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Many playwrights have written historically-based plots for their plays. Aeschylus wrote “The Persians” about the Persian navy's defeat at the hands of the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Shakespeare wrote 11 historical plays, from “Julius Caesar” to “Henry VIII,” Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible” about the Salem Witch Trials, Rolf Hochhuth wrote “The Deputy” about the Vatican's indifference to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, and David Hare wrote “Stuff Happens” about the events that led to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. As a writer whose plays deal mostly with historical-political events that happened over the past few decades in Israel, I can attest to the playwright's purpose as they set out to write about an historical affair.1 This purpose has two main dimensions:
For the individual viewer, the playwright often attempts to present a well-structured historical-dramatic plot, which can lead the viewer to catharsis, the purpose of which is to change values or consciousness. Such change may then lead the viewer to direct political action, or at least to indirect action, in the present. For example, when Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible,” which deals, as mentioned above, with the historical events of the Salem Witch Trials, his main purpose was to bring catharsis to the viewer, which would empower them to stick to their inner truth and worldview, despite the dangers it entails (Miller, 1967). If the show manages to create this catharsis, the viewer leaves with a more consolidated personal-political consciousness, which could have an effect on their actions within the different frameworks they take part in, and also on their vote at the ballot box.
Regarding public discourse, the playwright usually aims to use the historical play to create discourse about present events, and not about the historical events depicted in the play. For example, with “The Crucible,” Miller did not try to create discourse about the events that took place in Salem, Mas