1.) Drama is a type of literature usually written to be performed. People often make a distinction between drama, which concerns the written text, or script, for the performance, and theater, which concerns the performance of this script.
2.)Although works of drama, called plays, are also often read in this manner, they are created primarily to be presented in public by a group of performers, each of whom pretends to be one of the characters in the story the play is telling. Older plays, such as those written by the Greeks or Shakespeare, consist almost entirely of the words spoken by these characters (the dialogue). More recent plays usually contain nonspoken material (the stage directions) that tells the actors when to enter or leave the performance space, gives suggestions about how to speak their dialogue (their lines), and describes their costumes or their physical surroundings on stage (the setting).
3.) Scholars generally believe that the origins of drama date back more than 5000 years to prehistoric ritual. Both ritual and drama involve such elements as music, dance, masks, costumes, and repeated symbolic actions.
4.) A. Ancient Drama
Modern Production of Oedipus Rex
In this scene from Oedipus Rex, Oedipus (in purple robe) learns from his mother, Jocasta (in red), that the fate prophesied for him at birth has probably come to pass: He has unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother. Ghostly white plaster figures, in modern dress but appearing as sculptures, witness the action. The National Theater of Greece staged this production of the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles in 2000 at the Colosseum in Rome.
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Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex
Sophocles, considered one of the greatest of all Greek dramatists, introduced several important advances into Greek theater during the 5th century bc. His richly developed characters often exhibit tragic flaws that ironically support their unwelcome destinies. In Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), Sophocles dramatized the famous story of Oedipus, the Greek mythological figure who killed his father, the king, and married his own mother. The blind prophet Teiresias speaks the words in this excerpt at the point in the play when he is asked to divine who has offended the gods by killing the former king (recited by an actor).
Seneca
Seneca was a Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman. His tragedies later influenced Renaissance dramatists, including William Shakespeare. The bust of Seneca shown here is a Roman copy of a Greek origin.
A number of ancient texts suggest that dramatic performances in ancient Egypt celebrated royal coronations and major religious holidays. Much more detailed records of drama come from classical Greece, where beginning in the 6th century bc the state organized annual dramatic festivals to honor the god Dionysus. A prize was given each year for the best tetralogy, a series of three related tragedies and a satyr play. The satyr play, which dealt comically or satirically with gods or heroes, provided a kind of comic relief after the seriousness of the tragic trilogy. The tragedies, considered then and ever since as preeminent among dramatic forms, took their subjects from myth and history. Accompanied by commentary on the play’s action by a chorus, tragedies brought their leading characters through suffering and often to the moment of death so they might achieve an insight into a higher law beyond normal human understanding. The only complete tragic trilogy that has survived is the Oresteia (458 bc) of Aeschylus, which tells the story of Agamemnon, the leader of Greek forces in the Trojan War; his wife, Clytemnestra; and their children Electra and Orestes.
B. Medieval Drama
The tradition of classical drama disappeared with the end of the Roman Empire in the 5th century ad, and after almost 400 years a new tradition grew out of the rituals of the medieval Christian church. Certain sung passages from the liturgy were elaborated into short dialogues based on passages from the Bible, and these dramas, performed only in churches and monasteries, spread throughout Europe from the 10th to the 13th centuries. Around 1200 these plays began to be performed outdoors, and between then and 1350 they became more and more elaborate in size, subject matter, and physical staging. Instead of single biblical scenes or stories, they often included several stories. In England religious plays presented major events from the entire Bible in long cycles, from the creation of the world to the last judgment. Although still sponsored, written, and organized by church authorities, they involved entire communities in their staging and performance, which sometimes continued for several days.
In France, plays based on the lives and legends of saints rivaled biblical dramas in popularity. Some scholars have called these miracle plays, because they depict the miracles performed by saints, and have termed the plays based on the Bible mystery plays (from mysterium, Latin for “service” or “office,” referring to the members of trade guilds who often performed them). But the terms are often used interchangeably today. Another popular type of religious drama from the 14th century onward was the morality play, which taught religious lessons using allegorical characters such as Good Deeds, Riches, or Vice. The most famous morality play is Everyman (1500?), which describes Everyman's encounter with Death. See Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays.
