Theater is all the arts in one. A truism, but there it is: theater is rhetoric, dance, poetry, music and painting. But theater is more than just all the arts in one; take the theater out of sports, for instance, and what is left: nothing but a tedious exercise. Take theater away from music, dance, poetry, and painting, and what is left: Again, nothing. Not only does theater comprise all the arts; all the arts are nothing but theater. Further, the origin of philosophy itself, the Queen of the Sciences, which we find in Plato, exists—as theater! The philosophy of Plato, the Dialogues of Plato—are plays! Psychology is a play of personas, and Nature is nothing but a Theater—-listen to the rain play upon the roof. Religion—-of course—-is theater. Getting back to Plato; we all know the name, Socrates, the hero of Plato’s Dialogues, the Christ (Socrates wrote nothing down and was murdered by the State) of Philosophy itself. One idea that Club Theater is toying with, or should I say, playing with, is presenting Plato’s Dialogues as Theater. Shakespeare and Beckett and Chekhov and O’Neill are revived constantly, but here is remarkable Theater which has never been mined. SOCRATES. Modern politics, philosophy, art, rhetoric, science, religion, reason, poetry: it began with Plato’s Dialogues. Imagine a musical with Socrates as the star. Much of Plato’s dialogues have simple replies to Socrates as he leads the ignorant to enlightenment: “Yes, Socrates” or “No, of course not, Socrates.” These would be far more interesting—-and even amusing—-if they were SUNG. This is just an idea, of course. The setting and costumes could be simple. A very fine actor would be necessary for Socrates, and he could be played in all sorts of ways, as a charmer, a scold, a dear old fellow, a real sly fox. Plato has political enemies—-and friends. But the point is, Plato is dramatic, brilliant, world-historical material waiting to be used. This is the kind of thing we think about late at night and early in the morning…
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