LEFTY’İ BEKLERKEN: AGİTPROP’UN ÖNCÜ BİR OYUNU
Clifford Odets tarafından 1930’lu yılların Büyük Buhran döneminde yazılan Lefty’i Beklerken yalnızca Agitprop Tiyatrosu’nun sembol oyunlarından biri olmakla kalmaz ayrıca seyirci açısından duygusal ve politik katarsis etki sağlamayı da başarır. Clifford Odets’in tek perdelik oyunu, eserdeki taksi şoförlerinin ekonomik yönden içler acısı durumunu ve bazıları geriyedönüşlerle anlatılan ve onları greve gitmeye götüren bir dizi olayı anlatır. Burjuva tiyatrosu fikrini, uygulamasını ve estetiğini yadsıyan ve Agitprop özellikleriyle argümanlarını öncelikle ekonomik ve sosyal değişimi başlatmak için destekleyen Lefty’i Beklerken, ezilen insanların kötü yaşam koşullarını tasvir ederek ve yozlaşmış sendika ilişkilerini açığa vurarak insanları harekete geçirmek için çağrıda bulunur. Çalışma, tarihsel ve kültürel koşulları ve eseri oluşturan dünya görüşünü serimleyip Lefty’i Beklerken oyunu için teorik bir özet oluşturarak Amerikan Tiyatrosu’nun önemli eserlerinden birinde Agitprop özelliklerini göstermeyi amaçlar.
WAITING FOR LEFTY: A SPEARHEADING PLAY OF AGITPROP
Waiting for Lefty, which was written by Clifford Odets during the GreatDepression of the thirties, has become not only an emblematic play of Agitprop Theatre butalso it proves to be an emotional and political catharsis on the part of the audience. CliffordOdets’ one-act play narrates the story of cabdrivers’ heart-rending economic situation and theseries of actions, some of which are narrated in the form of flashbacks, which lead them to goon strike. Rejecting the conception, application and aesthetics of bourgeois theatre and backingits arguments for the instigation of primarily economic and social change by the aid of Agitpropfeatures, Waiting for Lefty calls for mobilizing people by collective endeavor through thedepiction of the dismal life conditions of the down-trodden people and corrupt union affairs. Bypresenting historical and cultural circumstances and perspective of weltanschauung which shapethe play and drawing a theoretical synopsis for Waiting for Lefty, the study aims to display theagitprop features in one of the landmark play of American theatre.
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