complicated thing in the known universe; more complicated than quantum mechanics, supercomputers, and teenage lives. It is extremely efficient and surprising at times. One of its areas of expertise is that of memory. Although our senses gives our brain an enormous amount of information, the brain is smart enough to discard the unimportant parts, remembering only the notable events of the day.
Plays do this as well. In order to keep the audience entertained, playwrights usually only write scenes that are entertaining in some way. When they use ordinary events, they add something into them to give them literary or artistic significance. To an extent, both the plays Oedipus the King and Wild Duck conform to this notion.
In Oedipus, most of the play's focus is on the drama of the curse that Apollo lays on the cities. The play is definitely lacking in the areas of ordinary life, instead, focusing on a gripping drama. The beginning of the play starts with dramatic procession of priests that claim that "Thebes is dying. Alight on the fresh crops / and the rich pastures, cattle sicken and die, / and the women die in labor, children stillborn." This certainly not dull in any sense of the word. The rest of the story concerns with an investigation of divine and huge consequences for Oedipus and the city of Thebes.
Even the in the very first scene of the Wild Duck, Ibsen weaves dramatic elements into his play. The scene begins with a dinner party, but is twisted almost immediately with an ancient mystery and several conflicts. This ordinary event, a dinner party, is intertwined with elements from a soap opera. First, the audience sees the mystery of the family of Edkal and the disgrace of Lieutenant Edkal. This adds intrigue and mystery into the play. We also see the conflict that arises out of this mystery between Edkal and his son. Later, the animosity between Gregers and Werle is show through a back room argument.
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