What is Dramatic Meaning?
Although dramatic meaning sounds like a big, scary sophisticated term, it isn’t. Dramatic meaning is
simply the most obvious moral or message that the playwright is trying to communicate to the
reader/viewer. In more complex terms it is the invited or dominant reading of the text that the
audience is positioned to accept. However, this reading in itself is not of much interest. What we
are more concerned with is how this dramatic meaning is created.
How is Dramatic Meaning Created?
Good question. Dramatic meaning is created through a clever manipulation of the dramatic
languages. This includes how the author, and then later the actors and director consciously shape
the elements of drama, skills of performance, and theatrical styles and their conventions to
communicate their intended meaning. To illustrate this, let’s have a look first at the meaning we can
attach to Big hART’s Namatjira.
Statement of Dramatic Meaning
Big hART’s production of Namatjira comments on the possibility for reconciliation in
contemporary Australia and proposes the view that indigenous and non-indigenous Australians
can coexist peacefully. It reminds us that the two races are much more similar than they first
appear and uses the relationship between Albert and Rex as an exemplar of racial tolerance and
harmony.
How does it do this? 3 less obvious examples from the play.
1.) This dramatic meaning is first alluded to as the audience enters the space. Black flats are
being drawn on with white chalk by members of the Namatjira family. This seemingly
innocuous occurrence is a pre-emptive depiction of the play’s dramatic meaning. Scott
Rankin, the shows creator is trying to subtly illustrate not only the Australia’s colonial past,
representing how European settlers made their ‘mark’ on ‘black land’ but he is also
suggesting that by working together, both races (black and white) can create things of
beauty. This visual metaphor is a symbol for the text’s dramatic meaning.
2.) This notion of the possibility of racial harmony is clearly represented not only in the
situations, roles and relationships that surround Rex and Albert but also in the songs that the
performance incorporates. For example, the use of Barry White’s Can’t Get Enough of Your
Love is an appropriation which demonstrates the universality of the themes of love and lust.
Not simply a clever use of parody used for comic effective, this alienation device shows the
viewer how ‘westernised’ indigenous courting processes were and drives home the
similarities between races regarding gender roles at a time when science stipulated that
indigenous Australians be categorised as fauna.
3.) Another example of how dramatic meaning is constructed in the play occurs through the
use of symbol. Throughout the performance, a carved wooden rostrum is used by the
actors. This facade is reminiscent of the rocky outcrops that adorn many of Namatjira’s
works. In the play-text this rock is highly symbolic. Not only does it symbolise Namatjira’s
own ‘Aranda country’ but it also becomes a vehicle for racial equality. It is a space that both
Rex and Albert can reside in as equals where no racial prejudice occurs. The first instance of
this happens early in the piece when Rex is wounded and left for dead. At this point he is
stretched across the seemingly sacred rock. Here Rankin is again trying to illustrate to the
viewer, that despite their relative differences, both indigenous and non-indigenous
Australians have made tremendous sacrifices for the betterment of the nation. The
Aboriginal race through their refusal to be conquered and bred out of existence by the
British, and white solders like Rex who fought in war to guarantee the freedom and future of
the nation. The image of Rex on the rock also tells the audience that Rex is not only fighting
for white Australia but for all Australians and their land.