There are few authors that I read just about everything they publish: Chinua Achebe, Paulo Coehlo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and David Mamet first come to mind. This is not to say that I actually have read everything they have made available to the public, or, to be honest, that I actually like everything they have published. Moreso, I appreciate their style of writing and listen intently to their voices because I feel they always have something valuable to share. Recently, I was reminded of one of Mamet's works that has left a profound effect on the way I structure my writing and I couldn't resist the urge to say something about it. Embarking on a public reading of a play I just wrote, "The Naming Ceremony", and subsequently embarking on the journey of taking the play from page to stage, David Mamet's "Three Uses of the Knife" puts into perspective the reason I chose to write drama in the first place and, more importantly, how I am supposed to do that. It is a small, worthy book of literature that cuts to the heart of every dramatist, every artist, every human's innate desire to express and expound. It is about the necessity of creation.
While the text can sometimes be philosophical and existential, it is still very clear and concise. Mamet illustrates through words why humans dramatize and what benefit it gives to our society, our consciousness. "The purpose of theatre, like magic, like religion - those three harness mates - is to inspire cleansing awe." Drama reveals the truth, not with the intent of bringing about social change but by "stilling a conflict by airing rather than rationalizing it." By facing our nature, our reflection, in honest and real terms, we are given permission, as well as authority, to reexperience what we already know through the eyes of another: Our Lives. And by now being distinct from us these witnessed experiences commit us to an act of faith, a degree of submission, to the will of the protagonist in the story, that we may be piqued, have doubt, feel joy, mourn and/or rejoice at the decisions they make in their own respective lives. Like a mirror, what we see is entirely up to our perception. However, what we know is that the reflection exists and that it is real for the use of our purpose.
As it concerns cutlery, Mamet breaks the use of a knife into three parts, or rather how to slice a drama into three acts (which he argues is an organic mechanism for human beings to order information -- boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl; thesis, antithesis, synthesis; etc.).
- Understand that it is in human nature to dramatize. Drama is about overcoming obstacles, as we all do in everyday life no matter how big or small, so you character should be set in a situation that presents the obstacle clearly from the very beginning of the play. "The theater is about the hero journey, the hero and heroine are those people who do not give into temptation. The hero story is about the person undergoing a test that he or she didn't choose." The audience should want to go on a journey with your character(s). The first act is about drawing them in to bring them along with you.
- Raise the stakes. In the second act the opportunity cost for not reaching their destination should increase. Maybe the main character overcomes one obstacle and another, greater one presents itself. Or maybe your hero underestimated the magnitude of the original problem and must reapproach how they go about solving it. "Part of the hero journey is that the hero has to change their understanding completely, whether through force of circumstance or force of will. The hero must revamp their thinking about the world." Thus, Mamet further suggests, "the audience needs the second act to end with a question."
- In the end, when all possible avenues have been explored to arriving at one's destination, when the probable now seems impractical, you bring the hero, and your audience, to a believable conclusion that stems out of the actual events in your story. The audience's reward is their suspension of disbelief, their trusting investment in the hero's journey and experiencing all the emotional highs and lows of their voyage. Because this journey is a representation of our own journey, our own walks and runs through life, it can speak to us on a deep, intimate level. "We have created the opportunity to face our nature, face our deeds, face our lies in The Drama...At the end of the The Truth - which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied - prevails...At that point, then in the well-wrought play (and perhaps the honestly examined life), we will understand that what seemed accidental was essential, we will perceive the pattern wrought by our character, we will be free to sigh or mourn. And then we can go home."
