Girl Interrupted Connection To IB Theater

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I recently watched Girl Interrupted. This is a movie that is set in the 60s and follows the story of a girl named Susanna who gets put into an institution. At the institution, Claymoore, Susana becomes friends with some of the girls there. However one of the girls, Lisa, is very manipulative and stirs up a lot of trouble for Susanna. There are many scenes in this movie of the girls freaking out or having a mental breakdown. There are 2 almost identical scenes where Lisa is being escorted out of a taxi back into Claymoore. In these scenes she looks very disheveled and traumatized. She has bruises and dirt on her face, her hair is unbrushed, and she looks overall very unkempt. This to me seems like it contains aspects of theater of cruelty because of how offsetting Lisa looks. I think it is in an effort to make the audience feel something for Lisa and to realize that something is not right here, which I think is an element seen a lot in theater of cruelty. There is also a scene in the basement of Claymoore where Lisa is chasing Susanna and screaming. They are both screaming guttural screams and running. We hear their deep breathing and the lighting is very dark. I think that this really reflects theater of cruelty in movie form. Theater of cruelty also contains loud noises and screams to show audiences something is wrong and to pay attention. In this scene the same is being done, we are being warned that Lisa is about to have her mental breakdown and threaten to kill Susanna and herself.

I found this very interesting because while I know theater of cruelty cannot 100% be reflected in film, I thought it was cool to see elements of it in a movie I watched. I think that it shows how big of an impact theater can have on pop culture. I also love that since learning about the practitioners I can spot similarities of their work in other plays, movies, and tv shows that I watch. It does show me how much theater can have an impact on the world.