Date: 2001-04-05
Time: 4:10 p.m.

21 February, 2001

Dogma 2001: A Challenge to Game Designers, by Ernest Adams
(don't forget page 2!)

Adams takes a big, quiet clue from the 5K awards.

These Dogme 95 and Dogma 2001 manifestos struck me as analogous to the Aristotelian rules of tragedy set forth in his Poetics:

"Tragedy, then, is a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the [various] parts of the play; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation (catharsis) of such emotions."

See chapters VI to around X in the entire text.

And here's more:

"Greek and Latin drama were strict in form. The stage represented a single place throughout the action; the plot recounted the events of a single day; and there was very little irrelevant by-play as the action developed. Aristotle described the drama of an earlier age in his important work On the Art of Poetry; those who followed his precepts called this disciplined structure the three "unities": unity of place, unity of time and unity of action.

The "Rules"
Neo-classical Renaissance critics codified Aristotle's discussion, claiming that all plays should follow these three precepts:

• Place. The setting of the play should be one location: in comedy often a street, in Oedipus Rex the steps before the palace.
• Time. The action of the play should represent the passage of no more than one day. Previous events leading up to the present situation were recounted on stage, as Prospero tells Miranda of the events which led to their abandonment on the island.
• Action. No action or scene in the play was to be a digression; all were to contribute directly in some way to the plot."

I seem to remember also that violence was not to be depicted onstage, but described after the fact. The French theatre also observed verystrict rules, so much so that when El Cid was first a hit there were two very controversial moments: a slap on the face giving the insult that launches the action of the play, and maybe a kiss (actors were not allowed to touch, with hostile or other intent!). Or as Anton Chekhov more recently said, on props: "If there is a gun on the stage, it must fire." (paraphrased!!)

Of all the unlikely places.