Kajal Malik

Religion as Theatre

Baptisms in churches amass family and friends as an audience. Tribes in Africa chant in
unison so that God may hear their prayers. Hindu ceremonies enact famous stories of their Gods
in order to induce emotional responses from their audience. Religion has been around for most of
history, and religious ceremonies and rituals are fundamental elements that have greatly
influenced the development of theatre.
Religion and its ceremonies, no matter what culture is involved, usually have designated
spaces for their divine authorities and the religious devotees. Woodruff stated that theater is the
heir of a tradition that makes spaces sacred for religious ritual; only people who have been
consecrated may enter such a space without transgression and that theater divides watchers
from the watched by placing the watched in a measured space.1 Those performing in the
religion, such as a priest performing a baptism on a child or tribe leaders chanting, are located in
the divine space. The space where the audience is located is then for the mundane watchers
watching the religious authority speaking to their respective Gods. The divine space can be
compared to a stage in a play where performers are putting on a theatrical production of Hamlet.
Therefore, religion and theatre go hand in hand due to the separation of the performers, those
being watched, and the audience, the ones who are watching. Because of religion, theatre has
been able to provide designated areas for performers and an area for onlookers to watch. This
assignment of a designated area also creates a place for the audience to focus their attention on.
While religion and theatre provide sacred spaces for the performers, the performers needs
to do more in order to capture and retain the attention of the audience. Woodruff claimed that
being a character in theatre requires the complicity of the audience.2 The audience has to
recognize a performer as a legitimate character and they decide whether or not the character is
worth watching. David Mason talked about Hindu ras lila religious productions as theatre in his
book Theatre and Religion on Krishnas Stage. These productions are based off origin stories that
vary in details depending on which version was taught due to sectarian differences regarding the
participation of principal figures.3 Basically, the audience grew up with certain versions of these
origin stories and due to this, the audience came to the productions with expectations in mind.
Traditionally, older productions featured young boys as the lead roles in the religious
productions. If a ras lila production featured a grown man as a lead, the audience would not
respect the choice and therefore the character would not be worth watching for the audience.
Because of this tradition of using young boys as the main roles, more modern productions will
also continue this practice. The young boys will also seek to put on as great of a show as their
predecessors did in the past. The audience truly makes the show, and theatre has adapted this
rule. Audiences come to plays with expectations in mind and it is up to the performers to meet
those expectations so that they are worth watching.
In a religious ceremony, the audiences respect and attention cannot only be caught
because of a designated space, but also through the performer and their traits. The audience and
the performers both have significant roles in religious ceremonies, and this fact parallels how
1

Woodruff, Paul, The Necessity of Theatre: The Art of Watching and Being Watched, Oxford:
Oxford University, (9/16/15), pp. 108.
2
ibid, pp 95.
3
Mason, David, Theatre and Religion on Krishnas Stage, New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2009, (9/23/15), pp. 66.

Kajal Malik
modern day theater works. Modern theater has adapted how religious rituals have been
functioning for centuries in order to capture and retain the focus of their watchers and audience.
Both religious ceremonies and theatre apply the use of creating designated spaces for the
performers and using the audiences expectations in order to capture their attention.

Woodruff, Paul, The Necessity of Theatre: The Art of Watching and Being Watched, Oxford:
Oxford University, (9/16/15), pp. 108.
2
ibid, pp 95.
3
Mason, David, Theatre and Religion on Krishnas Stage, New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2009, (9/23/15), pp. 66.