(looking at the role of crowds and emerging individuals in drama,specifically Law and Order Criminal Intent-LOCI)
The Crowd in LOCI is no longer just a passive background presence, but also a vibrant physical force offering a choreographed “heightened realism”, interacting with or commenting on the main action, and sometimes it is a character in itself.
On the one hand, a crowd appears realistic; the chaotic and amorphous mob of the punch-up in Maltese Cross, the jostling photographers/press in Courtship or Albatross, the milling throng that forms behind Dani in World Fair, the riot police rushing to arrest in Blind Spot, the street gangs of Flipped or Deaf activists in Silencers, the religious rampagers in Brothers Keeper. These crowds intrude by the intimidation of their numbers and noisy brute strength.
On the other hand, a crowd is deliberately structured or choreographed for effect as it would be on a stage; the congregation in Senseless that sways as it moves in harmony to the music, the balletic flowing beauty of the dancers in Privilege or the party group with its stylised exaggerated expressions as it slowly shifts backwards to register its recoil and horror at the main events, the small group clusters in the teaser of Self-made who freeze and move in sequence with the dialogue pauses of the main action, the group cohesion of the football team in Offence who form an organic unity in their red shirts. These crowds are all being managed for dramatic effect.
The squad room crowd has a dual function, can appear as realistic background simply giving volume to the scene, or become noticeable as part of the main action as it was in Tru Love when Keith leapt over its tables awakening their automated movements, or in Courtship where they became audience reaction to the squabbling couple. Often the squad room crowd signifies our anticipated audience response, as in War at Home when it observes Goren’s bizarre behaviour. So the shape and tone of the crowd shifts in emphasis, presenting as a visual dynamic in the script. This use belongs to a tradition that can be found in the origins of both Stage and Screen.
In Classical Greek Drama the Chorus was a dominance on the stage, not background. It performed as an emotional whole wearing set masks, contrasting and interacting with the newly emerging individual actors. It moved and swayed in deliberate formations as it commented on the main characters or reflected on events, providing the acceptable social perimeters of moral debate .It also interjected to express the inner fears or secrets that a character could not voice itself. So it had defined dramatic roles to complement the actors. In its manner it was stylised and anonymous but not passive. It danced and chanted in sequences that often acted as plot exposition, swaying right and left as it deliberated, highly emotional and involved, using elevated speech (choral ode) with alternating crescendo and diminuendo. So its physicality reached out as a spectacle to link the audience with both the stage and the playwrights ideas. Elements of this usage can be seen in LOCI crowds, with the squad room as Chorus in particular. In fact Richie in the squad room almost wears the mask!
In early Expressionist cinema the stage chorus became the screen crowd, clearly visible in the work of Fritz Lang for example (see Metropolis), only now the crowd has lost its sense of comforting reassurance and become more of a menace that threatens. (Attitudes flip as Individualism ascends perhaps). The Expressionist crowd was an abstract or geometric design with choreographed movement and visual appeal enhanced by the black/white /chiaroscuro effects of its own limitations. So white arms are sculpted to reach upwards against a dark background (Metropolis) or white hands extend and grab against shadows (M). Outlines and shapes and stylised gestures of the crowd lead the eye of the camera to the action, as once the chorus did on stage. Their movements suggest collective emotions of fury or exaltation or grief (much as we see in real life, in situations where the individual is subordinated to the whole, as in the grieving crowds for Bhuto in Pakistan or Sufis gathered for sama). And in these early silent films the noise of the crowd is often conveyed by “screaming” white light that assaults the viewer. Exaggerated face distortion creates the illusion of Mask as individual expression is subsumed into formalised stance. Good examples of this crowd usage in LOCI can be found in Amends where the lighting effects of the card players are very similar to those used in “ Dr. Mabuse der Spieler”, the stylised police line up in Amends, the facial distortions of Richie and the party crowd in Privilege, the white sashes of the choir positioned to guide our viewpoint in Senseless.
