THE STRUCTURAL CONCEPT OF CONSTRUCTIVISM IN MODERN THEATRE: STUDY OF THE PHYSICIST BY FREDRICK DURRENMATT

Abstract

A constant phenomenon is change. Taking into consideration the adventurous nature of humans, man is in constant search for discoveries hence, the impossibility of comfortably settling for one rather, when it gets to stage one; he begins to imagine how stage two will look like or feel like. This can be likened to the advent of avant-gardism in the theatre. Avant-garde theatre deals primarily with the experimentation of new forms that break the tradition to achieve a better form. It is through these experimentations that the movement "Constructivism" emerged. Man in his nature is selfish and his selfishness cuts across many factors that affect man’s quest for survival without paying attention to the negative consequences his desire may cause. This research, therefore, set out to investigate the level of selfishness of man and the extent he is willing to go to achieve his aim or goal by analyzing the structural concept of constructivism and its contribution to the modern theatre. Content analysis approach under the qualitative research method will be adopted for the content evaluation of The Physicists (1961) by Fredrick Durrenmatt and other related literature. Social development theory is used for this research. This research has been able to discover that not all knowledge is positive as there is some knowledge that could be harmful as portrayed in the play The Physicists. This research recommends therefore, that man should take up the responsibility of keeping his environment safe and that man in his daily endeavors should avoid waiting for someone to do things for him but, should take full responsibility for his safety and that of his environment.