The Wild Duck Journal #1

"Visual action can be as important on the stage as speech." How far do you agree with this claim? In your answer you should refer to two or three plays you have studied.



I think that visual action is just as important on the stage as speech. Without both, the play would be pretty boring. In Oedipus, there are many scenes where the character would be talking and doing some sort of action. For example, there are a few side notes where it says that the character is doing something or other. "Helping a Priest to his feet" (Sophocles line 9), is one such example. The play goes on with Oedipus talking to this character.

There is also imagery. Throughout the play, there are phrases such as "clinging to your altars" (line 18). If an actor says these lines without acting them out, it seems really weird. If a person says "why are you kneeling?" and the person he/she's talking to is just standing and reciting lines, it doesn't look right. The person should then be kneeling. This shows how visual action is just as important as speech.

Similarly, in The Wild Duck, there are different actions in parentheses right next to the characters names: "Hedvig (making signals). Uh-uh!" (Ibsen 141). Again, the character should be making signals instead of just talking. Just talking would make the play a collection of monologues by characters. Having visual action in the plays makes it more interesting and the actor doesn't just have to stand there, but act out what they are saying.

Doing all the motions while saying the lines makes the play a lot more appealing to the audience. If the actors just stand there talking, then the audience will get bored really fast. Visual action will make the audience more engaged in the play. So, I think that visual action is just as important as speech.