Analysis of the Implied Elements of the Chinese Traditional Theatre of Churchill’s dramas from the Perspective of the Theatrical Aesthetics

Abstract：Caryl Churchill，the most famous female dramatist in England nowadays and the most outstanding contemporary playwright，has been very shining in the British even or the world dramatic arena.She has created nearly 50 plays so far.And she has her own particular creating principle that she likes using the different theatrical methods according to the content and theme of the play.Under the background of the confusion of the western and eastern dramas，this thesis will show us how Churchills plays imply the elements of the Chinese Traditional Theatres in the light of the theatrical aesthetics.Therefore，we can keep in touch with the western dramas as well as the contact of the western and oriental plays.

Key word：Churchill；theatrical aesthetics；Chinese Traditional theatre； fusion of eastern and western dramas

Caryl Churchill has been the greatest female dramatist in the England and world alike since the 1970s.Although she is a dramatist，her life does not follow suit.She，from a family of middle class，studied British literature in Oxford.She used to be a good student in school and to abide to all the rules.As for the art，she is very original to try something new.In the First Wave of the western drama（1929—1960s），she was studying in Oxford and wrote 3 plays，two of which was performed in the theatre.In the Second Wave（1968—1980s），Churchill reached her creating peek and wrote most of his works.In the Third Wave of the In-Yer-Face Theatre，she still has her popularity and created a few new plays.Her major works are as follows：Vinegar Tom 1976，Cloud Nine 1979，Top Girls 1982 and so on.

Western and Occidental theatres have their own development and characteristics，but they share the similar root-the imitation of the sacrifice rituals.During their own evolvement，they began to differentiate form each other.The Chinese traditional theatre heritages the artistic qualities （singing and dancing）and enlarges the feature，while the western drama gradually excludes the artistic qualities and reduces to the category of the drama，opera and ballet.Another difference between both is the hypothesis and imagination of the former and the reality of the latter.From 18th to 19th，European playwrights began to be interested in china and Chinese plays，but they just paid attention to the Chinese morals rather than the nature of the Chinese traditional theatre.However，in the 20th，the westerns realized the nature which they had not gained in the last one or two century because of Meilanfangs visits in western countries.（Mei is a very famous for Beijing opera in china.）Since then，the western plays begin to develop in multi-directions.And Churchill borrowed and absorbed the Chinese traditional theatre under the wave of the fusion indirectly.endprint

There are four grounds to explain the argument.The first one is the nature of hypothesis.In Cloud Nine，Churchill uses the magic role-casting in which there are casting-shift，an actor performing a few roles and a role acted by a few actors.It emphasizes the importance of the actor and highlights the conditionalism of the theatrical art，which is the same as the highly stylized form of Chinese traditional theatre.And both have the symbolic meanings.The second one is the return to the traditional artistic qualities （singing and dancing）.In Churchills plays，we can find a lot of the nonverbal artistic techniques-music and dance，especially music.For example，Vinegar Tom interweaves seven contemporary songs with the historical stories，which can make the audience get the gist of the scenes from the musical interludes，such as something to burn and if you float.The third one is the combination of the realism and the surrealism.Churchill use the surrealistic ways to inspect the realistic society，such as the disorder of time and space in Striker，coexistence of the reality and dreamland in Mad Forest and frequent appearance of the ghosts and demons in Top Girls.The relationship of audience and performer is the last one.Churchills plays pose a great challenge to “the fourth wall” by absorbing audience into the play and sharing the open stage space between audience and performer，for example，in Light shining in Buckinghamshire，Churchill blurs the borderline of actor and role，actor and audience.In this way，it is similar to the Chinese traditional theatre where the playwrights tell their audience the hypothesis of the play.

In the light of stage art，it is concluded that Churchills plays contain some elements of Chinese Traditional Theatre through the analysis of their similarities，such as the nature of hypothesis，return to the traditional artistic qualities，the combination of realism and surrealism and the relationship of audience and performer.

Churchill is an activist in the post-modernist drama（20世紀70年代至21世紀初期）.During this period，dramatists create the versatile styles according to their own understanding，and the styles and characteristics are the combination of the reality and tradition.The reality is that of their own country； the tradition is the Grecian and ancient Eastern style.All the dramatists are more or less influenced by the East consciously and unconsciously.

So does Churchill.She is a successful experimenter and claims her own dramatic theory：she prefers to explore the dramatic forms which can express her own thoughts to the optimum. She never mimics certain style mechanistically，and develops the theories of Brecht and Beckett，so her plays imply some basic elements of the Chinese Traditional Theatre unconsciously.

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作者簡介

劉彩彩（1992.04—），女，漢，湖北荊門，碩士研究生，南京師范大學，英美文學。endprint