Not all medieval drama was religious. Many secular plays have survived from the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Most common are short farces—rather crude and earthy pieces designed only to stimulate laughter. Often they involve pranks and trickery, as in the most famous of the plays, Pierre Pathelin (1470?) from France. The oldest surviving secular play, Le jeu de la feuillée (The Play of the Greensward, 1276) by French poet and composer Adam de la Halle, mixes elements from folktales and fairy tales. His later Jeu de Robin et Marion (1283?; The Play of Robin and Marion), with its songs and dances, has sometimes been called the first comic opera.
Still other dramatic activities developed in late medieval royal courts. Tournaments—originally contests among knights—and court costume parties called mummings or disguisings gradually became more symbolic and elaborate. With the addition of scenery and scripts the mummings became the court masques of the Renaissance, which featured poetry, music, and dance, and told allegorical or mythical stories.
C. Renaissance Drama
Music of the Renaissance Theater
During the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century), a rebirth of attention to art and intellectual pursuits paralleled a movement to restore philosophical and artistic ideals of classical antiquity. The spirit of this time is often reflected in secular songs and consort music. This was also a time when music became more integral to artistic and literary life. English playwright William Shakespeare used music in the form of popular songs and well-known ballads in his plays. His verses inspired numerous composers of songs and dramatic orchestral music.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
William Shakespeare, who wrote during the late 1500s and early 1600s in England, is generally considered the greatest dramatist in human history and the supreme poet of the English language. His brilliant works are universally celebrated for their comprehensive understanding of the human condition. In this excerpt from William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (recited by an actor), Macbeth meditates on the futility of human endeavors. Macbeth’s schemes for gaining power are falling apart, and he has just heard that Lady Macbeth is dead.
While medieval culture and drama still flourished in northern Europe in the 15th and early 16th centuries, a revival of interest in the learning and culture of classical Greece and Rome took place in Italy, ushering in the Renaissance. Roman drama had been studied as literature throughout the Middle Ages, but in the schools and universities of Italy a new interest developed in performing these dramas and creating modern imitations of them. This interest received encouragement from aristocratic families such as the Medici, who supported Renaissance painters and musicians and saw in drama another art that could add to the glory of their courts. Even the greatest artists of the Renaissance participated in elaborate stagings of classical revivals and modern imitations.
During the 15th century, the Italian interest in classical drama and modern versions spread, contributing to one of the greatest eras of dramatic writing in Spain, France, and England. Despite the enormous influence of the Italian drama during this period, few plays from the Italian Renaissance are still read or performed today. The best known of these few is Mandragola (1524; The Mandrake), a satire on Italian society of the time by statesman and historian Niccolò Machiavelli.
Along with an interest in classical drama itself came an equal interest in the theory and analysis of this drama. Renaissance literary theorists in Italy undertook close studies of the commentaries of Horace and Aristotle on drama and devoted a major part of their work to analysis of these writings. This so-called neoclassic theory had perhaps an even wider readership and a greater influence throughout Europe than the Italian plays themselves, which also were termed neoclassic. Dramatists in England, Spain, and particularly France looked to Renaissance Italian theorists such as Francesco Robertello or Julius Caesar Scaliger to provide them with precise instructions on the proper way of writing a play. Among the most influential of these rules were those that demanded strict separation of comedy and tragedy, a moral function for theater, and the three unities of time, place, and action. The three unities required that the events of a play not exceed a single day (time), be confined to a single location or to several locations within a small area (place), and not have subplots (action).
From the beginning, the strict regulations of neoclassic dramatic theory met with some resistance, especially from playwrights. Italian poet Battista Guarini, for instance, argued for the development of a new genre, the tragicomedy, that would combine elements from these two traditional genres. The example he created, Il pastor fido (1589; The Faithful Shepherd, 1647), enjoyed great international success. It also helped to establish the pastoral, a play that dealt with the loves of shepherds and shepherdesses, as a major type of Renaissance drama. The degree to which strict neoclassic theory shaped Renaissance drama varied from country to country. The French eventually subscribed to it almost totally, whereas major English dramatists such as Shakespeare gave it little attention. The theory remained a powerful guide for most European playwrights until the early 19th century, when the movement known as romanticism arose. In the theater, romanticism was in large part a rejection of the whole framework of neoclassic theory, in favor of a freer and more open dramatic structure similar to that represented by Shakespeare.
