2 Mimesis: Imitation and Imagination
The writings of two philosophers–teacher and pupil–have shaped our
politics, our religion, our art and our science. And although we should
notflatter ourselves into thinking that either of them considered it the
most important of topics, Plato and Aristotle both wrote about theatre. In
many respects, their concerns set the tone for large parts of this book,
whether we address them explicitly or not. I’ve already argued that it’s
not going to be possible to come up with a perfect definition of theatre.
But when these two Greek philosophers tried to define it, they were
quick to identify one word as central:mimesis. Apart from that, Plato and
Aristotle agree upon little else. As we’ll see, they don’t even agree on
whatmimesis is, when it comes to theatre. But both agree that, where
there’s theatre, there’smimesis. Even before we acquaint ourselves with the
various meanings ofmimesis, we can get a sense of it by thinking about a
typical theatrical performance. When you watch a play, actors dress up
and speak like kings, sets make the stage look like Thebes or Verona. The
whole play is an enacting, an acting out, an imitation (however inaccu-
rate) of what the story might have looked like if (or when) it happened;
and you, an audience member, are engaged in a kind of pretence that the
story is unfolding before your very eyes. Each of these various activities
could be described asmimesis. This chapter uses Plato and Aristotle to
begin our analysis of philosophy and theatre. Through their opposing
views aboutmimesis, we open up a much wider debate about what theatre
is and what it can do.
Meanings ofmimesis
Unfortunately, English doesn’t have a word that’s the equivalent of
mimesis. The closest we have is‘imitation’, a word I’ll use for part of our
discussion; but it’s not quite right. The important thing to note about
mimesisis that it can be used to describe a family of different notions,
which can be broadly grouped in the following way.^1 First, visual imita-
tion: the columns on that building look like palm trees. Second,