The crowd exists in relation to the Individual emerging from it. In the closure of “Untethered” Goren’s face is shown distraught against the anonymous faces of the New York crowd, an individual struggling with his emotions while the crowd remains impassive. The camera singles him out, the One from the Many, the Face from the Crowd. The mob is moving (mobilis, latin for ‘moving’), the crowd is jostling (cread, Anglo-Saxon for ‘pushing’), but Goren as an Individual is immobile as the camera scans. Its a powerful image of one of our fundamental imprints, the heroic struggle to become.
On stage this struggle is that of the actor who leaves the crowd/chorus. The first actors were called Agonists (contestant or struggler), from which we get the word “agony”. They “ stepped out of line” to agonise their predicament, powerful but also fragile in their exposure, speaking in a register that differed from the Chorus. The first out of line was the ProtAGONIST, attached to the group but separate enough to create the appropriate dramatic tension for the suffering of conscious individuality.
Eventually a second actor emerged, the DeuterAGONIST, who stood as adversary or AntAGONIST to the first. So the collective voice of the chorus personalised itself through these opposing actors. In this sense, “ to agonise” is connected to the struggle of duality through competitive debate, since these first actors were more contestants or advocates in a debate that weighed up character than the full embodiment of that Character. This is still the format of the typical courtroom drama, the kind we still see in Law and Order with its personification of debate where actors advocate for and against in front of an Audience or Jury. Later a third and final actor was introduced, the TritAGONIST, who altered the stage dynamics by being a silent force of equilibrium, only active when one of the others fell silent. So the link between Protagonist, Agony, Actor, Individual and Hero is firmly established into a role that combined both power and vulnerability in its origins. It’s Goren’s Face against the Crowd, the One that New York singles out of itself to agonise its consciousness.
This is a universal recurring pattern; it’s the actor from the chorus, the individual from society, the hero from its mythology, the figure from the background painting, the specific from the general, the solo from the orchestra, the Ego from the Self, the Conscious from the greater Unconscious. In all cases, the One emerges from its Foundation, identifies itself in that agonising but valiant struggle to be separate and individual, while still remaining relevant to the whole, connected. It’s a delicate tension. If it steps too far “out of line” it endangers Existence, including its own. The emergent must remain connected and relevant to its Whole, even at personal expense or sacrifice, if it is to fulfil its purpose, which is to re-energise, because severance or disconnection means mutual annihilation, dissipation or a general malaise.
In the Psyche the Great Unconscious is the shared and undifferentiated, unreflective Foundation. A single thought disentangles itself to become noticeable or conscious. Leaving the safety and stasis of the unconscious it strives for awareness and recognition, taking on the suffering and complications of that process, reflecting back to the Whole aspects of itself. If accepted this invigorates the Unconscious, appearing as numinous, inspirational, revelatory. If the thought goes too far it becomes a threat and the Unconscious begins to resist that level of consciousness. The thought is then sacrificed for the good of the Whole and folds back into the comfort of its dormant unconscious state.
In Drama, this pattern forms the plight of the hero who steps “ out of line” to come into being as an individual momentarily, whose rise and fall is a discovery and hope for all. If the hero strays too far and over reaches himself in some way (hubris, often seen as arrogance or excess) he experiences a Fall or sense of dislocation that will bring him back “ into line” again, for the hero exists to re-energise society through himself, however much he appears to confront it. If this is dramatised as his elimination then it becomes everyone’s Tragedy. The creative energy generated from this process is extremely powerful, almost thermal, transforming, like being in touch with the source of life itself, producing catharsis. For this pattern is the Round of all Existence, a cosmic playground, the metaphysical dilemma of “to be or not to be”, the process that prevents entropy. It’s the pulse of the Universe.
So it’s not inconsequential that this kind of Drama has its origins in religious ritual where transcendent forces are being contemplated and enacted. (Religious/re-ligare, Latin, “to reconnect or bind”). Connection underlies Good; disconnection underlies Evil. (See article, “When a cop show is more than a cop show”). Through these Dramas the participants ritualised the forces of Existence where “ all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players who have their exits and entrances”.