. 18th-Century Drama
Voltaire
The French writer and philosopher Voltaire is considered one of the central figures of the Age of Enlightenment of the 1700s, a period which emphasized the power of human reason, science, and respect for humanity. Voltaire believed that literature should serve as a vehicle for social change. His biting satires and philosophical writings demonstrated his aversion to Christianity, intolerance, and tyranny. The expression captured in this portrait of Voltaire in 1718 hints at the sharp sense of humor with which he won the favor of 18th-century French society.
In the early 18th century French and English drama adopted a more emotional and moralistic tone, resulting in comedies often designated as sentimental. The most famous English example is The Conscious Lovers (1722) by Sir Richard Steele, which sought to involve audiences emotionally with its characters rather than to stimulate laughter. Some leading French dramatists carried emotion and sentiment so far that their plays were known as weeping comedies. An example is Pierre Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée in his La préjugé à la mode (The Fashionable Prejudice, 1735). The most enduring dramatist of the period, Pierre Carlet de Marivaux, successfully united sentimentality and wit in such comedies about young love as La jeu de l'amour et du hasard (1730; The Game of Love and Chance, 1923).
Early 20th-Century Drama
In the 20th century, many dramatists undertook radical experiments with form and language. Although many of these experiments challenged realism, a tradition of essentially realistic drama continued.
1. Developments in Europe
Some 19th-century movements, including realism and symbolism, remained influential in Europe, especially during the early years of the century. But following World War I (1914-1918), reactions against those traditions erupted in Italy, France, Germany, and other European countries.
a. New Directions in Realism
Synge’s In the Shadow of the Glen
Playwright John Millington Synge was a leader of Irish Renaissance, an early 20th-century revival of the Irish language and Irish culture. This excerpt (recited by an actor) is from In the Shadow of the Glen (1903), one of several plays by Synge that draw from the lives of the Irish peasantry.
The Irish Renaissance, initiated in the late 19th century by the works of Yeats, reached its peak in the early years of the 20th century. Yeats himself continued to lead the movement, enriching the poetic symbolism of such dramas as At the Hawk's Well (1916) with inspiration from the Asian theater. John Millington Synge contributed more realistic dramas, drawing on life in the Irish countryside to produce major works of both tragedy and comedy, such as Riders to the Sea (1904) and The Playboy of the Western World (1907), respectively. A number of secondary dramatists surrounded Yeats and Synge. Some specialized in realistic depictions of their native land, as did Lady Gregory with The Workhouse Ward (1908), and others developed symbolist themes, as, for example, Lord Dunsany with The Glittering Gate (1909). The leading Irish dramatist of the next generation, Sean O'Casey, turned from rural and mythic themes to serious though comic studies of urban Irish life, such as Juno and the Paycock (1924).
Sidebars
GREAT WORKS OF LITERATURE
Synge: From The Playboy of the Western World
A leader of the Irish Renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th century, dramatist John Millington Synge’s plays depicted Irish peasant life with sharp humor. The Playboy of the Western World (1907), now considered to be his comic masterpiece, captured the colorful and poetic speech of the inhabitants of western Ireland, but was met with hostility when it premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. In this excerpt from Act I, the lead character Christy Mahon—having fled his village for fear that he killed his own father—finds shelter with Pegeen Mike, a young woman reluctantly preparing to marry Shawn Keogh. Excited by Christy’s story, Pegeen and a neighboring widow are soon fighting for his company.
British theater of the early 20th century was dominated by Shaw. By infusing discussions of social problems with wit and paradox, Shaw lent power and success to the 19th-century tradition of realistic drama. A prime example is the treatment of war, peace, and weaponry in Major Barbara (1905). The treatment of social problems by John Galsworthy, such as labor unrest in Strife (1909), produced more typical realistic dramas. During the 1920s Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward revived once again the sophisticated comedy of manners, a longtime British specialty. Coward’s Private Lives (1930) has been restaged frequently.
