On the Hunt

Well, I've done a little more research into the realm of ancient drama. I've found a great deal more about the development of drama in several cultures, but nothing clear yet on Hebrew theater.

'Job' is becoming more and more dear to me as I study it. I'm blown away by the intricacy of its structure; its timing; its rythm. Tearing the book apart, however, hasn't shown me anything about how the performer(s) would have seen it; interpreted it. The only thing clear from simply analyzing it is that it is truly great literature. It focuses clearly on a string of thought. It gives us a character whith whom we can easily sympathize. It teaches. Truth.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, so I've found, shared my obsession for establishing the credibility of viewing 'Job' as a play. His ideas were condemned at the Church Council of 553 at Constantinople. Since then I'm pretty sure that any shred of information about Hebrew performance arts has been shredded.

But I'm still going to try to piece it all together.

In the mean time I've learned that most western drama came to us through the Greeks and then was restructured through the pageantry of the church. Western theater was birthed out of an interest in dialogue. Literature was read or delivered memorized for an audience. The next step was to incorporate a number of speakers until the Greeks came up with a format similar to the 'readers' theater' style of today. Later the skena, or painted back-drop, appeared to enhance the illusion of reality. Then the church stepped in by allowing more free stage movement and interaction between characters.

On the other hand, eastern drama developed more out of dance than dialogue. The first productions were stories of the gods and their histories (already understood by most of their audience) set to motion. Even today several traditional Hindu dance movements are based on the most archaic of human activities. Spreading the palm so that the back of the hand circles downward while the upper torso is bent relates sowing in seed spring; the idea then is spring, growth, fecundity. Later influences from Chinese and Indonesian cultures incorporated more people with a more complex vocabulary of dance moves. Eventually there were readers to clarify the story as the players danced it out. Today much easter drama, especially in modern movies such as 'Hero' or 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' tell a story with few words; there are entire scenes that have almost no dialogue, only action.

I imagine that Hebrew drama falls somewhere in between. I can only guess at what ancient Hebrew players would have done. They had brought much tradition from Egypt, which had developed a pageant-based drama style. The Hebrews were also heavily exposed the the developement of the Greek culture through trade with the Phonecians. So much so that most scholars would say that Job was based on what travelling wise men from Israel would have seen when visiting Greece.

So, basically, I have no idea what to do. I don't have enough research to build an accurate representation of what the Hebrew would have done with 'Job.' I may just have to do something radically modern.