Applied to Logan it could be said that his Fall took him to Staten Island where he resided in anonymity for years, emerging again in LOCI to continue his struggle to be. Applied to Goren we witness this struggle as he agonises his place in the society that formed him. How we feel about him is connected to how we feel about ourselves as society. If we are inspired by his behaviour we see him as numinous and special. If he steps too far out of line and ceases to connect with us, he loses his shine and begins to Fall back into the inert uniformity of anyone. So his struggle to become, his agony, is essential to the Drama, and its twists and turns give us significance. It matters to us all whether he moves backwards into regression or forwards into consummation. It’s a symbiosis. As a Character, he reflects to us all that is best and hopeful in our nature as a society, for it’s this One as Character who re-defines the character of the Whole.
ADDENDA
1) It could be said that Ross is a Choral Character, in that he is a character in the story with his own development, but also stands apart to make comments, criticisms or reassurances about what is happening, acting as a sounding board for the other characters and a guideline for the audience so that we measure our reactions by him. He belongs to the crowd/chorus, but also steps out of line as a character on his own. (Also Clifford / aside character in Sideman).
2) The development into Three actors/agonists from the Chorus may not be arbitrary. These dramas evolved from religious ritual and the number Three has significance to this process of Becoming that is our existence, a number that was well known to the Ancients and passed onto us as triads, trinities, trefoils, etc. It’s the number that gives the maximum potential for creative empowerment and fulfilment. Beyond the agonising duality of Two and the unfathomable Monad, it forms an intermediary of balance, integration and equilibrium, linking back to Unity and forward to Multiplicity, the kindest of numbers because it offers us accessible completion. So we could call it the number of compassion. Aristotle called it “ the number of the Whole”, mathematicians call it the first “strong” number since it does not fall apart when divided but has a remaining centre. In the Tao we read that it is auspicious, the number that links One with multiplicity, “The One gave rise to the Two, the Two gave rise to the Three; the Three gave rise to the All (One)”. Geometrically this has always been represented as the triple spiral. So these three actors with their chorus became the form of their content.
3)Relate the number three to the episode “Silencer” in particular, where Goren and Lyons act as translators/intermediaries between opposing sides, moving around in rotating threesomes, trying to restore balance. Beautiful, like dancing. "Silencer" was written by Marygrace O'shea,who wrote "Theatre Tricks",Special Victims Unit,Season 13.
For role of 3 see triple spiral,Newgrange(3000BC),Ireland,and Trefoil leaf of shamrock that St. Patrick used to demonstrate Christian Trinity/Unity of three in one.)
4)As the number of repose and balance,of unity and wholeness,3 is the number that dominates The Upanishads,some of the oldest human writings.Those stories are always told in sets of three...in fact everything is repeated three times before any significance can be discerned.It always takes the three readings to understand the story. This method was later used in the oral tradition of fairy stories where a trial has to be done three times before it can be completed (rumplestiltskin),or something has to be approached three times before the story can proceed.Its in later Arthurian stories too like Parsival.
3 is tied to reflection, as the number of balance and repose, the middle way. And the myths tell us that God created man so that he might see himself in reflection, because God has no awareness of himself since he is the whole. Its only in reflection through humankind,seperated so able to view itself in reflection, that God sees itself. "I was a hidden treasure and i wanted to be known, so I created Man").
Hence its in reflection that humans see the whole picture,see God if you like. The wording is not important,the act is.Its in reflection we see the Truth,we get to know ourselves and the world we inhabit.That image of three is etched into the DNA of existence, from the walls of neolithic tombs to the structures of Special Victims Unit Season 13.
This process of reflection towards unity survives retold,using different words, in the process of Individuation in the depth analysis of modern psychotherapy.Only the words change, the psyche stays the same.