Sean O’Casey Excerpt
As a leading member of a late 19th-century and early 20th-century literary movement known as the Irish Renaissance, dramatist Sean O’Casey wrote about the struggles of the Irish people. His dramas became known for their unique and powerful juxtapositions of tragedy and comedy. Born in the slums of Dublin, O’Casey expressed a sympathy for impoverished and working class Irish. His plays often portray the complexities of his homeland’s struggle for independence. Set in the Dublin tenements before and during the Easter Rebellion of 1916, The Plough and the Stars (1926) paints a critical picture of the Irish people, condemning their rhetoric and bravado for its human costs. Th
Radical experiments within a basically realistic framework were undertaken in Italy by Luigi Pirandello, who called into question the realist assumption of a single reality that could be objectively observed and shown on stage. Very often he used the theater itself as a central image, as in his best-known work, Sei personnagi in cerca d'autore (1921; Six Characters in Search of an Author, 1922). In this work characters from a play challenge the ability of the theater to portray their lives and relationships fully and accurately.
Private Lives by Noel Coward
Actors Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence are heard in this excerpt from Coward’s comedy Private Lives (1930). As former spouses now divorced, they find themselves in adjoining hotel rooms while on honeymoons with new partners.
In England, J. B. Priestley took realism in a new direction, challenging its cause-and-effect structure and its closed system of action with a series of plays that used the dimension of time in unconventional and surprising ways. In his first important success, Dangerous Corner (1932), for example, the action unfolds in a logical manner leading to catastrophic consequences, then at the end returns to repeat the opening scene to show that a slight change in the dialogue would lead the action in a totally different direction.
b. Poetic Drama
A number of playwrights in the early 20th century attempted to revive poetic drama, which had fallen out of fashion with the rise of realism. The most successful was the period's most respected poet, T. S. Eliot, who was born in the United States but became a British citizen. Eliot wrote several poetic dramas of contemporary life and the historical meditation Murder in the Cathedral (1935), a verse play that deals with the martyrdom of Saint Thomas à Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. More widely produced were the plays of Spain's Federico García Lorca. He powerfully blended poetic imagery with strong sexual passion in such works as Bodas de sangre (1933; Blood Wedding, 1939).
The leading French dramatist between the two world wars—from 1918 to 1939—was Jean Giraudoux. Like many French dramatists before him, he took his subject matter from classic mythology, as in his comedy Amphitryon 38 (1929; translated 1938), or from a rather fantasized contemporary life, as in La folle de Chaillot (1945; The Madwoman of Chaillot, 1947). He gave to each his particular poetic imagination, fantasy, and gentle irony. Giraudoux inspired the younger Jean Anouilh, who, like the early Shaw, divided his plays into pleasant and unpleasant works (Anouilh's terms for them were rosy and black or sparkling and grating). Anouilh's best-known work is Antigone (1942; translated 1946). Created during the German occupation of Paris in World War II, it is a complex study of the forces of political power and resistance.
c. Reactions Against Realism
A series of strong reactions to the prevalent theater of realism appeared throughout the early 20th century in a number of continental European countries. Probably the most influential of the nonrealistic dramatists from the early years of the 20th century was Strindberg, who around 1900 turned from naturalistic drama to more subjective works that sought to capture the inner imagination of dreams. He even titled one of them The Dream Play (originally Ett drömspel, 1902; translated 1912). These plays, along with the dark, grotesque, and often shocking later dramas of Frank Wedekind of Germany, such as Die Büchse der Pandora (1904; Pandora's Box, 1918), prepared the way for perhaps the most important reaction against realism in the early 20th century: expressionism.
After symbolism, the next movement to emerge was called futurism. Futurism rejected both realism and romanticism as relics of the 19th century and sought a new form for a new century, a form more suited to an age of technology. Futurism was most important in Italy, where its leader Filippo Tommaso Marinetti specialized in brief, often parodistic scenes called sintesi, and in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). There Vladimir Mayakovsky produced much more complex works that often included political commentary, as in his play Klop (1929; The Bedbug, 1960). By the early 1930s, however, the Soviet government required that literature present an optimistic view of life in the USSR, establishing a style known as socialist realism and halting experimentation. The play Na dne (1902; The Lower Depths, 1912) by the naturalist Maksim Gorky was praised for its interest in the oppressed and seen as a better model for drama, but no new dramatists of Gorky's stature appeared to create the more cheerful portraits that the Soviets wanted.
