In this essay you will see seven Schechner performance functions through the
play ‘’The Man Who Would Be King’’. This is the story of Peachy Carnehan and
Daniel Dravot – soldiers for hire amidst the shifting borders of the Middle East.
Peachy and Daniel have come up with a plan to head to Northern Afghanistan enslave
the natives and install themselves as kings. The seven Schechner functions can be
connected with other contents as well, such as constructions of gender, performativity,
performance quadrilogue, McAuley and performance categories.
The body is a historical situation, as Beauvoir has claimed, and is a manner of
doing, dramatizing, and reproducing a historical situation.1 Characters Peachy and
Daniel initially are scruffy adventurers. In the play there are more than two characters,
which are played only by two men. …
