8 Emotional problems
Breathing in Maria Irene Fornes’ “sharper air” in her “PAJ plays”
It is often presumed that viewers process either an emotional response or an intellectual response to the performance. However, Maria Irene Fornes creates a theatre, especially in her so-called “PAJ Plays,” that can blend the seemingly incompatible theatres of Antonin Artaud and Bertolt Brecht to heighten the effect of both. The use of palpable energy and emotional heartbreak allows a cathartic experience for actors, but the audience finds themselves in a pressure cooker with no release, except to change the very conditions that are responsible for the heartbreak. In this way, Fornes uses emotion to heighten an intellectual response to the viewer.