Two much-publicized revolts against realism arose during World War I (1914-1918): dada and surrealism. Dada went further than futurism in its efforts to subvert existing art, including drama, and left only plays designed to be impossible to stage, among them Le coeur à gaz (1920; The Gas Heart, 1964) by French writer Tristan Tzara. Surrealism took a more positive approach, attempting to go beyond realism, as its name suggests, into the psychic world of dreams and imagination. Not surprisingly, neither of these rather extreme movements produced much drama. However, Jean Cocteau of France, who began his career as a surrealist, continued to employ its techniques in the 1930s in his popular adaptations of classical myths, including Orphée (1926; Orpheus, 1933). Later the theater of the absurd would show the influence of these movements (for more information, see the Theater of the Absurd section of this article).
The work of several other dramatists of the 1920s also displayed the antirealistic influence of such movements as surrealism and symbolism. These include Fernand Crommelynck of France, with Le cocu magnifique (1921; The Magnificent Cuckold, 1966), an eccentric love story; Roger Vitrac of France, with Victor, ou les enfants au pouvoir (1928; Victor, or Children in Power), a farce with surrealist elements; and Michel de Ghelderode of Belgium, with Pantagleize (1929; translated 1960), a bitterly humorous look at revolution. None of these playwrights attracted widespread attention, however, until the emergence of the theater of the absurd in the 1950s, to which their work then seemed related.
d. Expressionism and Epic Drama
Hellman’s The Children’s Hour
American dramatist Lillian Hellman wrote plays that displayed a perceptive understanding of human nature and that often explored moral or social issues. Her first play, The Children’s Hour (1934), established her as a major talent.
Expressionism emerged in Germany just before World War I and remained a major movement in the German theater until the mid-1920s. Complaining that realist drama was concerned only with surface reality, the expressionists attempted to capture inner feelings as well, often distorting external reality to reflect the consciousness of the central character. In an effort to escape the specificity of realism in search of more general truths, expressionist characters were often presented as types—the Father, the Worker, or the Wife, for example. Many of the plays deal with basic family conflicts, such as Der Sohn (The Son, 1916) by Walter Hasenclever, but even more common are plays of social commentary. Notable examples include Seeschlacht (1918; Naval Encounter, 1969) by Reinhard Goering, which deals with the war, and two plays that address the dehumanizing effect of modern technological and capitalistic society. They are Von morgen bis mitternachts (1916; From Morn to Midnight, 1922) by Georg Kaiser and Masse-mensch (1920; Masses and Man, 1923) by Ernst Toller. Expressionism also had a strong influence in Eastern Europe, most notably in the plays of Czech dramatist Karel Čapek, whose futurist drama RUR (1921; translated 1923) brought the word robot (from the Czech word for “work”) into the European vocabulary.
Bertolt Brecht
The 20th-century German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht wrote critical, satirical plays on the social evils of capitalism, German leader Adolf Hitler, and National Socialism (also known as Nazism). Brecht sought a type of theater in which the audience could focus on a play’s themes rather than on its characters. Thus, he developed the revolutionary epic theater, in which his actors would merely read their lines without emotion, enabling the audience to concentrate on the intended lessons of the play.
Bertolt Brecht, the most influential German dramatist of the 20th century, began his career at the height of expressionism, which is clearly reflected in such early works as Trommeln in der Nacht (1922; Drums in the Night, 1971). Although he retained certain features of expressionist drama, including its episodic structure and social concerns, he turned away from its subjectivism and created a new kind of drama, which he called epic. This drama sought through theatrical means to diminish the audience’s emotional involvement and encourage rational responses to the material presented. Much debate has focused on whether Brecht actually achieved this goal in such works as Die Dreigroschenoper (1928; The Threepenny Opera, 1964) or Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (written 1937; produced 1941; translated as Mother Courage and Her Children, 1941). But Brecht’s works were nevertheless among the most widely produced and influential plays of the 20th century.
2. Developments in the United States
Eugene O'Neill
American playwright Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra is a Civil War-era retelling of the Oresteia, a classic Greek tragedy. It is a family tragedy of vengeance and death, as is the previous play by Aeschylus, and is in three parts. In this clip from the final section, “The Haunted,” Lavinia is trying to escape the cruel fate of her family’s destiny. She plans to leave the family house and marry an innocent young man. Her ghosts prove too much for her, however, and at the end of the play, she shuts herself up in the house and has the shutters nailed closed.
A substantial playwriting tradition existed in the United States throughout the 19th century but attracted little international attention. Following World War I, however, American dramatists began to receive recognition, led by Eugene O’Neill, the outstanding figure of the early 20th century. Very much aware of European experiments in drama, O'Neill utilized a wide variety of dramatic styles, including symbolism in The Fountain (1925), expressionism in The Hairy Ape (1922), and realism in Desire Under the Elms (1924).
INTERVIEWS
Interview with Eugene O'Neill
In this article American dramatist Eugene O’Neill confides his “innate feeling of exultance about tragedy” and particularly his “great reverence for the Greek feeling of tragedy.” The interview, conducted by journalist Harold Stark under the pseudonym “Young Boswell,” appeared in the New York Tribune on May 24, 1923.
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Among the various European antirealistic movements, only expressionism had much effect in the United States, primarily in plays with a strong social message. Examples include The Adding Machine (1923) by Elmer Rice, a fable about man's dehumanization in a technological age, and Johnny Johnson (1936), an antiwar spectacle by Paul Green. Expressionism was also apparent in critiques of the capitalist system—comic in Beggar on Horseback (1924) by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly and militantly serious in such John Howard Lawson plays as Processional (1925). Elements of expressionism, combined with a complex mixture of realism and theatricality, marked the most popular of all American experimental dramas, Our Town (1938), a hymn to the human experience by Thornton Wilder.
Despite these experimental works, the main tradition in the American theater remained realistic, even naturalistic, as in two studies of urban slums: Street Scene (1929) by Elmer Rice, and Dead End (1935) by Sidney Kingsley. Even the tragedy Winterset (1935) by Maxwell Anderson, unique in its use of verse, had characters, a setting, and a plot that were basically realistic. Many dramas carried on Ibsen’s focus on social and personal relationships, most notably The Silver Cord (1926) by Sidney Howard, Golden Boy (1937) by Clifford Odets, and The Children's Hour (1934) by Lillian Hellman. The American comedy of manners, established by the great success of Anna Cora Mowatt's Fashion (1845), flourished in the 1930s. Prime examples include the works of S. N. Behrman, who incorporated political and social concerns into the witty dialogue of his plays, and Philip Barry, whose The Philadelphia Story (1939) was made into a popular motion picture.
G. Post-World War II Drama
Although many dramatists of the 1930s continued to produce important works during the 1940s and 1950s, the theatrical landscape in Europe and the United States changed significantly after World War II (1939-1945). Among the most influential postwar movements was theater of the absurd.
1. European Trends
In the years immediately following World War II, the philosophy of existentialism gained many followers in France and elsewhere. Existentialism argued that the universe contained no fixed and unchanging set of moral codes, and that each individual must create his or her own order and morality. Two of the leading philosophers of this movement, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, were also important dramatists. They created realistic dramas of contemporary moral conflicts, such as Sartre's Morts sans sépulture (1946; Men without Shadows, 1949); historical dramas, such as Camus's Caligula (1944; translated 1958); and even reworkings of mythology, such as Sartre's version of the ancient Greek story of Orestes, Les mouches (1943; The Flies, 1946).
a. Theater of the Absurd
Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot is one of the best-known plays of the Irish-born writer Samuel Beckett. The tramps Vladimir and Estragon, shown here, wait for Godot, who never arrives. Beckett’s play addresses the absurdity of, and need for, hope.
Despite the assumption of an irrational universe, Sartre and Camus created dramas—whatever their settings—that essentially followed the traditional rules of rational construction and action. Around 1950, however, a new group of playwrights, much influenced philosophically by Camus and Sartre, created a revolution in European drama by taking the irrational into the structure, motivations, and language of their plays. Although very different in style, these dramatists shared a rejection of traditional cause-and-effect realistic drama, and as a group came to be known as the absurdists (see Theater of the Absurd). The term comes from a 1942 essay by Camus, Le mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955), which called the human condition absurd because humans continued to seek order and reason in a universe that was not built on these principles.
The first absurdist to gain attention was Arthur Adamov of France, whose early works, such as La parodie (The Parody, 1952), were influenced philosophically by existentialism and structurally by surrealism. The popular La cantatrice chauve (1950; The Bald Soprano, 1956) by Eugène Ionesco of France systematically attacked all the conventional rules of dramatic action, motivation, and language—most notably, in the characters’ inability to communicate with each other. Ionesco called it an antiplay. The first great success of the absurdist movement and probably the most known of all its plays, En attendant Godot (1953; Waiting for Godot, 1954), was written in French by Irish-born playwright Samuel Beckett, who came to be recognized as one of the major dramatists of the late 20th century. The two tramps of his play, Didi and Gogo, play pointless games to pass the time waiting for a savior who never comes. They have become two of the most familiar figures in modern theater. The success of Godot brought attention to Adamov, Ionesco, and Jean Genet, who was also from France. Genet created dark fables of power, submission, and masquerade, including Le balcon (1956; The Balcony, 1958), which is set in the illusory world of an elegant brothel as a revolution erupts outside. Power and cruelty also mark the absurdist works of Spanish-born French playwright Fernando Arrabal, such as Le cimetière des voitures (1958; The Automobile Graveyard, 1960).
The Caretaker by Pinter
The Caretaker (1960), which established British playwright Harold Pinter’s reputation, is about the fragile relationship between two brothers and a tramp who comes into their lives. In this excerpt from the play, the tramp is explaining why he needs a place to stay.
The theater of the absurd had only a limited impact in England, but several playwrights did adopt its approaches and principles. In 1957 N. F. Simpson brought absurdist comedy to England with his The Resounding Tinkle. The most important English dramatist with a clear connection to the absurd is Tom Stoppard, who began a series of brilliant verbal comedies with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966). Stoppard placed these minor characters from Hamlet at the center of the play, with characterizations clearly indebted to Beckett's two famous tramps. The early plays of Peter Shaffer, most notably The Private Ear (1962) and The Public Eye (1962), also show their debt to absurdist theater in their humorous examinations of a hostile universe. His later and better known works, including Amadeus (1979), are much closer to realism, even though his plays often jump back and forth within space and time. Critics have also suggested a relationship between the absurdist theater and the works of Harold Pinter, one of England's leading dramatists during the 1960s. Although the setting and dialogue of a Pinter play, such as The Caretaker (1960), suggests traditional realistic or naturalistic drama, a feeling of mystery and menace beneath the surface reality distances it from the realist tradition.
The international success of absurdist dramatists like Beckett, Genet, and Ionesco drew attention to dramatists who had taken part in earlier nonrational movements in France and elsewhere. Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, written in 1896, and the later surrealist and dadaist dramas were freshly viewed as precursors of the new style. Also, in many countries emerging dramatists experimented in a variety of ways with rejecting the strategies of the traditional realistic drama.
b. Other Antirealistic Experiments
The two leading Swiss dramatists of the postwar years, Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch, were for a time considered part of the absurdist movement because their plays departed from conventional realism. However, their dark, exaggerated allegories have little in common with Ionesco or Beckett, and Dürrenmatt's suggestion that his plays be called grotesque rather than absurd highlights the difference. Frisch's Biedermann und die Brandstifter (1958; The Fire Raisers, 1962) and Dürrenmatt's Der Besuch der alten Dame (1956; The Visit, 1958), for example, are grim moral fables, with distorted but quite rational dramatic actions. Closer to the absurdists were the experiments of Peter Handke of Austria. His Publikumsbeschimpfung (1966; Offending the Audience, 1969), even more than any work by Ionesco, might be best described as an antiplay. It directly attacks the dramatic illusion itself by having the actors address and insult the audience.
The structure of the best-known German play of the 1960s, by Peter Weiss, was strongly influenced by his countryman Brecht, most notably in its use of political songs and a herald who comments on the action. Generally referred to as Marat/Sade, the full title of Weiss’s play is Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean-Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgruppe des Hospizes zu Charenton unter Anleitung des Herrn de Sade (1964; The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, 1965). However, the Brechtian influence was overshadowed—especially in the London production staged by director Peter Brook—by Weiss's use of shocking, often physical devices, notably in each actor’s vivid portrayal of insanity. These devices were inspired by the theories and practices of Antonin Artaud, a theater visionary associated with the surrealists. Artaud dreamed of a visceral theater of cruelty, which through the use of movement and gesture would force audiences to confront their most basic desires.
Despite the great success of Marat/Sade, Weiss turned in his following plays to another type of drama just then coming to prominence in Germany, the docudrama or theater of fact, which writers created by weaving together excerpts from actual historical documents. Rolf Hochhuth's Der Stellvertreter (1963; The Deputy, 1964) was the first such play to gain prominence. This notice was largely due to the scandal caused by its charge that Pope Pius XII, by refusing to take a moral stand, was in part guilty of the Nazi extermination of the Jews during World War II. Hochhuth in fact utilized a good deal of fictional material, while Weiss's Die Ermittlung (1965; The Investigation, 1966) was a true docudrama, drawn entirely from official hearings about the crimes against humanity committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Another important contribution to this movement was Heinar Kipphardt's In der Sache J. Robert Oppenheimer (1964; In the Case of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1967), based on a government hearing that resulted in the physicist losing his security clearance.
The modern drama of Poland and Czechoslovakia, both with strong experimental traditions, gained particular attention with the coming of the theater of the absurd. Poland had a particularly powerful nonrealistic tradition, which began with Stanislaw Wyspianski's strange mixtures of realism and fantasy, as in Wesele (1901; The Wedding, 1933). It continued with Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz's more extreme antilogical dramas, such as Kurka wodna (1921; The Water Hen, 1988), which explored the workings of the unconscious mind, and Witold Gombrowicz's Ionesco-like Iwona, ksiezniczka Burgunda (1938; Ivona, Princess of Burgundy, 1969), which contrasts democracy and monarchy. Next came absurdist political allegories, such as Kartoteka (1960; The Card Index, 1969) by Tadeusz Rósewicz and Tango (1964; translated 1968), by Slawomir Mrozek. The leading postwar Czech dramatist, Václav Havel, followed a similar style of grotesque political satire in such plays as Vyrozumění (1965; The Memorandum, 1967), which looked at the absurdities of life under Communist rule.
c. Postwar Realism
After World War II, the British stage was reinvigorated primarily by a new wave of realism, more concerned with social commentary and depicting the lives of the lower classes. The writers in this movement were initially called the "angry young men," in reference to the disillusioned protagonist of the first important success in the new style, Look Back in Anger (1956) by John Osborne. Among the other leading dramatists in this movement were John Arden, whose Serjeant Musgrave's Dance (1959) discussed class and war; Arnold Wesker, whose The Kitchen (1959) used a restaurant kitchen as a microcosm of British society; and Edward Bond, whose Saved (1965) presented so grim a picture of lower-class British life that it was banned for a time.
Many British and Irish plays of this period displayed an interest in social and political issues, though not all employed the techniques of realism. Partly inspired by Brecht’s mixed style, some plays used song and vaudeville turns to help present the most serious of social messages. They include the antiwar revue Oh What a Lovely War! (1963) by Joan Littlewood and The Hostage (1958), a study of the ongoing Irish-English conflict by Brendan Behan. Some dramatists with less specific political concerns took inspiration from Brecht's epic style, utilizing many short scenes, a loosely organized plot, and in may cases theatrical commentary on the action. One such dramatist was Robert Bolt in his A Man for All Seasons (1960), a study of the life and death of English statesman Sir Thomas More.
5.) The most widespread and familiar subdivisions of drama are comedy and tragedy, a division established by the Greeks. Even today the smiling and weeping masks worn by Greek actors in comedy and tragedy symbolize the two branches of drama. Traditionally, a tragedy is dominated by a serious tone, concerns kings and princes, deals with profound issues, and usually concludes with the death of the leading character. A comedy typically deals with common people, is dominated by a light tone that encourages laughter (or at least amusement or entertainment), and ends happily, often with the uniting of a pair of young lovers.
6.) Older plays, such as those written by the Greeks or Shakespeare, consist almost entirely of the words spoken by these characters (the dialogue). More recent plays usually contain nonspoken material (the stage directions) that tells the actors when to enter or leave the performance space, gives suggestions about how to speak their dialogue (their lines), and describes their costumes or their physical surroundings on stage (the setting).